Motivated by fear
In recent years, I’ve seen ever more clearly the contradistinction between fear and faith. Especially interesting to me is the way fear often disguises itself as faith or faithfulness or wisdom. Often, even within ourselves, we cannot discern the difference.
I watched Transformers. Starscream said to Megatron, “I’m not saying you’re a coward, but sometimes cowards survive.” And then, he ran. This seems to sum up the motivation of fear – survival.
What does St. John mean when he says in his epistle that “perfect love casts out fear?” I think it has to do with our motivations. Perhaps it could be suggested that the only difference between fear and faith is whether we are acting out of love – perfect love, i.e., love that is complete and entire, love that is self-sacrificing and giving for another. When we love, we give up our lives. When we try to hang on to our lives, we act out of self-preservation, out of fear of losing life or comfort, out of self-love. But when we truly love God and give ourselves up to Him, we are able to give up our default drive of self-preservation and be courageous with our lives. As John says, we become bold. We become bold in the day of judgment and because of that, we can have boldness today. Because as He is – vindicated, victorious, jubilant, fearless – so are we in this world.
1 John 4.17-18 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
We have been delivered from the fear of death. We have been delivered from the fear of what may happen to our harm or displeasure. And insofar as we have not, we have not been perfected in love. Insofar as we act of out of fear – self-preservation – we compromise other people in our lives. Then we defend our choices by cloaking them as “wisdom.” This is not to say that fear in our own hearts is clear to us or that we can even perceive our motivations in this. Cowards are often self-deceived. This is what makes Starscream’s motto unrealistic. He called his own cowardice by name. Most cowards won’t admit their cowardice to themselves. Why? Pride of life. It is the very pride of life – that thing which motivates them to preserve their lives out of fear – which blinds them to the reality of their hearts. They’re too scared to admit they’re scared.
May God perfect us in love that fear may be cast out. May we be entire in love that there may be no room for self-love. May we be whole in love that there may be no place for pride of life. As He is, so are we in this world – humble, self-sacrificial lovers of God and others.