Perfect Love

"St. John, in one of his epistles, says, 'Perfect love drives out fear.' What does the holy man signify to us by this? What sort of love and what sort of fear is he talking about?

The psalmist says, 'Fear the Lord all you who love him,' and we find thousands of similar sayings in Holy Scripture. If, therefore, the saints who so loved Him feared Him, how can he say, 'Love casteth out fear'?

St. John wishes to show us that there are two kinds of fear: one preliminary, the other perfect; the one found in beginners - as someone called it 'of the devout'; the other in those perfected in holiness, of those having arrived at true love."

St. Dorotheos of Gaza.

"My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:18