Fear God?

As is often the case with military veterans who have endured actual combat, conversations eventually circle around to war stories and then on to; “Were you scared?” Those who saw actual combat often reply, “Only the foolish are not afraid.”

Fear can be friend or foe! Fear is our warning system. It notifies us of possible danger. Yet fear can also cause paralysis. Some freeze up when they should be fighting or fleeing. Fear has two types of results; beneficial or harmful.

We often hear people try to explain away some of the fears of the Lord as merely superstitions or emotions. The Bible mentions fear, or derivatives like fearful, hundreds of times. So don't make the mistake of downplaying “The Fear of God.”

Luke 12:5 tells us; “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

This “Fear of God” is reinforced as we read Acts 7:32; “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.” So if even someone like Moses was fearful how can we be expected not to be?

Yet, why or why we should not be fearful becomes even more confusing when we read some verses like 1st John 4:18, which says that “perfect love expels all fear" and Jeremiah 31:3 “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” With love like that, what is left to fear but God's wrath to unrepentant sinners?

So how do we understand these two conflicting thoughts about fears? Why should we fear God while he expels all fears and offers everlasting kindness? In contrast, we know there were five cities in Jordan, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela where God destroyed four of them but temporarily spared the city of the Amorites because their corruption had not reached its evil fullness (Genesis 15:16). Not only did God himself destroy these cities, but the Israelites also captured cities and sometimes killed every man, woman, and child within. They proudly attested; “We left no survivors!”

There is one kind of fear God wants us to have. In Deuteronomy 5:29 the Lord exclaims: “O that their hearts would be inclined to fear Me and keep all my commandments.” Or more simply said; Do what God says to do and don't do what he told us not to do.

In any case, we can readily understand the fear of God can be totally misunderstood by believers or nonbelievers alike. Before his conversion, the Monk Martin Luther was so petrified by God, he nearly grew to hate Him. Martin Luther's early Catholic understanding of God was distorted. He could only envision God as the wrathful Judge. Only through serious study of the New Testament, did Luther come to understand God as the loving, merciful Father.

So to fear God or not is as simple as holding a few coins in the palm of your hand. Sometimes heads are up, sometimes tails, occasionally both heads and tails can be seen. In some ways, we should fear God and in other ways, we know He not only loves us but has good things in store for us.

Scripture is full of examples of how fearing God is either a positive or negative thing for our eternal souls. For example in Genesis 42:18, Joseph wins his brothers' trust when he declares he is a God-fearing man.

It was because the midwives feared God that they obeyed him instead of the authorities by sparing the Hebrew babies (Exodus 1:17). The “Pharaoh brought disaster on his nation because he did not fear God.” (Exodus 9:29-31).

Moses chose leaders to help him on the basis that they feared God and wouldn't take bribes (Exodus 18:21) and told the Hebrews that God met with them in a terrifying display of his power so that they wouldn't sin (Exodus 20:20).

Don't think these are only Old Testament ideas. Jesus states this stronger than anyone when he said, “Don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

The Law of Moses, called Mosaic Law, cites the fear of God as a reason to treat the deaf, disabled, or elderly well (Leviticus 19:14-32). (Matthew 10:28). And Paul says to work toward complete holiness because we fear God (2nd Corinthians 7:1). When Christians fear and love God, we believe they are more likely to keep their word and treat everyone with honesty and kindness.

These passages clearly show fearing God is good because it saves us from caving into our own sinful natures. Moreover, Romans Chapter 3, a classic chapter on sin, says that our chief sin is that we “have no fear of God at all” (Romans 3:18). Hearing someone is God-fearing actually makes us trust that person more.