The First Letter of John (4:18) says:
God is love. He who dwells in love is dwelling in God and God in him. This is for us the perfection of love, to have confidence on the day of judgment. And this we can have, because even in this world we are as he is. There is no room for fear in love. Perfect love banishes fear. Fear brings with it the pains of judgment. And anyone who is afraid, has not attained to love in its perfection. (1 Jn 4:18)
Here he is giving us this insight that fear is always related to the sense of being judged, judged and condemned, negatively judged by God because we are sinners, by other people because we’re failures or because we haven’t met with their approval. So fear is always related to judgment to comparison to the fear of a superior force that is oppressing us. It’s all a manifestation of the ego because, even in this world, we are as he is, free from this fear of judgment. Why? Because we have access to the reality of love, which banishes fear. St John here is giving us the insight that fear is always related to judgment, to the sense that we are being judged negatively and condemned by a superior being or force, by God or by our family members or by our boss or by the police or by somebody.
( The Brick Wall of the Ego 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
