The Fear of God
Introduction
Parenting can be frustrating for all of us. Of course, some parents have terrible trouble trying to control their children, while some seem to have their children reasonably well in hand. The very same problem exists in God’s church. There are some Christians who obey the Lord much more faithfully than others. Likewise, in our evangelism, we find that some will respond quickly, while others hover on the edge, still wanting to hold on to their independent, selfish and sinful lifestyles. Why is this, and why do we get frustrated with sharing our knowledge of a better way? We plead with them, and pray they will accept God’s loving plan for their lives. But, they ignore it.
When our children will not obey us, because of our love for them, or their love for us, they can find motivation from another source. They will obey out of fear. That is what discipline is all about. Of course, we are not talking about fear of abuse, or inappropriate and unjust punishment. Most people from well-disciplined homes will say that they loved their father, but they also had a healthy respect for the discipline that he would bring to bear if they stepped too far out of line. It is the same way with God. We need to have a healthy fear of God. We are instructed in His word to fear Him. Let’s find out what God says about this neglected truth in the church today.
I. The Fear of God is More than Reverence
There are many well-meaning people who want to say that we should not be afraid of God. One scripture that teaches this point in 1 John 4:18, which says “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” God is not some capricious, unjust god. We should not flinch at the touch of His hand. He is a good, kind and forgiving Father, and our trust and love for Him should drive out any worry that He is not working for our greatest blessing.
But, if that is the case, the why did God use the word “fear”? He could have used the word “respect” if He wanted to, or even “reverence”. Both of those words are in the New Testament. God used the word “phobia”, as in “fear”. It is more than reverence .
Reconciling Two Opposing Truths
In this scripture, we find the two opposing truths. Jesus said in Luke 12:4-7, “And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of you head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
At the end of the passage, Jesus says that God watches over us, and we ought not to be afraid because we are important to Him. However, in the beginning of the passage, Jesus cautions us to fear God who can not only kill the body, but resurrect it, join it again with the soul and spirit, and then cast the whole person into hellfire. So which is it? Are we to fear God or not?
The answer is “both”. We need have no fear of God’s care for us. He is motivated by love for us. Christians know that eternal redemption is sure, and that His eternal wrath at sin has passed over us because of the atoning blood of Christ. But the fact of the matter is that, even though He is our Father, having birthed us by the Holy Spirit, we are expected to learn to live in agreement with His household rules. Is it not what we tell our own children? If you live in my house you will obey my rules?
Every form of discipline hurts in some way. It is meant to hurt. This is what brings about a change of behavior. Understand, the fear of God is more than reverence. It is a carefulness born out of the understanding that God is not to be trifled with. The fear of the Lord goes beyond reverence and thinks about the mighty, sovereign God with whom we are dealing. We begin to think of what our Father will do to us if we make Him angry. We become afraid of the unpleasant discipline He may bring to bear in His love for us. We find that His hand can be gentle and full of compassion, or hard and full of discipline. If we can fear His disciplining had, then we have found our fear of God.
II. The Fear of God is Based on Deterrent
A. God Can Kill a Person
See Acts 5:7-11 Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of land and lied about the profit when they gave it to the church. In doing this, they lied to God’s Spirit, so God struck them dead. Then it says, in the last verse, that a “great fear” came on all the church. Now that is a deterrent, and understandably so! God meant to make a big impression on this New Testament He was forming, and it worked. God was not being evil, He was being just. Sometimes His chastisements see harsh, but remember, often He is working on a large scale with multitudes or nations, and big actions are needed.
B. God Can Remove us From His Work in This World
In Romans 11, we read how God has pruned Israel out of the olive tree of His kingdom workings in this world because of their unbelief in Jesus Christ. For the last two thousand years, they have been largely bypassed. But, if the Gentile nations become unbelieving or self-satisfied like Israel was, can not the Gentiles also be pruned out and Israel be grafted back in again? That is why it says in verses 20-21, “Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.”
C. The Father Judges His Children
Many Christians today tend to think of God as a lenient father who loves us so much that He overlooks our sin. But if He is our father, will He not bring chastisement on us because of an unrepentant, sinful lifestyle? “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.”
1 Peter 1:17
D. There is no Fear Without a Deterrent
Some parents won’t back up their authority with action. This is why children run wild over their parents who have no control over them. Why should the children obey? Why should they stop their tantrums, or clean their rooms or sit quietly in church? Their parents aren’t going to do anything about it but say “No, no!” Isn’t it both funny and saddening to see parents whining at their children, trying to get them to behave? The children ignore their parents, or even worse, they have contempt for their parents, who have no conviction, no strength and no authority.
Do not, however, make the grave mistake assuming that our Heavenly Father is like the impotent parents of today. God wants His children and the
world in general to behave, and Hs is willing to chastise a Christian or a whole nation to get it. He is not weak in conviction, nor in strength. His arm is long, His power is overwhelming, and His deeds are irresistible.
III. The Fear of God is a Learned Behavior
Perhaps we should expect fear to be an intrinsic, basic trait that no one should have to be taught. But that is not always the case. Do we not have to teach our children to have a proper fear of fire? In spite of that, they often touch the fire anyway, and the burned hand teaches the lesson even better than our words. It is not wrong to fear fire. This does not mean a crippling, irrational fear that keeps us from using this tool; but, instead, a wise, understanding fear of its dangerous properties. So it is with God. We need to be taught to have a righteous of our Creator. See Psalm 34:8-14.
Proverbs 23:17 says we should “be zealous” for the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:29 cautions us about those who do not “choose” to fear God. It is something we must work at cultivating in our lives and the lives of others around us. In Deuteronomy 17:18-20, God tells the Israelites that when they entered the Promised Land and put a king over themselves (and they did) that he was to write out a copy of the law of God for his own personal use. This was so that in reading it, he would learn to fear the Lord, and that his reign would be prolonged. Just as in our opening passage, when Jesus said He would “show” the disciples whom they should fear, we also must teach and train God’s people about the reverential, and respectful fear of our God.
A Godly Fear is a Good Thing
Do we not teach our children the consequences of failing in school, or the danger in crossing busy streets filled with cars? Our children gave to learn to fear things all the time, not the least of which is the pain of personal injury to their bodies. After being a little too reckless, their cuts and bruises train them to care for their personal well being. That fear is not a bad thing. The ability to perceive pain in our bodies is a gift from God to teach us to be careful with these frail mortal bodies. If we learn that fear, then we take care of our flesh and live in safety and comfort through our days. Likewise, God uses chastisement to motivate us to take care with our spiritual walk. This is the right thing to do and it is good for us.
IV. The Fear of God Encourages Righteousness
A. The Church in America Today has Lost its Fear of God
This is why most churches have a large inactive membership roll. I would say that between half and two thirds of a church’s membership lives out in the world with no connection to God’s kingdom work with His people. A pastor can work in a church for three years, then get introduced to a person who says they are a member, yet he has never met them before. Why do church members drop out of church life? Are these wayward members really Christians, or was their profession of faith a false one? How can you tell the difference between a sheep that is living like a got, and a goat that is pretending to be a sheep? The carnal Christian looks like the pretend Christian. See 2 Cor. 6:15-7:1
B. The Goal of Fear
The goal of the fear of God is to align behavior with the laws of the Lord. God knows that our righteous walk with Him in this world is perfected by a good understanding of His righteous anger. Our belief that He will indeed chastise us helps to motivate our behavior. See Hebrews 12:5-6.
C. Love Versus Holiness
Part of the reason that the church has lost its fear of God is that we only teach our churches about the forgiveness of God. There is no teaching on the repercussions of our sinful choices. It is true that God is love, as it says in 1 John 4:8. But we also need to read 1 Peter 1:15-16, which ways , “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy for I am holy.”
Both love and holiness are part of God’s great character. Through His love comes His mercy, grace and forgiveness, which we mistakenly think only describes the way He acts in these New Testament times. From his holiness comes His righteous law, anger and judgment which we relegate to Old Testament times. It’s as if we think that God acted harshly and unjust back then, but now is kind and forgiving. We have this idea that He was a different God back then.
God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His character has always been the same. He was loving and forgiving to the Old Testament saints, and He is the same toward us. He was holy and fearful then, and He is holy and fearful today.
D. Fear is a Great Motivator
Did not the fear of being punished by our earthly fathers keep us from getting into trouble more than we would have otherwise? It is the same for God’s children. Read what He had the Apostle Paul write in Philippians 2:12.
Likewise, He encourages rebuking in public under some circumstances that all may learn the lesson. Can you imaging the trouble that would arise if that were to happen in your church? It is to our shame that we have to ask the question, “Why?” Why should it cause conflict? Doesn’t God’s Word say to do this? Are we a people of the Bible or not?
E. Church Discipline
When is the last time that you saw church discipline? Not disciplining the little offenses that we do to one another, but the unrepentant, sinful lifestyles that some of our members are caught up in. When is the last time we followed 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 and disbarred someone from the church membership in order to motivate them to repent? Some will say that that is being judgmental and unforgiving. They believe that it is contrary to love. If we say that, then are we saying that God was wrong when He commanded us to do just that? Church discipline is not contrary to our love for the member, but because of our love for them. Just like God’s chastisement of His children is motivated by His love for us, the goal is repentance and fellowship, not punishment. It is a deterrent so that all the church will understand that God will not tolerate certain behavior.
V. The Fear of God Strengthens Evangelism
We may think that the fear of God is for mature Christians to study and think about. We may believe that it is only an issue for preachers and seminary professors to discuss. However, it is an important part of the good news message of salvation that brings every new Christian into the fold of God.
A. Motivating Repentance through Christ
Consider what Jude wrote in Jude 1:22-23. Some people will turn to the Lord, convicted by the love of God and His gracious offer to receive us to Himself.
But, there are others who are caught in sin, riding the proverbial fence between surrendering to God and the temptation of the lust of the flesh. For them, there is salvation by fear. We can find this truth in the first words that Jesus came teaching. Was it that God loves? No. The first words of Jesus were the same words that John the Baptist came preaching. See Mark 1:14-
15. On one hand, this is good news and full of the love and compassion of God, who is graciously giving us the opportunity to turn and come to Him. He is inviting us to be a part of His kingdom. On the other hand, it is full of the fear of God. “Repent’ he says. Or what? What will happen if we do not repent and change in following and obeying God? What will He do? Well, we should understand that if we do not repent, then the kingdom of God is still coming, and we will face the judgment of that king. That is a deterrent. As sobering as that evangelistic thought is, here is one even more so.
B. Judgment and Evangelism
Jesus sent out the twelve, and then later the seventy, with the gospel message. Look at what He said in Luke 10:10-12. When is the last time you heard of that style of evangelism? Have you ever read it in an evangelism tract? Have you ever been encouraged to say that by your Sunday School curriculum? Have you ever heard it at a witnessing training even? Why not? How is it that we only share the love of God and rob the people of hearing of the fear of God in our witnessing? A person might say that it will drive another away from choosing God. Then why did Jesus train His witnessing team to say it? Did Jesus no know that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? Or, maybe Jesus wasn’t out to catchflies, but rather men. He knew the heart of man, and the selfish sinfulness therein. It was Jesus who said to the woman caught in adultery “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more”. John 8:11. Again, we ask, “Or what”? The answer lies in what He said to a paralytic man that He healed. He said to him “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” John 5:14. It’s not that God is always looking to bash the sinner on the head, or afflict him with sickness. However, sometimes, He does. How can a person repent unless there is first a conviction of sin? With the knowledge of sin comes the fear of God.
C. Weakening the Image of God in the World’s Sight
We want to be non-confrontational and encouraging in our witnessing! We want to be happy and upbeat, and so we should! But let us not rob the lost man of the whole world of God. Yes. God so loved the world, but we must also understand that those who reject the gospel are rejecting Christ to their own peril. They are purposely turning away from the One who created them and upon whose power rests their very existence. Jesus taught His disciples to rebuke them. Instead, we will endlessly return to them and let them wipe their feet upon the gospel with their rejection, dismissal and scorn. See Matthew 7:6. We will plead with people to not turn away from God, and tell them that He loves them. We’ll tell them that He just wants them to be happy in this world and safe in heaven. This makes it sound as if God is weak and dependent on choosing them, or in some way He needs people to validate His godhood.
Not so! The Lord God, the maker of the heavens and the earth doesn’t need man. He rid the world of mankind once in the days of Noah, and came close to destroying the children of Abraham and starting over with Moses. He is not a God with whom to trifle, and has made and eternal lake of fire for a reason.
Conclusion
Understand that good and proper teaching on the fear of God is not meant to dishearten the Church. It will not harm the church, but strengthen her. Preaching on God’s fear will bring balance back into our ministries and evangelism. It is true that if we only teach about the fear of God, it will produce discouragement, condemnation, and hopelessness. But teaching only about the love of God has already created damage in the other direction. It has produced a nonjudgmental, sin excusing, apathetic and spiritually weak church. It is time to right that wrong. It is time to bring the whole world of God, and teach His whole character. It is time to teach the church about the Fear of God. “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether”. Psalm 19:9