April 11 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" (1 John 4:18).

Devotional

Who that has felt it will deny that "fear has to do with punishment"? The legal fear of death, of judgment, and of condemnation—the fear engendered by a slavish view of the Lord's commandments, by a defective view of the believer's relation to God, by imperfect notions of the finished work of Christ, by unsettled anxiety about the great fact of acceptance, by yielding to the power of unbelief and retaining guilt upon the conscience, or by the influence of any concealed sin—will fill the heart with the torment of fear.

Some of God's most eminent saints have been afflicted this way.

This was Job's experience—"I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent" (Job 9:28). "When I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh" (Job 21:6). "I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him" (Job 23:15).

So also David—"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you" (Ps. 56:3). "My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments" (Ps. 119:120)

But "perfect love casts out fear." The one who fears is not perfected in the love of Christ. The design and tendency of the love of Jesus shed abroad in the heart is to "deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb. 2:15) and its ultimate consequences, and soothe it to rest on that glorious declaration, triumphing in which, many have gone to glory, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

See the blessed Fountain out of which flows a believer's victory over all bondage, over all fear—it is Jesus! Not from his experience of the truth, not from evidence of his acceptance and adoption, not even from the work of the Spirit in his heart (blessed as it is), but rather from out of and away from himself—even from Jesus! The blood and righteousness of Christ, based upon the infinite dignity and glory of his person and worked into the experience of the believer by the Holy Spirit, expels from the heart all fear of death and of judgment, and fills it with perfect peace.

O you of fearful heart! Why these anxious doubts? Why these tormenting fears? Why this shrinking from the thought of death? Why these distant, hard, and unkind thoughts of God? Why this prison-house? Why this chain?

You are not perfected in the love of Jesus, for "perfect love casts out fear." You are not perfected in that great truth, that Jesus is mighty to save, that he died for a poor sinner, that his death was a perfect satisfaction to God's justice; and that without one single meritorious work of your own, just as you are—poor, empty, vile, worthless, unworthy—you are welcome to the rich provision of sovereign grace and dying love. The simple belief of this, will perfect your heart in love. And perfected in love, every bondage and every fear will vanish away.

Oh, seek to be perfected in Christ's love. It is a fathomless ocean. No mind can scan its breadth! No thought can scale its height!

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul.
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought!—
my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
"Even so"—it is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

(Horatio G. Spafford, 1828-1888)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2025.