We are living in fearful times. Terrorists are tormenting and tearing people apart, the economies of the world are on tilt, and the love of many is growing cold. There is enough media to feed fear twenty four hours a day and we can be tempted to eat it all up. Fear is a powerful force. It has many forms, there is a demonic spirit of fear that people carry to control others, there is a natural fear of danger and is connected to survival part of our soul, there is a fear of man that enables people to become lovers of man than God, there is a fear perpetuated by evil men that strike terror into people's hearts, and there is even a healthy fear of God and the Laws of the Land.
Fear permeates every part of society. The difficulty for us as disciples of Christ, is to recognize what are healthy and rational fears from God, what fears are from the enemy, and what fears are man created and at times completely irrational. We shall start with perhaps the most famous Bible verse on fear, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline b (old and more accurate word, Sound Mind)." (2 Timothy 1:7). This verse is found in a letter from Paul to Timothy, who was struggling with a spirit of fear. The version I have shared includes timidity, which is important, because the kind of fear Timothy was battling made him timid and afraid of man. There is another verse in one of the letters to Timothy where Paul says, "Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." (1 Timothy 4:12). Timothy was a young man, probably in his early twenties and the culture he lived in honored the sages, elders and old men. In addition, Timothy was born of Jewish mother and Gentile father, making him a half breed and despised by the Jews as Goyim or unclean. It I clear that fear of man is part of Timothy's problem, and Paul says the weapons against this fear are "love" which "perfect love castes out all fear," (1 John 4:18), "Power," which I believe Paul means is prayer, "For prayer is power," (St. Anthony the Great, Desert Father), and finally a "Sound mind," which is found in our Savior Jesus Christ. Fear unsettles the mind and the irrationalities that come from fear of man can make you slow to love, for you are too full of anxiety, slow to prayer (power) because you are distracted and your mind is unsound, because it is being feed by a spirit of fear.
The polar opposite to the fear of man, is the fear of God. The Psalmist David said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.; all those who practice it have understanding." (Psalm 111:10). What does it mean to fear the Lord? Are we to walking trembling before our God like he is ready to raise a lightning bolt at us? No, the Psalmist is invoking another kind of fear called "reverence" which means to respect and awfully fear someone. It is not terror that God will strike you down, it is respect, a knowledge that the Lord God is in control of your life, your breath, and do not pretend you are god and disrespect Him. The Apostle Paul echoes David when He says, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12). What does this mean? The Apostle Paul is known for saying, "By grace you are saved, not of yourself or by works, lest any man should boast," (Ephesians 2:8-9) and yet here Paul is saying "work out your salvation with fear trembling,"? What is the apostle saying? Again, Paul is saying to reverence the Lord God, and tremble in that you must not displace Him with your desire to be a god or "cheap grace" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship) where you abuse God's grace through Christ Jesus's forgiving blood through willful sin. The Psalmist clearly said, "fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom," people today do not fear (respect) God and so behave and do actions that bring shame to the Savior's name and bear the penalty in their bodies (Romans 1:25-27). Fear of God has been lost since The Reformation and many churches today pretend that our Lord and Savior will never call us to account for anything we've done because He died for us; but our salvation and redemption is not license to sin! (Romans 6:1-15). On the contrary Christ says to some, "Many will say, we did miracles in your name and caste demons out in your name, and I will say 'I never knew you, away with you works of iniquity!" (Matthew 7:23) and "If I find you abusing your brothers and drinking with the drunkards, I shall caste you into the place of hypocrites, the outer darkness where there is gnashing of teeth (hell, Matthew 13:42)." (Matthew 24:49, 51). It says that there will be people who upon seeing Jesus Christ return in the clouds will ask the mountains to fall on them because they fear God, because they were against Him and hate him: "They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!" (Revelation 6:16). This last verse shows another fear of the Lord, one where people are caught not waiting and watching for His return (see Matthew 24:49) and those who did not love Him at all.
The great weapon against fear of man and a spirit of fear is love. Let us revisit a verse in its entirety this time: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love castes out fear. For fear has to do with punishment , and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." (1 John 4:18). This particular verse against is powerful to fight a religious spirit that tries to make people fear God will strike them down, when they are earnestly trying to serve the Lord. If you love Jesus Christ and know He loves you, then there is no fear, no timidity, no terror, and no fear of punishment. The proper fear of God as aforementioned is reverence or honor, not being stuck with fear that God will judge you. The difficult pendulum is to not fear God will punish you, but to fear Him and honor him by works of righteousness, not deeds of evil. We need to focus on loving God, which means to honor him. A man or woman who loves their spouse deeply, would never cheat on them, and in same way if you love God you don't cheat on Him (idolatry). Likewise, if you love someone you do not do the thinks that hurt them and separate you from them, God asks the same, He wants you to walk uprightly and stop sinning which hurts yourself, and does not bring honor to your relationship with God. Yes Jesus will forgive your sin, "If we are faithfully to repent (confess) our sins, He is just and faithful to forgive you and restore you to all righteousness." (1 John 1:9). But this should not be our aim, we should not say, "Well then I will willfully sin and go to confession on Sunday or repent later," because Paul said, "If Grace abounds should we sin all the more? God forbid! We who have died to sin, shall we live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2). Its a relationship and if you love God, you will make conscious effort to stop willful sin. He will forgive you when you stumble, but stumbling and justifying sin are different. Stumbling is, "Lord I am sorry, I did it again. I hate this, I want to stop and here I chose to sin again. Please forgive me and help me come out of this mire and pit once and for all." Justification of sin says, "God, you died for my sins, so I have no need to get over this problem, so I am not worried." Now a justifying Christian may enter heaven (big maybe) but they will have a very shallow relationship with the Bridegroom and be "But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames." (1 Corinthians 3:15, NLT). I think fearing God should have more to do with fear of hurting Him, "And do not grieve (bring sorrow to) the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4:30). Too often we approach God and our relationship with Him in a court manner, The Father is the Judge and we are the Defendant and Jesus who is God and His Son is are defender. But really, it is a marriage and relationship, where your sins and bad behavior are effecting Him and His reputation before people. Perhaps if we stopped seeing God as distant and as some mean father we are trying to appease, and instead saw the real face of His Love, we would be moved by love and stop fearing God and lightning bolts of judgment, and start living righteous lives not out of fear, but out of love, because He first loved us.
Connected to fear of man is terror. When we think of the fear of man we tend to think, "I am afraid they won't accept me, that my boss won't like my work, that my teacher will give me a low grade, and that they won't approve of my choice of clothing." But the other side of the fear of man is "I fear a suicide bomber will kill me in a mall, that men with weapons will kill me in the street, that a bomb may be in the concert hall, and that someone may knife me." This is the fear of man too, but its a little different in nature. The former has you fearing being accepted, approved of, and receiving the amore (love) of men at all costs (idolatry), while this latter more terrorizing fear of man has you wanting to avoid, anticipate, and arm yourself against men. This fear of man is what creates wars and other more inhumane treatment of people. It has no love in it as St. John said, because you are in self-protection gear and completely dominated by a spirit of fear. C.S. Lewis once said, "the most powerful demons are self-protection, self-promotion, and self-determination." Well terrorists make the first demon accessible to everyone; unless in love people learn to "love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44). I am not saying that defending citizens and innocent people is wrong or that all wars are wrong, but rather I am saying we should have "love for our enemy" and pray for their salvation while we take measures to safeguard people from danger.
Finally, there is the rational fear of danger. God when he created man placed an instinct to stay alive. We fear a lion in the wild, we fear heights, we fear being buried alive, we fear drowning, and we fear many other dangers. Some say this is the fear of death. But as Christians we do not fear death, for Jesus said "Lazarus is asleep, I go to wake Him," and "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die." (John 11:25-26). The Apostle Paul said, "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51). The fear of death is irrational for us Christians, because to "to live is Christ, and to die is gain," (Philippians 1:21) and "I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body." (Philippians 1:23-24). The fear of death known as nihilism or love of this life to point of fearing death is wrong. But the instinct, the innate desire to stay alive as long as you can is from God. If the Lord wanted you to go home right now, He would take you, for Jesus "holds the keys to hades and death." (Revelation 1:18). Even through we are promised eternal life (John 3:16) and "where I Go, there you shall also be..," (John 14:3) we are not to just give up and die. We live on tight rope of not loving this world and being ready at all times to "sleep" and be with our Savior in the next life, but at same time to fight and do everything in our power to survive. Its a balance, because if at the end of our striving to stay alive we find ourselves unable, we can say "Lord I have tried, now you are either going to let me live or come home." As Christians our mandate is to stay alive as long as possible, and not for ourselves. We stay alive to "safeguard the deposit." (2 Timothy 1:14). We are to live so that others many know "The Way, the Truth, and the Life." (John 14:6). We are God's "ambassadors of Christ," (2 Corinthians 5:20) and "ministers of Reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18). We are tasked with sharing the gospel as long as we live, and to stay alive for the purpose that others may know God and His love.
Fear like the word love is inadequate in the English language. We have one word fear for so many kinds of fear, some of which totally contradict and have nothing to do with each other: Fear God or Fear Man. It is important to use discernment and deep study to determine what fears in the Bible are being addressed. The New Testament was written in Greek, the most perfect language becase of its attention to detail, love for example has five words in Greek, some of which are Agape (brother love, deep soul love for God and people), Eros (Sexual Love), Philia (friendship, affectionate regard) and more. Jesus Christ came at the perfect time in history because there was language that could express the gospel and the words of God in a language that is second in detail and clarity only to mental-telepathy. We need to understand that in Scripture not every time fear is mentioned, is it the same fear or kind of fear. So master your Bible through study and use the tools we have today to look at the Greek and discover more of what God is saying.
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