Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 129

May 9;    I John 4:17;    129/260(II);    ‘As He Is’                                                                                                                                                                                                 

1 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 New Testament Law is love.  When we become Born Again, God’s love is deposited into our spirit by the Holy Spirit.  As we learn of the Lord Jesus, it is clearly seen how He demonstrated this love in everything that He did.  His ministry in the gospels is our Example of how we are to conduct ourselves and minister to others.  As we follow the example of the Lord Jesus and His love for others, we quickly see that people respond to love and kindness.  Often they know we are Christians even if we do not share the gospel, simply because we treat them as the Lord would.  Knowing this is how the Lord Jesus treated others and seeing how people respond to His love, we can make the decision, to the best of our ability, to treat everyone as He treated others and how He treats us.  By making this decision, we can perfect God’s love in our lives and soon it will become second nature for us.  People will gravitate to us the way the gravitated to the Lord Jesus.  There will be no fear on the day that we stand before the Lord, rather we can have an assurance that we have, to the best of our ability, loved others the way Jesus did.  Perfect love casts out fear.  Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will praise us for representing Him in a manner that clearly revealed that He is our Lord and that we have purposed in our hearts to show everyone that as He is so are we in this world.  Walking in love is freedom and it blesses our Lord when we do.