Prov 1: 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Many Christians struggle with reconciling the fact that we are commanded to “love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might” (Deut 6:5) while at the same time being told to fear Him. Why would we fear someone we love?
To soften it a little bit, the word yirἁh in the OT also means to be in awe, to reverence and respect. But being ordered to love, fear and respect a person seems cold, sterile, and narcissistic. And if it is something that has to be dredged up or coerced, then it is most likely untrue. Clouds and wind with no rain. Jesus warns of fraudulent love and respect:
Matt 7: 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
So simply saying you fear God or love God doesn’t get it. It doesn’t make it true. That creates a dilemma. When do we know that we love and fear God . . . that it is real . . . and that it is enough? And what about the contradistinction? Love and fear are contradictory, complete opposites that hardly belong in the same sentence.
Or do they? God has a funny way of making seeming polar opposites dwell together in a congruent union that totally defies human logic. He loves doing that.
If we consider only the letter, the words seem cold and sets us at arm’s distance from God. Maybe you had an earthly father that you loved and respected yet found he was not approachable. Yet that is impossible with God. Scripture is clear that God is Love (1 John 4:8). Pure Love! He is someone that is standing right in front of us with open arms, ready to love us, to scoop us up and heal all our scars and hurts. Something needs to be added. It’s called Spirit and without it, the letter is dead:
3 Cor 3: 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
So if God is Love, where did all this fear come from? Well, we have to go back to the beginning . . . to Adam. What really happened in the Garden? Adam and Eve were living a “give no thought” to life or tomorrow, bebopping through the forest naked and happy. It was normal and natural. Then they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and immediately their eyes were opened. All of a sudden they were ashamed. They were naked . . . exposed!
Then what happened? Did God abandon them because they had disobeyed? Did He hide Himself from them? The answer is no. He came to them in the garden in love just like he always had. It was Adam and Eve who hid:
Gen 3: 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Where did that come from? Something changed. Now he was afraid. He was self-conscious. God didn’t hide. He did!
I remember my Mom asking my Dad one time, “How come we never sit next to each other anymore when we go for a drive?” (for those of you who remember the ubiquitous bench seats)
“I haven’t moved,” he replied dryly and matter of factly.
Hmmm . . . interesting. God hasn’t changed. He hasn’t moved. He is the same yesterday and today and forever. He never stopped loving Adam and Eve. He came to them . . . in love. They hid. They moved away from God. God didn’t come to punish them. He simply explained the consequences of their decision and to tell them He had a plan to turn them back so they could return to Him.
The fear they experienced was purely irrational, viewed now through their distorted lens. Until they returned, all they would only see is a God full of wrath . . . someone to fear. But the truth is the wrath of God, which is the opposite of His nature that is Love, was their (and our) personal choice to accept by rejecting Him. They traded one in for the other.
John 3: 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
So it is no mystery that the world in general sees God as a God of wrath. Without the Spirit, they see a cold and judgmental God. But that is not for you. You have the Spirit. The wrath of God does not rest on you or in you because you are in Christ. That is the mystery hidden from the ages but now revealed to you:
Colossians 1:27 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The fear of the Lord may be the jumping off point, but it no longer has a place in those who are in Christ.
Despite knowing this truth, many Christians still have an unhealthy fear of God. They fear He is going to do something to them . . . to hurt them . . . to take something away from them. They fear He is going to punish them for not loving Him enough, or loving something or someone else too much, or for some sin they struggle with. Their joy is eaten up like a cancer, the negative swallowing up the positive in total contradiction to who God is. The positive is always meant to swallow up the negative. Not the other way around. Any other view is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
Does the Lord send trials and tribulations? Yes . . . but not to hurt. . . not to make us afraid. It is all done in love because that is who He is. It is impossible for Him to act contrary to His nature. It is because He loves you and wants to bring you to a mature faith that is perfect, lacking nothing:
James 1: 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
And what about loving Him enough? In Christ, we never have to worry about a lack of love and reverence for God. You can’t put a cork in it if you tried. Think about it. If you stand on the pinnacle of a mountain or on the floor of a river valley, on the edge of the Grand Canyon, experience the miracle of birth, immerse yourself in your favorite music, or just consider we live on a beautiful planet whirling through space without a net, then the awe and love just flows out of us spontaneously, like . . . well you know:
John 7: 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive . . .
Be anxious for nothing. Know that “God loves you” and it is not simply another trite expression. It is more real than anything you can imagine. Amen.
The Lost Coin by Samuel Hayes Sherwood is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and all other outlets. See how the mystery of Christ in us is unraveled.
