In my previous post, I quoted part of 1 John 4:18 which says,

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

1 John 4:18 (NASB)

The hard lesson learned from this is that when I manifest fear, it is because I am not perfected in love. And as circumstances have proved, I manifest fear way more than I manifest love. I manifest fear, a lot of fear.

One of the things we learn from Genesis 3 is that we have an amazing propensity to blame others for our failures, but at the end of the day, I have no-one to blame but myself.

I want to defend myself and argue that I am more loving than fearful, but I know that is not true. I want to say others have caused me to fear, but that is also not true.

In reflecting on this, I find that much of my fear is fueled by pride. I want to be seen as doing the right thing. I want to be known as the one who is dependable. My fear of disappointing others has on many occasions made me rigid and unloving. But even admission is prevarication on my part, I am side stepping the heart of the issue.

As the verse states, the root cause of my fear is that I have not tapped into the love of God. I have not fully accepted that God’s love is unconditional and there is nothing I can do escape that love.

Paul writes;

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38–39 (NASB)

Earlier in Chapter 8 of Romans Paul identifies the difference between one who responds in love and one who responds in fear.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

Romans 8:15 (NASB)

The bottom line is that when I respond in fear, I have not fully (or perhaps even partially) accepted my adoption by God.

When I act out of fear, I hurt the loving Father that adopted me and I hurt the people around me.

I am thankful for the words of Jesus in John 8, when he told the woman caught in sin, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

So much has happened in the last few months, that I really haven’t known how to respond. I have felt like a boxer that is taking body blow after body blow to the point where I’m off balance and can’t swing back.

We have a worldwide pandemic doing damage to our people and our economy. We have had egregious examples of injustice in which race was the dominant motivator. We have criminals that use the distraction of legitimate protests as a cover for their looting operations. We have politicians that use these events to promote the political agenda of their party rather than do the best thing for the people they govern. We have ample evidence that we live in a fallen, broken world.

So how do we catch our collective breath and determine a healthy path forward? How do we stay sane and steady when seemingly the entire society is crumbling to pieces around us?

To find an example of how to respond, I am reminded of the opening chapter of the Book of Joshua. In that chapter, Joshua is commanded by God to “be strong and courageous.”

Perhaps it would be helpful to set the context in which this command was given.

Since leaving Egypt, the Israelites have proved themselves to be (like us) stubborn people that time after time went wrong. They so provoked Moses that he responded out of anger and disobeyed God’s command, thus disqualifying himself from leading the people into the promised land.

After the death of Moses, Joshua is tasked with leading this bunch. He assumes command just before they cross into the promised land, knowing that the current inhabitants will fight to keep them out.

They can’t retreat, they can’t stay where they are, and to move ahead will require many battles and a lot of difficulties. From a human perspective, the outcome of this adventure was not certain. He took over in the midst of an unstable, difficult situation.

So here we are in 2020. We can’t just pretend that the COVID-19 virus isn’t a problem. We can’t pretend that racial injustice has not taken place. We can’t pretend that our politicians have not given us ample evidence of self-interested, short-sighted behavior. We can’t just go back to what we think were better days.

Then what can we do? How should Christians respond to all of this?

I offer to you (and to myself) the commands in Joshua 1 that I alluded to earlier. In verses 6, 7, and 9 of Joshua 1, God commands Joshua to “be strong and courageous.” In Verse 7 he even tells him to be “very courageous.”

The question is how can we be courageous when we don’t really feel that way?

It has been often pointed out that courage is not the absence of fear but choosing to do the right thing despite the fear. But this begs the question of how can we overcome our fear and do the right thing?

For me, it comes down to one key question. Did Jesus actually rise from the dead? If he did, then his resurrection changes everything.

The fact that Jesus rose from the dead, makes the promises made to us believable. Death no longer needs to be feared as the ultimate enemy. If death is not to be feared, then we should also be able to face down the fear of contracting the current coronavirus. We no longer have to fear societal breakdown and the chaos that seems to surround us. We can choose to respond to the challenges in a responsible way but without fear.

Jesus said to one of the criminals that was being crucified next to him, “today you will be with me in Paradise.” That promise should provide enough hope to get us through the most difficult time.

Do I believe that Jesus can do that for me?

If I claim to believe it, that belief should provide the courage to live that way. By acting with courage, I prove John’s statement in 1 John 4:18 that ”perfect love casts out fear.” Do I trust in the love of God as demonstrated in Christ?

We are loved, therefore we have the means of overcoming our fear so that we can be strong and very courageous.

We can choose to allow God’s love to overcome our fear.

The haunting words of the title of this post are taken from Revelation 2:4 in the middle of Jesus’ message to the Church in Ephesus. The full verse says,

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Revelation 2:4 (NASB)

The message to this church starts off so well. I can visualize the faces of the Ephesians as they first heard the message. I see the barely suppressed smiles as they heard their toil and perseverance praised by their Lord. Image the sense of satisfaction as their diligence in keeping the teaching pure was highlighted along with their willingness and ability to combat error.

There was much good that was going on in this church. But then their satisfaction turned to horror as they heard, “But I have this against you . . .”

They had lost their first love.

How could this happen? How could they be so on track theologically and be so wrong relationally? It is not just an academic question. This is a question that church leaders should be asking in every culture and in every generation because we are prone to repeat this error.

We all have an inner Pharisee that can reshape our thinking and behavior and cause us to repeat the Ephesians’ error. We need to be vigilant to monitor what we do and also be vigilant to know when our motives for doing the right thing become wrong.

There is another danger for us. We are also prone to over correcting and swinging too far the other way. We can be so relational that we don’t offer the confrontation that is necessary to keep the church grounded in a solid understanding of “what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man” (WSC Question 3).

I have been in churches that were so focused on being loving that they allowed error to propagate within the members and did little or nothing to correct it. Lives were damaged as a result of the leaders’ negligence.

Those who overcorrect in this way, while claiming love as their motivation have also lost their first love because that love should be focused on the one who is the Truth (John 14:6). Jesus was able to speak the truth at all times and to every person with whom he had contact. He also had the ability to make them feel loved as he did it.

By allowing either extreme to flourish in our churches, we are demonstrating that we have lost our first Love. If we love the one who gives the perfect example of unapologetically standing for the truth of Scripture while at the same time demonstrating love for those he encountered, then we will constantly seek to follow his example and “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

I feel led to point out that the “sinners” were the ones that loved Jesus and were permanently changed by that love. The truth was both relational and confrontational.