If love cast out fear, why are we afraid to love?

Question

I do read the Bible and am glad that many of you do also; these answers showed some recognized the Bible verse behind the question. Some missed the "we" and began to give advice to the lovelorn. If I'm sad about anything, it's the hate I see in so many places, in some it's their immediate response to any challenge or situation

Answer 1

I believe that once a person chooses to Believe in God and begins to follow the God centered path, we are then able to discern truth and spiritual meaning in life.

The revelation that Love reigns supreme is the fundamental truth for this existence in an earthly life.

When people are afraid to love, it is simply because they have not opened up to Love. They have not stepped in Faith in order to Trust God. They still believe that they are ultimately in control of their life.

True love is not dependent on a life mate or a healthy relationship with a parent/child or how much we think we care for friends.

True Love can only come from a Divine source from God and a person can only know true Love if they first believe in God and then seek after Godly wisdom and understanding (LOVE)

We live in a world that functions in a dual plain...'reality' and TRUTH. Both exist, however the concept of 'LOVE' is vastly different in the context of these two realms.

Why should people trust Love if they don't understand it????

Answer 2

1 John 4:18 NIV

Replace "afraid" with "recognize". The unknown almost always causes anxiety and fear.

People who cannot recognize love most likely were not shown love properly at an early age. So they grow into adulthood not knowing how to show it. Like the saying goes "Whatever love you pour into a child, is the love that will be poured back out to others." -- Anon

Although this is a psychological question, it overlaps into the spiritual. With God's love poured into your soul, he replaces whatever fear, anxiety, hate you may have accumulated in your life's reservior/pool of emotion. But you have to give Him permission to do this. He can't force His love into you if you do not accept Him or believe in Him. So people in unbelief of God essentially will never be able to recognize His love, and won't understand His loving nature illustrated in the bible. Love and fear are immiscible; Love denotes encouragement and support. Whereas Fear anticipates punishment and condemnation. For some of those damaged early on, a perverted version of love was demonstrated to evoke fear and anxiety. Proper love, Godly and measured, will evoke comfort and security.

Not sure if my long-winded explanation helped (maybe it made it worse?!). Anyways, may God Bless you!

Answer 3

Love/Fear - The Key/Lock Principle

The fear that is fed to mankind comes from the present world system. The only way to overcome this fear is by Faith in God, for faith destroys the bondage of fear. Faith in God that comes out of Love for God makes a person Righteous.

The REASON why a person is afraid to love God is because of insecurity that is born out of his imagination. It is only when a human spirit can fathom the true Presence of God and His Sacrifice for mankind, a person will be able to love God without any fear.

I hope all the people who read this will try to quieten themselves and look into what "Jesus Christ" accomplished on earth for humanity. This is the first step of Faith that leads to Love for God.

Thanks for asking and reading and ofcourse the oppurtunity.. God Bless

Answer 4

We fear love once we have been burned by it a few times. Fears can be faced though, and a true love, if we take the chance, can heal the fear.

The Ol' Hippie Jesus Freak
Grace, Peace and Love in Christ
Peg

Answer 5

In context, the verse is talking about loving God, and being confident in the day of judgment.

1 John 4:17-19
In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because He first loved us.

Because believers are becoming like God (4:17), they certainly need not fear him. This fear is not the righteous awe that people ought to have before God. This "fear" is based on consciousness of guilt, anticipates the deserved punishment, and thus causes a person to suffer a present taste of that future punishment. Perfect love, however, involves confidence (4:17) and cannot coexist with fear. Christ died to deliver his people from slavery to fear (Hebrews 2:14-15). The dichotomy is compared to light versus darkness (1:5) and love versus hate (2:11-15). Fear cannot coexist with love. Believers cannot approach God in love and at the same time hide from him in fear. Because fear has to do with punishment, it cannot be a part of a Christian's experience—he or she has been forgiven because Jesus already took the punishment. Paul wrote to the Romans, "So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family—calling him 'Father, dear Father'" (Romans 8:15 nlt).

To be fearful is to lack confidence; to lack confidence is to show that a person is not made perfect in love. Believers ought not be afraid of the future, eternity, or God's judgment, because of God's love. They know that he loves them perfectly (Romans 8:38-39). They can resolve any fears first by focusing on God's immeasurable love and then by allowing him to love others through them. God's love will quiet fears and give confidence.

Answer 6

Who said love casts out fear?

~ Eric Putkonen

Answer 7

Indeed, as pew scene in Home Alone movie portrayed:
Boy to the Old Man: "aren't you a little old to be afraid"?
Result: man puts away fear, gets reconciled with family.

Perfect Love(God) casts out all fear("hath torment").
Allegory: His Grace casts out all law("the tormentor").
Pst: it's all "allegory" in both "covenants": Galatians 4.

Fear(Law) hinders, torments, 'oppresses' people.
Worry(Fear) is like a magnet that 'attracts trouble'.
Flush Law(source of fear): Love(God) gets "perfected".
Flush Law and Grace(God) gets perfected, as foretold:
The third [day], I(Grace) shall be pefected: Luke 13:32.

It's now the third day, beyond 2000AD->goes one way:

The GRACE(ONLY) of our Lord JC with you all. Amen.

Answer 8

Your primise is screwy. Love cast out fear? I don't know what that means.
Do you mean God or Jesus casting out fear? Fear is always a constant in human existence. The key, of course is to live without fear...not easy.
Fear is the buzz-kill. Fear blocks the natural processes of intuition.

Answer 9

I don't think that everyone is afraid to love, people fall in love all the time. It is human imperfection that causes us to have difficulty in successfully falling in love and making it last. Love is more that a tingling feeling and emotion, love is coming outside of oneself to care about the other person.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden human imperfection set in. The bible tells us "the wages of sin is death," therefore we now all have to die and have been doing so since that point. Humans were set in the garden of Eden with everything they needed to survive. The only thing they were told is not to eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, but they did due to Satan's influence. Satan raised the issue of sovereignty and Jehovah God's right to rule. Humans have been given freedom of choice and still have that loving provision of freedom of choice, to love God and his righteous ways, or choose their own path leading to destruction.

The best way to find out what love is is to pursue a study of the bible and learn about our heavenly father who created us and gave us his perfect example of love who was his son Jesus Christ. By reading about his wonderful acts on earth we can draw close to our creator and learn about his provisions for us and what it all means to us now and in the future. We can look at how he dealt with his people in the past and learn what he expects of us and what his wonderful promises to us are.

The most successful way to love is to study the bible and learn to love in a godly way. Jesus Christ himself was the perfect example of fearless love seeing that he gave himself up as a sacrifice so that all humans would have the opportunity for everlasting life. Even so, he was so overcome with emotion that his sweat became as drops of blood as he was praying before that hour came. However his desire and motivation to do what was righteous and good overcame anything else and he became known as the one perfect man.

We have a right to be cautious in love as reffered to in "romantice love." Some do not have the same standards and and humans have so many imperfections from inherited sin, mental, and physical problems that can be serious enough to consider before engaging in a personal relationship with someone, after all it is forever, not just a lifetime if you apply bible instructions. Humans are not disposable like a TV, or a computer, or a telephone, we are real thinking feeling beings. The bible tells us that two become one flesh, they are no longer one but two and that no man mistreats his own flesh.

Therefore we to ought to be cautious as to what our choice of worship is because this means out everlasting life, it is that important. We must never sell ourself short and reason out that we are OK without taking the time to see for ourself what the bible tells us. Use the bible for your measuring line.

I am including some links I think you will enjoy and contacts so that you can find someone who will help you to understand the bible and what it is truly telling you.

Answer 10

I find it hard to understand why this is in R&S. This is really a psychology question.

However - many people are afraid to love because they have been hurt in the past or have seen others hurt by it.