So Which Is It… Love Or Fear
If you read Proverbs and the Psalms you will
se such references as "The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom", or "The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge", and passages
which seem to indicate fear is a good thing to
have towards god. A short while ago the question
was posed on this list… "Do you fear God?" and
perhaps the passage below will serve as a
checkpoint for us in response to that question.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts
out fear, because fear involves punishment, and
the one who fears is not perfected in love." -- 1 John 4:18
OK? So which is it then. Fear or love. We have
instruction saying we are wise, have knowledge
and understanding if we fear the Lord, and right
here with our own ears, we hear scripture telling
us that if we have fear, we are not perfect in
love. These kinds of apparent contradictions are
where the Word tends to separate the wheat from
the chaff. Those of God who are the wheat will be
curious or otherwise disturbed by an apparent
contradiction and have a desire to seek out which
is right, or why is God saying this to us in this
manner. And the chaff look you in the eye, push
the bible to the middle of the table, lean back
in their chair with hands folded behind the head
and say "See? This is why I don't believe this
nonsense, it can't be trusted because it
contradicts itself. And I just ain't going to
play mind games like that. If you want to? That's
up to you. But for me? No way."
Do you think people would really say that? I know
they would because before I was a believer I was
one of them. However there is another passage
that is very helpful, and it goes something like this…
"My son, if you accept my words and store up my
commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding, and if
you call out for insight and cry aloud for
understanding, and if you look for it as for
silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and
find the knowledge of God."-- Proverbs 2:1-5
So we see that finding out about fear, wisdom,
understanding, knowledge and all about god first
starts with the willingness to dig in and search
it out rather than pulling up to the chair, with
napkin stuffed in the collar of your shirt,
licking your chops with fork and knife clenched
in the hands waiting for it to be served to you.
So we see that it starts with willingness which
in of itself is a wonderful revelation but that
still doesn't answer should we fear when
scripture tells us that we are not perfect in
love if we do fear? I am the furthest thing from
a theologian, haven't been through Bible school
but just a simple man trying to study and apply
the Word of God in life, one who grew up in the
old school Lutheran mentality that touted,
"You're a sinner, God punishes sinners, you need
to go to church and not sin, but you are a sinner
so you will sin eventually, and God is just
waiting for you to mess up pal so go ahead…. Make his day!"
Lovely isn't it. Is it no wonder why some of us
have difficulty removing the Lightening Bolt God
from our heart's eyeball and implant it with a
God of love? I am a true believer in that
scripture interprets scripture and that there is
no doubt that one can take a scripture at random
and build a whole message that is wrong from it
not having put it into context or the big picture of what God is saying.
So which is it? Fear or love? Looking at the big
picture and how we humans seem to respond, it
seems to me that the "fear of the Lord is the
beginning of…" is just that, the beginning of
something. That tells me there is more to come
and the fear is the beginning. That is to say,
fear meaning fright. Fear often times is
translated to English from an original word
which means reverence or awe. I personally tend
to believe that we ought never to lose the
reverence and recognition of sovereignty of God
but the fear of his rebuke or punishment is soon
to be done away with. If we liken it to our
humanly father-son or father-daughter
relationship, can we remember back as a child
when we got in trouble and our mom said "Just
wait until your father gets home"? Or remember
getting a leather strap as punishment as a result
for not following their rules, to bring us to a
point of compliance? Then later as we grew up and
matured we no longer had fear of our father but
grew to love and appreciate his wisdom and
knowledge. We grow to a point of "wanting" to
please him rather than feeling we "have" to
please him. That is how I personally view the
frightful part of "fear of the Lord" that which
gains our attention, that which tells us if we do
not draw near to him and become his child,
because of his word he put in place, there will
be eternal punishment, but if you come to him
there is love and we are to hold him in high
reverence and respect because he is after all god
and that we ought not be frightful of him because he loves us.
Now reading the scripture at the beginning of this note again…
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts
out fear, because fear involves punishment, and
the one who fears is not perfected in love." -- 1 John 4:18
I begin to think of things in my life, things
which seem out of my control that bring on a
sense of fear and immediately think… "Wait a
minute, if I truly loved god, why am I being
fearful? Do I truly love god and does he truly
love me? Because if the thing I fear occurs, it
sure don't seem like any kind of reward but some kind of punishment.
I'm immediately taken in mind to a passage that
says that God disciplines those he loves and
those he does not discipline are not a child of
his. Which at first seems like not such a good
thing to be disciplined, and yet if I know it is
a discipline and not a punishment, first I know
he loves me, and I begin to see that the love I
feel for God is true and also that although
there might be a discipline because I'm not
perfect, he is in control and will not put upon
me more than I can handle, and will be there for me and with me.
Let's close with a comparison of our love for our
biological father and his love for us. We are
human and not perfect and so yes we've had
words against each other in our lifetime but we
have an inner love that supersedes any fear of
them hurting us. Now there are situations in life
where a child has been hurt by a father, and
unfortunately it goes on even today in any given
newspaper in this country at any given day, very
sad, but there is a lack of love in that
relationship on the part of the father, and the
response to that is fear from the child towards
the father and in reality lack of love. Notice
the child's response to the father's love? Or
lack there of? Scripture tells us that with god,
he first loved us, so we can have full trust and
lack of fear knowing he loves us, and we in turn
love him. We have no need to fear, and the
evidence of that lack of fear is love.
Our love as humans is conditional, that is to say
we base it on conditions that affect us. If we
love someone in response to them loving us, and
they harm us badly, our initial response is lack
of love in response to feeling if they loved us
they would not have done this thing to us.
Unconditional love is where love exists no matter
what happens, which I believe God as being the
only one capable of that. If love towards God is
compromised at any point, look to fear as the
culprit and through wisdom, knowledge and
understanding that the fear is unwarranted, he
loves you, and is in control if you submit to him
and even though you are in a rough stretch of
road at the moment, he will care for it and
perhaps trying to draw you in closer to him, not
as punishment, perhaps a discipline or a guiding hand, but not punishment.
Let your love for him and your recognition of his
love for you bring peace to any fear and stand
assured that God's Word is the inherent unfailing truth when it says…
"And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose."
Brad
|
