So this past Sunday our Pastor preached from Joshua. He focused primarily on the passage concerning the crossing of the Jordan River and the memorial of 12 stones that was built:
Joshua 4:20–24
20 Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.
21 He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’
22 then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’
23 “For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed;
24 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”
The application he gave was from the last verse. He made the claim that we as believers are to fear the Lord God forever. He tied it to our sin, and how we need to be afraid of God who has the ability to punish us in hell.
He brought up this verse:
1 John 4:18
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.
He made the claim that we will never have perfect love until we die and go to be with the Lord and therefore we need to fear the Lord. He said that multiple times so I know I didn't misunderstand.
I completely disagree with his interpretation of the passage. As unbelievers people should fear God, because He is the one who judges. However, the passage above isn't talking to unbelievers it is to believers and is not about our love being what casts out all fear, it is the Love of Christ that is perfected in us that casts out fear, because when we are justified by Him we no longer have to fear judgement.
1 John 4:10–17
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
We love because He first loved us, because the holy Spirit is in us His love is perfected in us. This is the reason we do not have to fear, because His Holy Spirit abides in us. We know we will not face judgment. As He is so are we in this world. It is not something to be realized after death, His love is already perfected in us, because He abides in us. Verse 18 clearly says that the one who fears is not perfected in love.
I was just so frustrated sitting there listening to him chide the congregation that they need to fear God when they sin. I just do not see that the passage in Joshua applies to believers under the New Covenant. And he failed completely to even mention the part that does apply to us, that God's hand is mighty and He is able to alter the physics of the natural order to accomplish His will.
In short what my Pastor was claiming is that because we don't love God perfectly and we don't love others perfectly that we are not perfected in love and therefore must fear God, which in my mind means we must fear the punishment of God. Though he stopped short of saying so himself.
What the passage does say is that one who says that he loves God, and hates his brother, cannot in fact love God, which to me demonstrates that that person is not one who is justified by Christ, but remains an unbeliever.
earlier in 1 John, John says this:
1 John 2:4–5
4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
If we keep His word, God's love is perfected in us. I don't think this means that we have to be perfect at all times, that it requires us to be sinless, but rather that we should strive to walk as Christ walked. And the Holy Spirit who abides in us, makes that possible.
Am I wrong?
RT