What does "perfect love cast out all fear" in1 John 4:18 mean and how does it work out practically for me?

John says, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love cast out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love", and makes the point that those who are born again have no fear of facing God's wrath at the judgment, because they have been loved by God in a saving way. The truth that I am known and loved by God in salvation means, then, that I will reciprocate God's loves and never again have reason fear God's wrath meant only for those who reject Christ (see Romans 8:31-36).

Going beyond John's immediate point, we can expand this truth into a principle that the rest of the New Testament supports. The principle of perfect love casts out all fear means for us, that God's judgment reserved for unbelievers is not the only thing that we need not fear; we need not fear the consequences of our obedience either. There are hard situations that will come our way when we obey Christ, but if we love Christ more than our own selves, then we will carry out our Master's orders regardless of the consequences. Each one of us knows how fearful obeying the Lord can be. But let's never allow fear of a potentially dreadful consequence for obeying Christ ever stop us from obeying Him. Let's take our cue from the apostles Peter and John, who were faced with a frightening situation, if they should continue to evangelize in Jerusalem. We read in Acts 4 that the Sanhedrin "commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus" (Acts 4:18) after they first beat the two apostles for having previously evangelized. As it turned out, the apostles, upon their release, went right back into the streets of Jerusalem and picked up where they left off. Outraged, the Sanhedrin apprehended them again and threw them in prison to be questioned. The interrogation occurs in Acts 5:28, 29: "The high priest asked them, saying, 'Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? [. . . ] But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, 'We ought to fear God rather than man.' Here is the principle at work: Peter and John cared more about Jesus and what He wanted them to do than for their own lives and what the Sanhedrin wanted them to do. This meant that Peter and John were quite willing to commit civil disobedience for love of Christ.

How do we insure ourselves that we will obey Christ out of love for Him in any given situation? When we become fearful, we must override our fear with love for Christ. If you love Christ more than yourself, then you will confidently obey Him no matter what happens. We have all been familiar with this principle, perhaps long before we were even saved. Think of the mother who used to be the start swimmer of her high school swim team. She practically lived in the water. The only place you would never find her, though, was in the ocean. Having grown up in pools, she never liked swimming in place where she could not be sure of what was under her. She was and still is an expert swimmer. This mom has a 5 year old boy who loves to go to the beach-too bad for mom. One day, she meets her girlfriend, who also has a 5 year old son, and the four of them go to the beach for afternoon. The two mothers sit high up on the soft, warm sand, while their two kids sit together on a raft barely afloat in one of the little wading pools formed by low tided. When the two women get into an interesting conversation that drew their attention away from their children for several minutes, they were unaware that the incoming tide had lifted the raft out of the wading pool and took it out. When they final noticed that something was wrong, the bosy were drifting about 10 yards off shore. Without a moment's hesitation, the star swimmer sprinted to the edge of the water, made a perfect dive, swam out to the boys in record speed, and brought them back safely to shore. Not once did this mother ever think of her fear of the ocean, the weird sea animals that might be swimming under her, or what could have happen to her. Why? We know; she loved her son more than her own life (what mother doesn't?). Here again is the principle: in an instance where her most precious object is threatened, she overrides her fear of the ocean for love of her boy. This principle must be at work in us. If we love Jesus more than anything, "yes, more than our own life also" (Luke 10:26), then we will be fearless to live for Him in a world that hates Him.