1John 4:8 (Amplified) tells us that, "He who does not love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never know Him) for God is love."
Love is the very person of our Heavenly Father. John said that those who don't walk in love, don't know and never have known God. He didn't say that they aren't known by God, but that they don't know Him.
Many in today's Church, still only know God through the Old Testament personality. They find it difficult to know Him under the new covenant. The reason we struggles with this, is because we actually know Him. We seemingly know about Him and draw conclusions from what others say about Him, but we really have no personal relationship with Him.
We see the just and righteous God of the Old Testament. We watch as He deals with His people and we believe this how He deals with us. Has God "gone soft" on sin and unrighteousness? Of course not! Does He still judge sin? Of course He does. The question is, how does He do it?
The person of God (love) determines the character of God. He is love and He is also just and righteous. As a Holy God, He must judge sin in order to remain righteous. The thing we seem to miss is that He already judged and punished all sin and unrighteousness in Christ Jesus.
We can't seem to get it into our hearts and conscience that this is what the sacrifice of Jesus was for. God had to judge sin in order to maintain His righteousness. He covered man's sin and unrighteousness the best He could through the sacrifice of bulls and goats. He knew, though, this could never remove the sin, but could at least cover it for a time. As man continued to transgress, God had to deal with it, as a righteous judge.
Because we see this part of God's character, we expect to see the same reaction to our sins today. What we fail to realize is that we've already been judged, punished, died the death of the cross and now that sentence has been passed and the penalty paid, we're declared righteous with Him, because of Jesus.
We hear that, we read that and we know that, but we don't walk in that. We still have an unconscious need to be punished when we fail to measure up. It's only by faith that we can truly allow the fulfillment of the penalty to be paid by Jesus. We know we're still not perfect and we believe we deserve to be punished for our failures.
Do you remember what the Holy Spirit inspired John to say in 1John 4:16-18 (Amplified), "And we know (understand, recognize, are conscience of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to, and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in Him." Verses 17-18 go on, "In this (union and communion with Him) love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment (with assurance and boldness to face Him) because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love (dread does not exist) but full grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and (so) he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love (is not yet grown into love's complete perfection)."
John makes a second statement about the fear of punishment in 1John 4:8 (Amplified) saying that he who lives in this state of fear "does not and never did know God." As we read these scriptures in the text that the Holy Spirit assigned them, we find how because we don't understand (know) God as love, we're still awaiting our deserved punishment when love has already paid the penalty and punishment for us.
It's nearly impossible to walk in the character of Love or the Image of our Father without understanding the very person of God (love). When we have a wrong image of our Father, we have a problem living up to what He has created us to be. When Love paid my debt and then declared me righteous in His sight, I can now see others in that light and change my behavior to yield to His Spirit and walk through His love.
Once we understand the Person of Love (God our Father), it becomes easier to allow Him to express His Own character through us. We don't have the ability to walk in this character without Him living through us because only love has these characteristics and attributes. Man cannot do it without the love of God (the expression of His life) in him.
This has become a great source of condemnation to the Church. We try doing what love demands and expects because we know this is His command to the Church, but fail because we don't allow Him to live through us. When we fail at our "love walk,"we expect punishment. 1John 4:18 declares that not knowing or understanding this love, brings fear of punishment.
It's of utmost importance that we come to know the Father of the new covenant, instead of just knowing the God of the old covenant. How can we let the character of love live through us, if we don't understand the Person of Love?
As we begin to understand the Person of God, we see His character in an entirely different way. We can begin to know what Peter said in 2Peter 1:5-9 (Amplified) about "adding to our faith", along with Ephesians 2:8 (Amplified) which says "we're saved by grace, through faith." Now that by faith, we've received the grace of God to be born again, we begin adding to our faith (our relationship to this Love) and add the character of Him to that relationship.
When you know Who He really is, you can trust Him to live through you with all His attributes. Love has judged us, found us guilty, punished our trespass in Jesus and declared the debt fully paid and restored us back to right standing with God our Father. There's no need to be fearful or to walk under condemnation of the mistakes we make. We will out grow them as we allow Him to walk and live through us. And, when we understand these things, we can see beyond the faults and mistakes of others and actually Love them like He does.
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