What Does It Mean to "Fear God"?
Throughout the Bible we are told to fear God. What does that mean? Can you give an example?
We need to make some important distinctions about the biblical
meaning of "fearing" God. These distinctions can be helpful, but they
can also be a little dangerous.
When Luther struggled with that,
he made this distinction, which has since become somewhat famous: He
distinguished between what he called a servile fear and a filial fear.
The servile fear is a kind of fear that a prisoner in a torture chamber
has for his tormentor, the jailer, or the executioner.
It's that kind of
dreadful anxiety in which someone is frightened by the clear and
present danger that is represented by another person. Or it's the kind
of fear that a slave would have at the hands of a malicious master who
would come with the whip and torment the slave. Servile refers to a
posture of servitude toward a malevolent owner.
Luther
distinguished between that and what he called filial fear, drawing from
the Latin concept from which we get the idea of family. It refers to the
fear that a child has for his father. In this regard, Luther is
thinking of a child who has tremendous respect and love for his father
or mother and who dearly wants to please them. He has a fear or an
anxiety of offending the one he loves, not because he's afraid of
torture or even of punishment, but rather because he's afraid of
displeasing the one who is, in that child's world, the source of
security and love.
I think this distinction is helpful because the
basic meaning of fearing the Lord that we read about in Deuteronomy is
also in the Wisdom Literature, where we're told that "the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The focus here is on a sense of awe
and respect for the majesty of God. That's often lacking in contemporary
evangelical Christianity. We get very flippant and cavalier with God,
as if we had a casual relationship with the Father. We are invited to
call him Abba, Father, and to have the personal intimacy promised to us,
but still we're not to be flippant with God. We're always to maintain a
healthy respect and adoration for him.
One last point: If we
really have a healthy adoration for God, we still should have an element
of the knowledge that God can be frightening. "It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31). As sinful people, we have every reason to fear God's judgment; it is part of our motivation to be reconciled with God.
~ RC Sproul, Now - That's a Good Question!
4 comments:
I find the lack of fear of (or even the belief in) God in this country a very scary thing. This country is ripe for a good smackdown.
I agree, Matt. These are scary times - or would be if we didn't know Who wins.
In my opinion things in the US are hundreds maybe thousands of times worse than things I read in the bible. Killing of innocents (abortions) homosexuality, gay marriage and removing His name from as many things as possible to name a few. I don't know how long God's mercy on us is going to last before he shows His displeasure.
Again, I must agree.
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