What is the difference between a healthy fear of God and an unhealthy fear of God?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
Thank you so much for joining me.
We're going to talk today about the fear of the Lord.
And that phrase, the fear of the Lord or the admonition fear God, that theme, that idea
is found throughout all the Bible from cover to cover, Old and New Testaments, it's inescapable.
And so, when Christians and Christian leaders make light of the fear of God and even say
outrageous things like, "We shouldn't fear God because God is love and perfect love casts
out all fear.
And if we really understood God, we wouldn't be fearful of him at all."
Well, those people are just twisting the word of God to their own ends and ignoring the
greater context of the revelation of all of what the Bible has to say about God and how
he's revealed himself.
So we want to have a fear of God that's healthy and not one that's unhealthy.
I'm going to talk about the difference in a few minutes.
Now, scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
So that's really where true wisdom starts is with fearing God.
And you might say, "Well, wait a second.
There's lots of people who have a lot of wisdom it seems, but they're not even Christians.
They might be agnostics or atheists, and they're so smart and maybe they do make decisions
now that show that down the road, they made the right decision and it pays off for them
in some way.
Aren't those people characterized by some degree of wisdom?"
Well, yes, worldly temporal wisdom.
But remember that the Bible, it looks at things from God's perspective, from an eternal perspective.
And a person who doesn't have any fear of God really hasn't even begun to get any wisdom
from God's standpoint yet, because they're not ready to die.
They're not ready to stand before God.
They're not ready to give an account of their lives.
They've never repented of their sins and believed in Jesus and received him as their Lord and
as the son of God.
And so, that person is stupid.
And they are, think about it.
Everyone knows we're all going to die.
And someone has come to this earth claiming to be God who worked incredible miracles that
were seen by thousands of eyewitnesses, which many of them were willing to die for their
faith in the son of God.
And these people just go merrily throughout their life, not even thinking about what lies
after death and the God who created them.
So, just think about it.
Think of the vastness and the complexity of the universe and of everything that has been
made within the creation.
I mean, certainly we ought to have an awe and a respect for the being who made all this.
I mean, he's made stars that are thousands, multiplied thousands of times larger than
our massive sun in our little tiny solar system here.
This is a guy who spoke the universe into existence.
Don't you think it would be a good idea, smart to have a little respect?
People respect their bosses.
People respect political leaders and civic leaders and business leaders and so forth.
Where these people are nothing by comparison to God.
Okay.
So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Actually, there's a verse, I think in Proverbs, that says, "That the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of knowledge."
So from God's perspective, you might have a PhD in quantum physics, but from God's perspective,
you don't know anything yet because you haven't even gotten into the edge of any kind of a
true relationship with God, which would begin with a healthy fear of him because he's awesome,
because he's great, because he's all knowing, all powerful, all omnipresent.
This is like no one else.
He's like no one else.
Okay.
So, knowledge and wisdom starts with a fear of God, which of course, a little knowledge
of God makes you realize, "Well, he's Holy.
And he's just and he repays people according to their deeds and we're all going to die
and we're all going to stand before him."
So if that doesn't cause a sinner to have a little anxiety, then he hasn't even started
on the path to knowledge and wisdom yet.
All right.
Are you still with me?
Okay, so when Christian leaders, for example, make light of the fear of God, and I've even
heard sermons about this.
They take a verse out of context.
"Well, from first John, perfect love, casts out fear.
And so if we really understood how much God loved us, we wouldn't be fearful at all of
him."
Oh really?
Is that what John was actually trying to say there?
Oh my goodness.
I don't think that's what he was trying to say, in light of the fact that Jesus commanded
his followers to fear God.
Right?
And there's so many scriptures, so much revelation in the Bible that talks about the fear of
the Lord and the fear of God.
Nobody should be making light of fearing God.
Now, there is a difference between a healthy fear of God and an unhealthy fear of God.
And a healthy fear of God would be based upon biblical truth, not just one verse of scripture
where God seems to be a little bit extreme or one verse that could be variously interpreted.
But looking at the whole scope of scripture as to whom God has revealed, as God has revealed
himself.
And again, the scripture feels God is Holy, just, a God of judgment, a God of righteousness,
a God of wrath.
No doubt about that.
And I think a lot of the church just sweeps that under the carpet.
But for those people that have lifted up that carpet and are only looking at what was under
the carpet, they need to be looking at those scriptures that talk about God is slow to
anger, and how long suffering He is, and how merciful He is, and how gracious He is and
how forgiving He is, to those who are contrite of heart and who ask for his forgiveness.
I mean, He's amazingly good.
And that's really the cure for anyone who has an unhealthy fear of God, which an unhealthy
fear of God is based on an imperfect or a insufficient knowledge of who God really is.
So, we don't fear God like we fear a snake or a scorpion.
Well, a snake or scorpion have no comparison to God.
A snake just bites you if it feels threatened.
Well, God's not that way at all.
He doesn't bite people when he feels threatened.
He's not threatened by anybody, at all.
So God is understandable to that degree.
His anger is aroused by persistence in sin and stubbornness and pride to repent.
And that's when God's anger notches up and where His judgment is likely to fall and people
should naturally be fearful of that.
Okay.
We're out of time for this Little Lesson.
So I'm going to do a part two on our next Little Lesson.
Thanks so much for joining me on this one.
Hope to see you next time.
Hey, for a lot more content teaching content, books, articles that I've written over the
years, check out davidservant.com.
It's all free stuff, books.
Just tons and tons of stuff there and love for you to take advantage of that.
Until next time, Lord bless you.