No Fear in Love: A Study of 1 John
A 2026 series tracing 1 John’s movement from fear into love, naming the ego patterns that keep people stuck and calling the church toward healing, compassion, and transformation.
Subscribe
Messages in this series
-
Feb 17, 2026
The Journey
Brett Tilford
Brett maps the Christian life as a journey from fear into love, arguing that spiritual maturity means recognizing where fear still runs your life rather than striving to become more loving. He traces how fear—greed, control, arrogance, anger—operates across markets, sports, politics, relationships, and especially religion, then holds up John's claim that perfect love drives out fear as the hard truth the church has barely begun to live.
-
Feb 10, 2026
Healing Within, Healing the World
Brett Tilford
Brett traces how ego—the world's insecurity manifesting as self-aggrandizement or self-diminishment—opposes Christ's non-egoic surrender to God's will. For those of us fighting worldly injustice, he argues inner healing must come first: we infect others with our own unhealed rage, so we must root ourselves in belovedness before we can speak or act from wholeness.
-
Feb 3, 2026
Three Expressions of the Ego
Brett Tilford
John names three ego expressions that block love for God: wanting your own way (control and certainty), wanting everything for yourself (acquisition and consumption), and wanting to appear important (image management). He argues these aren't character flaws to fight but patterns to notice and gently release to God.
-
Jan 20, 2026
Where's the Fire?
Brett Tilford
The speaker argues that Christian practice—worship, study, ritual—misses its point if it doesn't produce actual love and compassion; citing a story where priests preserved fire-making tools through liturgy while the people forgot how to make fire, he asks: if your religion isn't making you more patient, forgiving, and open-hearted, where's the actual transformation?
-
Jan 13, 2026
No Fear in Love: A Study of 1 John
Brett Tilford
Brett argues that God's character—love, light, justice—is knowable through Jesus Christ in the Gospels, not through abstract appeals to divine authority; he rejects theological frameworks where God could command genocide and call it good.