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Love Drives Out Fear

Exists no fear in love, rather perfect love drives out fear because fear has torment. Now, the one who fears is not fulfilled in agape love.*

Think of what torments a person. Webster dictionary defines torment as to cause severe usually persistent or recurrent distress of body or mind. Worry is defined as to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts.* It also defines worry as strangle, choke? In the parable of weeds, Jesus tells us the devil plants weeds to choke us out. Fear, worry, anxiety, the devil uses to torment. Agape love drives out this fear and torment so that the goal of Perfect Love is accomplished, Fulfilled, which means to finish, bring to an end, complete, perfect.

Paul writes agape love is above all the other virtues (kindness, humility, compassion, gentleness, patience) because love leads to perfectness (completeness, maturity, ripeness of knowledge or practice).* Paul also writes we should set our hearts on the greater gifts but there is a way that goes beyond, the way of agape love, and without it all these other gifts (faith, prophecy, wisdom, giving, surrendering my body to be burned) are nothing, if I have not love it benefits me nothing.*

now to the extent of all these, love, which is the bond of completeness.*

This word for completeness means perfection, maturity; ripeness of knowledge or practice. James writes that the trials prove or test our faith, and endurance has an intended purpose of maturing (brought to completion; fully accomplished, fully developed) which he also explains as wholeness, completeness where one is lacking in nothing.* Paul writes he runs the race toward a goal, he fights the good fight of faith for a purpose.* He writes everything else is as loss in order to know and gain Christ.* Paul speaks of obtaining this goal. How important is love in this? It is the bond that leads us to perfection, maturity, completeness, fullness in Christ. The goal is fullness and love helps us get there. Truth in love we grow up into Him. Truth increases our faith and faith is energized in love. 

John writes this is how we know God's love is fulfilled in us; when we keep his words; when we love one another; when we exist as Jesus does.* We can justify ourselves by works so I think what carries the most weight of God's love being fulfilled in us is that we exist like Jesus. "In this love is fulfilled in us so that having confidence in the day of judgment because just as he exists also we exist in this world."*  My heart will be exposed when I stand before Jesus, will I be confident because I existed in this world like him?

Jesus told a parable where a man was unfaithful because of fear.* Ungodly fear is an inhibitor to faithfulness but agape love drives out this fear with its torment and helps to bring us into the fullness of God.

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