There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear.
. (I John 4:18)
This is true in the most universal sense. And I have found it to be true for me. But it is hard to do. Very hard.
Fear is about survival and protecting ourselves from threat. Love is about attachment and giving ourselves to the other in passionate and unselfish ways. They do not coexist well. One almost always dwarfs the other.
The Christian way is one that declares, broadly and boldly, that fear and hate are not our beginning and ending points, not the forces that should define and propel us. In real world terms this means that we must turn to one set of deep emotions to override the other; the power of love, God's love shown in Christ, dwells deeply enough to fend off the Darwinian descent into survivalism.
William Willimon just wrote a slender little book that speaks to this truth. It is entitled Fear of the Other: No Fear in Love (Abingdon, 2016). In a few taunt pages he defines the Biblical regard for the stranger, relates it to our other-love for those who are different than we are and outside our tribe, and concludes with a meditation on Jesus as the ultimate stranger. It is a good read and would be worthy fodder for a group study.
I like his conclusion:
In your church and mine, by the grace of God, we are being given neighbors we wouldn't have known without Jesus and a Savior who is determined to bring all things together, even us. Hope for the other (or for us in our fearfulness) is that Christ's risky, determined love is strong enough to defeat our fear. Thanks be to God!
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