God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.REFLECTIONSWritten by Sarah ArmstrongIn this world - we are to be like Jesus (v17). We are children of God, and Jesus is our example. That is a challenge! It is such a relief that he wrote this in the same breath as saying “whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them” (v16). We do not have to do it on our own. In fact, we can not do it on our own. God works through us to show love to others. If Jesus is our example, we need to remember Jesus didn’t only love those it was easy to love - in fact he went out of his way to love those who were unlovely. Who was the last outsider you showed love to?If you are like me - I find this a huge challenge. It would be so easy to stick with those it is easy to love. In fact it is scary to show love to those who are unlovely. But Jesus is also our reason for doing so. We are reminded we don’t need to be fearful or uncertain of our faith or of our death (v17) - as he has given us this confidence - through the perfect love of Jesus. It was not our work that has given us this confidence. It was Jesus, who laid down his life for us and it is all we need - he has taken our punishment on himself. As we no longer need to fear punishment - so we should not fear death (v18). He has justified us - made it “just as if I haven’t sinned”. This should bring us to our knees praising and thanking God for the perfect love of Jesus that drives out fear (v18). We need to keep reminding each other of this fact. Question: What is one thing you can do differently today to be more “like Jesus” in this world?ABOUT THE AUTHORSarah is the parish administrator for us and a member of St Paul’s Anglican Carlingford church.