QUESTION
How do you reconcile the seemingly contradictory message of 1 John 4:18, “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”; and the idea that shows up throughout all of Scripture that the beginning steps of wisdom are fear of the Lord?
ANSWER
The importance and goodness of fearing God is so universal throughout Scripture, we can safely assume that the Apostle John is not categorically condemning all fear of God in the life of a believer (i.e., one who is loved by God). To assure ourselves of this, all we have to do is look at Revelation 11:18, which was also written by John:
And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.
Christians fear God, and they will be rewarded for it.
We must distinguish here between different kinds of fear. A little boy may have a reverent fear of his father that is joined together with complete love and trust. This fear may even involve trembling at his father’s power, but it is a different fear than that same boy’s fear of a monster in his closet that wants to eat him. Two objects of fear, but he runs towards one and flees from the other.
God can be feared in both these ways. He can be feared as a strong Father who saves, or as a wrathful judge who casts into hell. The unbeliever can only know God according to the latter fear. And that is exactly how an unbeliever should fear God. But the one who believes in Jesus Christ is made a son of God and saved from God’s wrath. The believer has no need to fear God’s rejection and can be assured that he will not be required to “pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:9). This dread of punishment is what John is referring to in 1 John 4:18. If we read the verse before, we see that he is speaking of this fear in a particular context: the day of judgment (1 John 4:17). Those who are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ have no need to fear that God will reject them on that great and terrible day.
Nevertheless, many true believers still struggle to see God as a loving Father, rather than as a vindictive Judge. Just because we know in our heads that we need not fear God’s wrath doesn’t mean we always fully experience heartfelt freedom from such fear. This is exactly why Scripture gives us encouragements like 1 John 4:17–19, or this one from the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:14–17:
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 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!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
As we grow into a more mature—or, as John puts it, “perfect”—understanding of God’s love for us, our fears regarding the day of judgment will be cast out.