God’s Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

God’s Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

by Rick Warren

“Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.” (1 John 3:8 MSG)

Jesus defeated death, and that means he also defeated the devil. Do you know that’s why he came to Earth? The Bible says in 1 John 3:8 that “the Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways.”

What is the devil’s work? It’s messing up your heart. Filling it with worry. Filling it with guilt. Filling it with resentment. Filling it with anger. Filling it with fear. Filling it with confusion. It’s whispering in your ear that you’re worthless and helpless and hopeless and aimless.

Where else do you think that stuff comes from? It’s not from God. Satan uses these things to keep us enslaved. The biggest tool he uses to mess with our lives is fear.

But fear doesn’t come from God. In 1 John 4:18 the Bible says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (NIV). In fact, the Bible says, “God is love.” So when you’re afraid, that’s not from God — because there is no fear in love, and God is love.

As a pastor, I’ve learned that the number one fear for most of us is the fear of death. Satan will use that fear to manipulate us. But Jesus defeated death; he’s destroyed the devil’s work. And so, when we grieve a death, we grieve with hope.

We grieve because we miss those we’ve lost. We grieve, but we know that if they believed in Jesus, we will see them again in Heaven. They are waiting there in that place where we were all designed to go in the first place.

In Hebrews 2:14-15 the Bible says, “Since all of these sons and daughters have flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood to be like them. He did this so that by dying he would destroy the one who had power over death (that is, the devil). In this way he would free those who were slaves all their lives because they were afraid of dying” (GW).

Talk It Over
•    What are your fears?
•    How can you fill your life with more of God’s perfect love so that there is no room for fear?