Perfect Love
The over arching theme of 1 John is love. A father’s love for his child is the analogy John uses to convey this message of love. A father that truly loves his child will never bring harm to his child. In fact, a father that loves his child hurts when his child hurts. But this father knows a measure of hurt is necessary. Because the child’s natural propensity is to bring comfort to their lives, even at the expense of others, the father know that without a measure of hurt they could never develop into all God wants them to be. So he must ignore his feelings and endure the hurt he feels for his hurting child. This is for the sake of his child becoming Christ like, the essence of love. A child will have to endure physical punishment brought on by the loving father. A child will have to endure the hurt of sacrificing desires for the sake of others. A child will have to endure lack for the sake of the family meeting financial goals. He will have to endure all kinds of hurt however; the endurance of these things produces godly character.
Perfect love produces godly character. John says it cast out all fear. Even though we will have to be told “no” or denied some of our hearts deepest desires, when the love behind it is perfect, it is never rejection. It’s simply for the purpose of not providing a stumbling block in our journey to become Christ like. The “no” of perfect love is always accepting because in it God communicates, “I want you to be just like me.” Perfect love cast out all fear because i is accepting, no matter how much rejection is deserved.
God, thank you for accepting me! Thank you for loving me with your perfect love that makes me into the image of your Son. It is the secret of life, to be content when you accept us by saying “no.” I thank you for all the good and hard times alike because through them all I can see the purpose behind it. In your perfect love you wanted, want, and will want later for me to be formed into the image of your Son. Help me to live this truth as is penetrates my heart. Amen!
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Created about 2 years ago
