Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
Leviticus 19:33 (emphasis added)

Oh boy, do we as nations need to work on this one. It goes on in verse 34: “The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.” That’s pretty clear. Treat the foreigners like yourselves. Where have we heard that before? The second greatest commandment as quoted by Jesus Himself. “A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:39, Jesus quoting Leviticus 19:18). We are to LOVE one another. Perfect Love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Perfect Love attracts faith (1 John 4:15-16). This is how our nations are supposed to be. Our nations, our cities, our neighbourhoods, and our homes. Perfected Love guiding each and every step. No fear. Only faith.
Inevitably, talk like this can spawn questions about leftist politics, socialist viewpoints, and shades of communism. The Lord’s instructions are not socialist. They’re beneficial. In the Word, the individual is the first one responsible for their own financial situation. It is only when you have tried to take care of oneself but are unable (due to infirmity, for example) that there is any obligation to help meet your needs. The immediate family, the neighbourhood, the city, and then the country at large. Free choice and individual responsibility is the foundation of the system and the foundation of the Kingdom of God. You have a right to choose. You are responsible for your choice. Period. We need to be responsible, hard working, and competition in fair play is not a problem. We assist the poor and infirm to stand on their own two feet without the need for donations and benefits. We teach each other to advance and function within the society we are crafting.

Natural resources belong to us all equally. Air, water, minerals, gas, oil, etc. These are the resources of the planet. They should be used equally for the good of all society – like educating them and giving them the tools to succeed. Education is the tool that gives each individual the opportunity to take care of themselves. While resources SHOULD be divided equally, the fruit of your hard work is yours. You have the privilege to work hard and get rich — helping the poor to have the same opportunities you have benefited from so that they can stand on their own two feet and move up. It is a circular system of responsibility, it doesn’t work if you’re lazy, and the more we are blessed the more we can accomplish in help of others. We need to work (not toil, WORK) to better ourselves even as we are satisfied with where we are. We’re not trying to keep up with the Joneses, be greedy, take more than we need, or keep it all to ourselves. It is NOT WRONG to have money. It is WRONG to HOARD. It is WRONG not to HELP AND BLESS OTHERS (Deuteronomy 15:7; 22:4; Exodus 22:24). We’re meant to partner together and work toward common goals. We’re enabled to get a harvest from what we sow. Work hard, get the reward. Work more, get more. If you do that without letting the money and things get a hold of your heart, there is no reason not to have it because you’ll turn around and give them all away in a moment if that is what’s needed to help another person. You have money and possessions, they don’t have you (Luke 12:15).

Psalm 118:6-7 is one of the verses that tell us God is our helper. There are more. Jesus told His disciples that they were given freely, freely they should give (Matthew 10:8). Paul says But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased (Hebrews 13:16). God told Isaiah Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:17). We need to do this in the natural. We need to do this in the spiritual world too. Remember, this isn’t about giving away YOUR stuff. It’s about blessing others and helping them to be able to in turn bless others. No dependence on a system, program, individual, or government. Working together to WORK together. To advance together. Almost as if we were all part of the same body. Almost as if we wanted all the limbs and parts healthy. To love one another (John 15:12). To shine our light before others so that they too can see the wondrous works of the Lord and be encouraged to want to participate in them (Matthew 5:16, 42).

Spiritually, we are also to pick each other up. Praying for each other. Interceding for each other. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else. For each man will bear his own burden. But let him who is taught in the word share all good things with him who teaches” (Galatians 6:2-6). Not getting weary in blessing each other. Not getting weary teaching each other. Not getting weary in praying for each other. To sow blessing, help, and spiritual encouragement to everyone we meet. Everyone we come into contact with. To be a light to this world. To be people whom they see as different. That person is never rude, never angry, never worried about what’s going on. That person knows something. That person has something going on. THAT is how we are known. We’ll be the love people. The Joy in the Lord people. We WON’T be depressed, anxious, worried, troubled, fearful, or anything else negative. It isn’t that we won’t have struggles. We’ll have those. We’ll HAVE persecutions (John 15:18, 2 Timothy 3:12). But that isn’t the last word.

We will not be troubled by persecution. We will LOVE our enemies (Matthew 5:44). We will be BLESSED because of it (Matthew 5:10). We will be tested by the world, tested by the enemy, but we will rejoice when it is for Christ’s sake (1 Peter 4:12-14) and prove them liars when they’re persecuting because they don’t like us or because we’re blessed (Isaiah 54:14-17). We will be strong in the Lord, in the joy of the Lord, and in the rest of His strength even though the world will see us differently (2 Corinthians 12:10). We are those who LOVE. We are those who BLESS. It doesn’t matter if you’re friend or foe and we might bless you a little more because you’re against us (Romans 12:14). We will GLORIFY the name of the Lord and the name by which we are called (1 Peter 4:16).

What does this have to do with strangers? Well, this is how we are to be. People of love. People who work hard. People who bless. People who train. People who encourage. And a stranger comes in. They are not part of our history. They’re new. How do we treat them? Usually, with suspicion and the cold shoulder. This is NOT how we are to be. I’m not talking about borders. Borders are good. They are proper lines within which we can create holy culture and righteous living. We can take authority over this bit of the world because it is the bit within which we operate. But when strangers come in to live here, why do we treat them badly? Yes, they may bring with them things we don’t like. That can be dealt with. But why would they let go of what they had before when we aren’t showing them what they can have now and in the future?

No one buys a car you complain about. You run it down for enough time, don’t be surprised when they pick a truck not an electric car. You complain about your job for weeks and months and years, don’t be surprised when they turn down the opportunity to join up. If you’re in debt to your ears and living paycheque to paycheque, don’t be surprised if no one is interested in your financial advice. If you are negative, they won’t want what you have. If you claim one thing and live another, why will they believe what you claim? But IF we treat those strangers like those who are in our orbit already, we will be showing an example of what LOVE and BLESSING can really do.

A stranger moves in. We as a collective group should be ensuring that they have the opportunity to learn the language or have language tools so that they can interact with us. We should be ensuring that they have education opportunities. We should be ensuring that they have employment opportunities. Why? Because we had them. Whether they choose to take those opportunities up or not is not our problem. That’s THEIR problem. As we had to take up individual responsibility, so do they. But if we are helping them with the tools to stand on their own two feet, we are enabling them to take up a position in our world and see the benefits of it. We’re teaching and blessing instead of being greedy and shutting out. We’re treating them the same as us – just as God does (Acts 10:34).

“By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us” (1 John 4:9-12). It is by LOVE that God operates. It is by LOVE that we are to operate. And it is through that LOVE that we abide in Jesus (John 15). This is a huge step. Why? Because the Kingdom of God runs on LOVE and the air of the Kingdom is FAITH. Fear is a faith-killer, but perfected love is the fear-killer. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). Rejecting fear means accepting love. Accepting it, being instructed in it, learning it, being corrected in it, and walking in it.

Love is not a feeling. Passion is a feeling. Love is not an emotion the way we think of emotions. We think of emotions as feelings. They aren’t. Emotions are conscious mental reactions. We take the feelings we feel as subjective input. We take the Word that is stored up inside us. We listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. We think about the things we’ve been taught (natural, behavioural, and spiritual). And then we decide what to do. It can happen in a moment. In a flash. Or over a long period of time (minutes to hours to days). But in the end, love is a choice. We CHOOSE to love. Just like we CHOOSE to be afraid, CHOOSE to be anxious, CHOOSE to be troubled, CHOOSE to be worried, CHOOSE to be angry, etc etc. Jesus told us we did NOT have to be troubled (John 14:1). We can choose not to be troubled when we remember to believe in God and to believe in Jesus.

We use the faith we have been given by God and hear the Word to strengthen it. We abide in Jesus, abiding in LOVE, letting Him perfect it in us as we learn the Word, study the Word, submit to the Lord and the Word, and remain humbly broken before the Father. When we do this, we will be the people of love. We can start now toward that perfection of love by rejecting fear. We were NOT given a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). If we are walking in LOVE, then we will love the Lord, love each other, love the stranger among us, and be known by our LOVE (John 13:35). We will be different from the rest of the world. We will be a shining example of what God REALLY thinks about humanity. We will NOT treat others wrongly. Won’t that be nice? THAT will be a place worth living in, won’t it? Let’s all start today, right where we are. Decide to be a person of LOVE, not a person of fears.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 1 Corinthians 10:8

This is one of those reminder verses so that we can do what the Lord tells us is good. We are supposed to love one another. We’re supposed to help one another. But we as humans tend toward judging others though, don’t we? We turn our noses up at them and feel scorn or reject them outright. If, for example, you are very against the act of homosexuality because the Word is against it (which it is), you may judge and be disdainful of homosexuals. But sin is sin (James 4:17, Romans 3:10, 1 John 5:17, James 2:10-11). If you have ever had a lustful thought about another human, you’re in the same boat sin-wise. No human has ever been tempted except by that which is common to humans. That’s a good reminder because it means we all have common ground. We can understand how they are tempted and they can understand how we are tempted – even though we may be tempted by different things. We can bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2). Best part of the reminder? God makes a way for us to get out of the stranglehold of temptation. He gives us a way to shut the door (Genesis 4:7). We like formulas. Twelve steps and five best ways to eat cabbage and all that. We have THE formula for temptation in James 4:7 Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Period. That’s it. If God says it is wrong, agree it is wrong. Call anything God calls sin, sin. Then stand on the Word, equip yourself in the Armour of God, walk in all that the Lord Jesus has for you, listen to the Holy Spirit. This is how we resist. With the Word. With the weapons of the Spirit. It’s how Jesus did it (Matthew 4:1-11). It’s how WE should do it. Submit to the Lord. Be humble and submit. Resist with the Word. And help your brothers and sisters do the same regardless of WHAT they are tempted by. We can bear each other’s burdens. We can lift each other up. We can love one another. As God loves us.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.