1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
What exactly does this verse mean? Why does John say that “fear has to do with punishment”? Really? Fear has to do with punishment? When I’m afraid that a sickness will take me or someone I love, when I’m afraid that suffering will come, when I’m afraid that an opportunity will be lost, when I’m afraid that my finances will fail or my plans will collapse or my life will be wasted–when I’m afraid of these things, how does that “[have] to do with punishment”?
Something pastor Tim Keller once said revolutionized my understanding of this verse–and of fear in general. He said (essentially) “all fear is fear of hell.” Now….that sounds strange. None of those things I listed above are fears of hell. So, was Keller just being overly spiritual? upon further reflection, I don’t think so.
FEAR is that chilling, creeping, suffocating veil that paints a bleak–indeed, a hopeless–future scenario and bids us to live in it. Fear says, “_______ will happen and it will define you…..the cancer will be agony, the relationship will shatter, the shame will be suffocating, the pain will be too much, the abandonment will be complete, you will have no where to turn…” It tells us a story that ends with horror and says, “that’s true of you.”….And when we believe it, we get scared.
But what is “a story that ends in horror”? The ONLY scenario where the end is horror is hell. So another way to say Keller’s insight might be: “the fires of every fear are drawn from the fires of hell.” Fear “burns” only with hell’s fires. And what is hell but “punishment”?
Thus, John is–unsurprisingly–right. Fear has to do with punishment because the fearful heart is believing that, in the end, they will get hell….in the end, they will be sorrowful….in the end, they will be left alone, abandoned, ashamed, yoked with leaden regrets. Fear believes that–in the end–I am not loved.
But perfect love CASTS OUT fear…how? By dealing with the punishment. What is love? John tells us just a few verses earlier in 1 John 4:10:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
“Propitiation” means “wrath-absorbing sacrifice,” or we might say, “punishment-absorbing sacrifice,” or even “hell-absorbing sacrifice.” The love of God in Christ swallows up the wrath of God against us…the ocean of Christ’s love-spilled blood extinguishes hell for His people….which means that no punishment remains for those in Him…..The end of the story is JOY, it is GLORY, it is the release of laughing, weeping astonishment at what the God of Love has accomplished. THAT is what stands before the Christian, and THAT is why receiving the perfect love of God in Christ–rightly understood–casts out ALL fear…
Fear believes that, ultimately, I am not loved. Hope believes that, ultimately, I am loved. And because the venom of damnation has been siphoned from the fangs of our suffering into the veins of our God, Fear’s promises are the empty boastings of a slain foe….Christian, believe Love.
“I believe, help my unbelief…” – Mark 9:24
