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"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."
(1 John 4:18)
Love is the powerful antidote to fear. I think of the two common fears most people struggle with: the fear of rejection and the fear of failure. Those fears and others like them can lead one to torment and anguish. The Greek word translated "torment" is kolasis. The word means to have "correction, punishment, and penalty" (BlueletterBible.org).
But if we fear, then God's love is not perfected in us. Think of how Jesus cancels both these fears. Because I am a child of God, I can bear rejection by this world, but I am never rejected by God. I can fail in this world, and all of us will at some point, but our failure is not defining or permanent. God loves us, and we are not failures in the eyes of the One who matters most, Jesus!
In verse 18, John continues his thoughts from verse 17. There is no fear (phobos, from which we get the English word "phobia") in love. Fear and love are incompatible. If you struggle with a fear of any sort, whether it is about the past or the present or the future, then perfect love is not operative in your life. Christians who live in fear are not appropriating the love and acceptance they have in Christ, and they are not giving that sacrificial love to others.
Fear indeed involves torment. Perhaps your fears are centered on a bully at school, a fear of death, fear of losing your job, a mean boss, a rebellious teenager, a bad doctor's report, etc. When bad things happen or have the potential to happen, fear can flow over us like a tidal wave. The barrier that obstructs such a wave of despair, John says, is not courage or even faith, but it is love! Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:13, "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." We must remember that God loves us, we are His children, and we are to go and love others even as God has loved us.
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