The Bible does not look at things in the same way we do. For example, in the Bible the opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Faith and doubt are two sides of the same coin but certainty is something altogether different. In the first epistle of St. John we are given another set of opposites: love and fear. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” We ordinarily think of hate as the opposite of love but that is not the Biblical image. When I think of my fears — fear of getting sick, fear of dying — I see that once I truly know how much God loves me that no matter what happens I will be held in love.
