Perfect Love and Fear

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love. (1 John 4:18 NET)

This verse is often quoted to refute the need of the fear of God. It is asserted that since perfect love drives out fear, we need to get rid of the fear of God so that we can have perfect love. But this is completely misunderstanding the point of this passage and reverses the order of what is actually happening. We are told that we do not need to fear God because our love has been perfected, but our love can only be perfected by a fear of God. This is a process, and the perfecting of our love must come first before we can have complete confidence before God.