Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Why 'fearing God' is misunderstood
It occurred to me that the reason people are uncomfortable talking about "fearing God" is because we demonize emotions. We talk about anger as if it's all evil, but Jesus "whipped" the merchants at the Temple a new one, and he's without sin. I don't believe he was happy with them when he did that. It's what you do with anger that damages or accomplishes anything. Take fear - I fear the sun and black holes. Neither would I want to get anywhere close to. Are those things inherently evil? No... not any more than a walnut. So why is it wrong to fear God? Why is it wrong to recognize him for who and what he is? If you have fear and loathing, that's wrong. If you have fear and admiration, you've got it.
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Hey george,
ReplyDeleteWhat would you do then with a verse like 1 John 4:18?
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
Just curious
Thanks - that's a very important point. I'm familiar with that verse, Ryan - and reading through that chapter, I agree with every word. I don't believe in this post I really emphasized my love for God as much as perhaps I should have. And how necessary that is. I always realize how incomplete my writing is afterward. I appreciate your explanation because at times, I could use a reminder of how persistent his love is, thanks man.
ReplyDeleteIn talking about this, we should make a distinction: there's fear, and then there's deep, profound respect mixed with love/admiration/humbling awe. I think there's reason to believe that when the Bible talks about God's children "fearing" him, the writer's breakdown of that would mean that latter definition, know what I mean?
I hope to emphasize how necessary a proper respect for him is. When I live amongst Christians who take grace for granted (myself included, a good deal of of the time), it makes me wish more often than not that Christians would show a reverent respect and loving admiration instead of calling him "homeboy" and not taking him seriously. I want a changed life. I think the early Christians took this stuff much more seriously than the American church does today. And when it comes to taking God seriously, as for me if he wanted to he'd be totally fair in doing away with me right now. I've sinned so far over my head that I can never take grace for granted. I really need more reminders of that. I'm reminded of the contrast between the darkness we came from and how loving God is through that.
And just so you know man - thankfully I'm not one of those types that grew up all uptight in the church and was the "fear God" type. I'm still not. I was trying to illustrate how a godly man might fear God and how one living in sin would. Look at the contrast between Romans 3:18, reading the verses leading up to that - the "no one is righteous, not even one" passage. He was describing the characteristics of someone living in sin, "there is no fear of God before their eyes". On the other end, you have Psalm 130:3-4: "but with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared" explaining that if we knew how far we were in over our heads, a proper respect exists. I believe that the word fear has several definitions and I was going for the "in awe/extreme respect" one. Luke 1:50 explains "his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation", as part of Mary telling how God looks on his humbled servants and blesses them. The whole fearing thing isn't my favorite concept, but one I've come to understand differently from a scared fear and more like a sense of intimidated awe. That's a thrill - as part of getting to know God and how infinite he is. It's always a surprising reminder to me - I can never get used to it.
George,
ReplyDeleteGreat response man. I wasn't trying to be critical of your post, just pushing back a little bit because i think its an interesting conversation to have. I would even agree with your point that we tend to demonize emotions, or at the least relegate them to a place of being less valuable than logical/analytical thinking.
I agree that there are (for lack of a better way of saying it) diffirent types of fear. I think the problem for me becomes when that fear expresses itself as anger, a judgemental attititude or sometimes even violence towards others, which i would consider an unChristlike expression; instead of humility and respect for God's handiwork, which I would consider a profoundly Christlike expression.
For me it always come beack to this idea that the most compelling way God chooses to reveal Godself is through the person of Jesus Christ. So we have to interpret all of our understansings about God through what we know about what Jesus was like.