Day 202 – What To Fear

What To Fear

I have preached and written much about what not to fear, in fact, the phrase, “fear not”, is found 365 times in the Scriptures. Fear is a negative emotion and can paralyze even the mightiest among us. Fear can be a weapon used by the enemy to steal our faith and joy. It can cause us to deny the Lord and give in to temptation. Surely there is much that we should “fear not”. But, on the other hand, I have found in the Bible, things that we should fear; the most notable being to fear the Lord.

Many theologians have defined the fear of the Lord as reverence and respect, but the word used in the Bible is fear and occurs over 300 times in reference to God. God is scarier than even the devil. The devil and man can destroy the body, but God can cast us into hell. The children of Israel learned to fear the Lord through seeing what God did to the Egyptians and to those who rebelled against Him. Fearing God is to keep us from satisfying our carnal nature. We give the world, the flesh and the devil unwarranted power when we fear them more than God. Sure, they are our enemies, but they are not to be feared. Whom we fear has power over us.

God represents a great threat to our ego, but not to us. He casts down our pride, only to lift us up again. He judges our sin, yet forgives us just the same. He destroys our delusions, then sets us free with His truth. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the love of God is its completion. Fearing God is good, because it saves us from ourselves. Without the fear of God, we would all do what is right in our own eyes. We would seek to satisfy self at every turn. We would sin relentlessly, with no thought of eternal consequences. Fear is based on eminent recompense and eternal judgement. The Bible says: “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10.30-31)

Those who fear God, obey Him. When Joseph told his brothers that he was a God-fearing man, then they trusted him. (Gen. 42.18) The Hebrew midwives feared God more than the Pharaoh and allowed the babies to live. (Ex. 1.17) The fear of man brings a snare and contaminates our obedience. It places us under the control and manipulation of people’s desires and opinions. Maybe we need to fear when all people speak well of us; when they flatter us with their praise. Maybe we need to rather fear what God would say about us. After all our service and ministry, will God say, “I never knew you, depart from Me you wicked servant.” Fear that! We should fear when God’s house is left in shambles and ours are decorated with the finest of things. We should fear when we have money enough for ourselves, but not for the needs of others. We should fear when we have time for friends and family, but not for God. Fearing the right things brings us into holiness, apart from which no one will see God.

The fear of God and the love of God are not contradictions, but rather complement each other. Jesus is a good example of this. He was not afraid to confront sin and call people to repentance, yet lovingly embraced the sinner and forgave and restored each one that came to Him. His love casts out the tormenting fear of man and nurtures the fear of God. His love breaks the chain of the fear of death and gives to us eternal life. Because of love, Jesus embraced the cross. He laid His life down to set us free. With love like that, what else is there to fear, but God.

Scriptures to meditate on:

Prov. 1.7; 9.10; 29.25; Ps. 111.10; Mat. 10.28; II Cor. 7.1; I John 4.18