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Believers are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt. 22:37). Every Christian knows this, and no small part of effective discipleship involves the cultivation of that frame of mind and disposition of heart that leads to loving obedience to God through Jesus Christ. But the same God Who commands our love also commands us to fear Him: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” (Deut. 10:12). The Lord Jesus echoed this command in Matthew 10:28: “‘And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’”
Now we don’t hear much about fearing the Lord these days. In fact, about the last thing many pastors seem to want to tell their people is that they should in any way relate to God on the basis of fear. God is our Father, Jesus is our Friend and Brother, and the Holy Spirit is our Comforter. What’s to fear there? In the Church today we have concluded that fear is not a proper affection for conducting a relationship with God. As a result, most believers do not fear the Lord, and, frankly, their lifestyles demonstrate as much. If we feared the Lord we would be mindful of offending or disappointing Him, or in any way provoking Him to exercise discipline against us. When the only affection we nurture toward God is love, we aren’t likely to obey Him as we should. And when we fail in obeying God, we miss out on the full and abundant life He wants us to enjoy.
But why should believers fear God? Apart from the fact, as we have seen, that we are commanded to fear God, we should consider the very nature of the Deity. As Asaph points out in Psalm 76, God is powerful to overcome all our adversaries (v. 3); majestic beyond all description (v. 4); wrathful toward those who oppose Him (vv. 5, 6; cf. Rom. 1:18-20); and able to subdue and punish those who arouse His anger (vv. 7-9). As our loving heavenly Father, it pleases God to discipline His children from time to time, and, since no discipline is ever pleasant, we should regard the very prospect of discipline with a certain amount of fear (Heb. 12:7-11). If we do not fear the discipline of the Lord, then we will be more inclined to indulge those behaviors that provoke God’s discipline against us.
This fear is more than simple awe, although it includes it; it is a healthy dread of what so powerful, majestic, and holy a God might do to discipline recalcitrant sinners such as we. But besides the fact of God’s commandment to fear Him, as well as His worthiness to be feared, there are the many benefits that accrue to those who actually do nurture and sustain a healthy fear of God. Nurturing the fear of the Lord opens wide doors of opportunity to enjoy full and abundant life in ways that, apart from the fear of the Lord, we can never fully know.
To be sure, in fearing God we do not leave off loving Him. In fact, our love for God can only grow as we nurture fear of Him, because the enormity of His everyday grace becomes even more starkly evident against the backdrop of our own unworthiness, and of what we actually do deserve at the hands of our holy and just God. If you love God, truly love Him, you will want to fear Him as well; for as we shall see, these two seemingly opposite affections actually create a healthy tension in our souls where righteousness and abundant life can flourish.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Fear of God
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