Perfect Love with Truth -- Casts out Fears, Based on Lies

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8: 31-32)

Gods' Word is truth (John 17: 17).

We prosper as our souls prosper (3 John 2), and our souls prosper to the extent that we walk in the truth (3 John 3-4).

How do "we walk in the truth"? By meditating on God's Word, we receiving a growing revelation of God's love:

"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." (Ephesians 4:15)

Pay attention to the element "in love." John writes about the connection of truth and love in his Second Epistle:

"The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;

"For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

"Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." (2 John 1-3)

Just as the truth dwells in us, so does love dwell in us, because God is love (1 John 4: 16). Yet there is a more eminent and unmistakable token of God's love for us:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

The more we realize that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, for all sins, then we by grace through faith receive redemption and adoption:

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8: 15)

This love is not just some sentiment, but the essence of our new identity in Christ:

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)

Any fears in our life ultimately stem from a lie, something which wars against the truth of who we are in Christ. The more that we understand our perfection in Christ, the greater our love, and every fear,  based on the lie that God is not with us, for us, or in us -- is cast out (1 John 4: 18).