Fear, Insecurity, Rivalry and the Love of God

In the lifelong process of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, our way of seeing changes dramatically. Because we are born mortal, we are born afraid of death; and because we are afraid of death, we have a natural affinity with the world system that thrives on competition and rivalry. We believe that our survival depends on how well we can prove our value over and above the next guy.

This mindset, which is so deeply embedded in us that we can't see it unless God's Spirit helps us, causes us to see life through the eyes of insecurity. We must somehow put others down in order to feel good about ourselves and in order for us to be compared favorably over the competition. We're caught in a rivalrous system that reinforces our fallen predisposition towards fear. This system pits individuals against individuals, churches against churches, political parties against political parties, races against races, nations against nations.

But as the Spirit of God does His loving and ongoing work of driving out fear through love and therein making us increasingly like Jesus in the way we see others, we begin to be able to look beyond the outward obvious defects that are part of being human to see the hidden and unobtrusive good qualities that are also part of being human. Paul Billheimer says the following in his book Love Covers:

"We see the evil in our fellows much sooner than the good. On a very short acquaintance with persons, we discover their defects and the things in them which are disagreeable to us, and soon find the weak point in them...but their better nature is more slowly unfolding itself. The invisible character of goodness is not so obtrusive as defects, because there is an instinctive bashfulness in real goodness, even without a man's intending it. When we know people a long while, especially if we love them, there is apt to be the continual breaking forth of virtues in them we never dreamed they possessed; and oftentimes in little things, in the ordinary wear and tear of life, there will come forth in unostentatious ways traits of humility and self-depreciation, or a patience and sweetness and unselfishness beyond what we expect of them..."

In order for us to more readily see beyond the obvious flaws in others as Jesus does, we must be secure in God's love; we become more secure in His love by freely receiving His love. The apostle John sums it up by saying that we love because He loved us first (I John 4:19).