Fear of Judgment

I like the way the old King James puts 1st John 4:17, “Herein is our love made perfect.” “Herein” is like saying “in this,” and it refers back to the previous section of 1st John. Specifically it refers to 1st John 4:16, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

This is review, but, our relationship with God as believers means God lives within us. And since God is love, therefore His love is in us. As a result, we can love with a semblance of the same love God has, we can love in the same way.

The result was shown in 1st John 4:12, “His love has been perfected in us.” And that same thought is now repeated in 1st John 4:17, “Love has been perfected among us.” John repeated it twice for emphasis.

Perfected, remember, means to become mature, or better, complete. We complete love as we give expression to it -as we put legs on it - as we wrap it up in flesh and blood and spread it all around the world.

This has been our ongoing topic: “God is love” has been declared in the Scriptures. “God is love” has been proven on the Cross. But “God is love” is now spread abroad by us.

This brings us to 1st John 4:17, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”

The fact that “Love has been perfected among us” has some real world benefits. And perhaps the greatest benefit is “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” Very few people have that, you know. What they have instead is fear, terror, dread at the thought of standing before God in judgment.

And John uses those same words in the next verse, 1st John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. “

Notice the word “fear?” What is this fear of? It’s not the fear that we as believers are supposed to have toward God, is it? Like in Proverbs 1:7, we are told that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge?” Oh, no! It’s not that kind. That fear is a reverent fear - it is holding God in awe and respect. God deserves that from us, and we are to give it to Him as a son to a father. That kind of fear should co-exist with love.

The fear in this passage is a dread, or even a terror. But, a terror of what? Looking back at the context of the passage, 1st John 4:17 says it is fear of “the day of judgment.” This terror comes from the thought of standing before God someday and of having Him open the books of our life and having to give an account to Him.

This word for “fear” is phobia in Greek. Hydrophobia is the fear of water. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed in places. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. But this is Krisisphobia, the fear of judgment.

Is this fear justified? Oh, yes! Hebrews 9:27 says:” It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Judgment is as sure as death and just as frightening.

But can, but should, believers live in dread, in terror to the point of torment? For some, absolutely! “Let’s just skip that part about judgment, shall we?” they think.
John talked before about our possible feelings in the face of judgment in 1st John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”

For those who’ve lived lives of complacency and sin, of course they will dread standing before their Heavenly Father, just as any kid in trouble won’t want to hear his father’s voice calling him.

But is fear necessary? NO! That’s the point of verse 17: Believers don’t need to fear. And one of the reasons is that love is perfected in us. 1st John 4:17, says, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” Love gives us boldness.

Now boldness doesn’t mean that we can stand brazenly in front of God shaking our fist in His face, and screaming, “You’ve got no right to tell me how to live.” But what it does mean is confidence. It means we can stand without fear or shame.