The Fear of God

The common meaning of the word fear is being afraid of something. But right
from the start we must understand that we as God's children should have a
trusting and loving relationship with our Heavenly Father and have no fear for him.
There are therefore 2 kinds of fear. The ordinary fleshly kind, which our
creator has build into us for our self preservation and the biblical fear of God.
The first kind works mainly through our adrenaline system and can be either
good or bad depending on what we are afraid for and how we react to it. The
Godly fear is commanded by many scriptures of God in His Word. I will quote here
just a few; Deut.1 0: 1 2 "and now Israel, what does the Lord thy God require
of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him
and to serve Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul " This connects
fear with the Lord's first commandment Pslm 33:8 says; "Let all the earth fear
the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him" . Here we
see that godly fear also means to be in awe and have reverence for the Lord. The
New Testament also tells us in several places to have the fear of God. Eph.
4: 1 " let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His
Rest, any of you seem to come short of it. The context of this verse we find
in the end of chapter 3. It shows that that this fear is the fear for loosing
our salvation. Another difference between the human kind of fear and the Godly
kind is, that we have to learn to obtain the fear of God, and we have to
learn it through hearing God's Words. The remarkable verse of Deut.4: 10 tells us
that. "Gather me the people together and I will make them hear My Words, that
they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the the earth
and that they may teach their children" The fear of God has several promised
benefits connected to it: It prolongs our days, Prov.10:27. We will have
endurance,lsai.12:14. It is connected to divine guidance and peace, Pslm 25:12 and
it is a condition for acceptance by God, Acts10:35. God's mercy is connected
to it, Luke 1:50 And it gives you light in the darkness,lsai. 50:10. It is
also, both the beginning of wisdom,Pslm111:10 and wisdom itself,Job 28:28 . The
way I see how the fear of God works in providing all those benefits is; it keeps
you from yielding to many temptations and foolish ungodly decisions. The fear
for the consequences of your willful sin can keep you out of a lot of
trouble.
And I must say that this knowledge came through my personal experiences. Many
times the Lord has provided a way to escape the temptation through the fear
for the consequences. Confirming 1 Cor.10:13.

A verse that at first look seem to be a contradiction to The Lords
Will, to have the fear of God Is: 1 John 4:18. " There is no fear in Love; but
perfect Love casteth out fear: because fear has torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in Love". However, as I came to understand this verse; God is
saying, if you were perfect in Love, fear would not be needed. The Holy Spirit
did ask me " Which one of you is perfect in Love? ". I had to admit that Jesus
is the only one who was and is PERFECT IN LOVE.

Another verse in the New Testament which speaks against fear is 2
Tim.1:7. " For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love
and of a sound mind " From the context we can conclude the the Lord is
speaking here of not being afraid or timid concerning our gifts and the gospel. He
was warning Timothy not to be ashamed in verse 8.
The fear of God is closely connected to the Love of God. Because He
chastises us as His sons in His great Love. Therefore we need to have both the
Love of God and the fear of God manifested in our lives.
AMEN

In Christ,
Yours and His servant Johannes G Weiss Sincerely
yours in Christ