Love Made Perfect

1 John 4:15-18:

15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Only when we have believed in Christ, and experienced His saving Grace, can we even begin to understand the love God has for us. Once we gain that understanding, it enables us to be bold in proclaiming the hope we have within us.

This passage of scripture has been placed in front of me for weeks now. It seems to pop up everywhere. The more I studied it, the more of 1 John I read, the more obvious it became that if I was going to take the leap into writing this blog, this should be the title. Because if I know anything, I know that there is nothing perfect in me. Anything good that comes from me, comes only because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God.

I am so far from being what I would choose to represent anything good, that getting started with this has been an internal battle with feelings of unworthiness. I think often about Paul, when he said, “… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” I empathize daily with those sentiments. I fail Christ so completely some days that I am ashamed to lift my voice in prayer, and yet He is faithful to forgive me and love me with that perfect love.

In the end, after days of compiling lists of the many reasons I have no right to expect anyone to want to read anything I write about God, one thing became clear: I am unworthy. In fact, we are all unworthy, and that is exactly the reason I should write about God’s goodness. If God can love me, with all my faults and failures, surely he also loves you. It’s so simple to compile a list of all of the failings of the great men of faith in the Bible: David was a murderer, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was afraid, Noah was a drunkard, etc… but for some reason when we look at our lives, it’s easy to feel small and of little value. But it was for this very reason we were created! We aren’t saved to sit and wait for life to end, we are saved and then expected to get to work. What does God have for you to do? It may not be grand gestures that will be noticed by many… it may be something as simple as making sure the flowerbeds at the church are tidy or taking meals to the elderly or shut in. Whatever it is that God wants you to do to serve Him, or bring Him glory, figure it out, friends, and get busy.

And so, if you choose to follow this blog, do so with complete understanding that you are reading the writings of a worthless sinner who has been gloriously redeemed by a sinless Savior and is now only following the leading of a perfect God. Don’t expect amazing spiritual leadership, only shared struggles and hope for the future.