Perfect Love

“Perfect love” is a divine work that can only be wrought in the secret chamber of total surrender. It is not the religion that dominates the modern church world but pure religion that sets the receiver apart to the pure will of God. It is never discovered by accident or chance but by the soul that has lost all to find Him. The walls of religious systems are strangely adept at keeping men from this holy place, but the believer that looks to Jesus and His unadulterated Word alone cannot be kept from this lofty experience. Often it takes a lifetime to discover but what life is left is a lifetime in itself.

John the Beloved spoke of this satisfying place in our journey to Godliness. By the Holy Ghost he wrote, “Herein is our love made perfect, 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 casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (I John 4:17-18) The term “perfect love” has been misused and abused to such a degree that it is no longer a viable term for sermons. To speak of it is to conjure up the idea of sinless perfection or religious fanaticism. It is neither, but it is certainly a Biblical idea hated by “spiritual wickedness” and all “rulers of darkness.” Satan and his horde of spirits will relentlessly fight against your spiritual growth to the place of genuine spiritual victory.

James, the brother of our Lord, wrote of this wonderful victory prepared for every saint. He said by the Holy Ghost, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:3-4) Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21) Do not let any thought, discouragement, or enemy of truth, keep you from knowing that He wants to perfect you and make you a saint—a quiet, humble, but powerful saint, in the midst of our trouble world. This place of “perfect love” is yours for total surrender to Jesus Christ and “hungering and thirsting after Him” alone. (Matthew 5:6)

This marvelous place of “perfect love” is not a place of petrifaction. “Perfect love” can be a lifetime of discovery, but lost in a short time of prayerlessness and spiritual neglect. The trying of our faith, the dark attacks of friends and foes, the hiding place of His secret chambers of prayer, are all inseparable from experiencing “perfect love.” We must grow from newborn babies to spiritual adolescents, then to young budding adults, maturing saints, and right on to spiritual perfection. He will take us as He did Abraham to places of intense trial, and to the wilderness as He did His only begotten Son but He will bring us to glory as He did the three on the Mount of Transfiguration.

To the church at Ephesus, Apostle Paul wrote, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13) The church world is a joke to the devil and to the world because we have lost this hunger for “perfect love.” As Paul said in the very next verse, unless we go on to perfection, “the church will be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” The human heart is incapable of perfection except by His Son’s Blood, His mighty Holy Ghost, and His unfailing Word. His trinity of witness in this world is supernatural to perfection. What is impossible by the world’s standard is the joy of heaven. “Perfect love” is a life beyond description and the Bible says, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (I Thessalonians 5:24)