What does it mean to have the fear of God?
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Question: "What does it mean to have the fear of God?"
Answer: For the unbeliever, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God and eternal death, which is eternal separation from God (Luke 12:5; Hebrews 10:31). For the believer, the fear of God is something much different. The believer's fear is reverence of God. Hebrews 12:28-29 is a good description of this: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.’” This reverence and awe is exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe.
Proverbs 1:7 declares, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Until we understand who God is and develop a reverential fear of Him, we cannot have true wisdom. True wisdom comes only from understanding who God is and that He is holy, just, and righteous. Deuteronomy 10:12, 20-21 records, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.” The fear of God is the basis for our walking in His ways, serving Him, and, yes, loving Him.
Some redefine the fear of God for believers to “respecting” Him. While respect is definitely included in the concept of fearing God, there is more to it than that. A biblical fear of God, for the believer, includes understanding how much God hates sin and fearing His judgment on sin—even in the life of a believer. Hebrews 12:5-11 describes God’s discipline of the believer. While it is done in love (Hebrews 12:6), it is still a fearful thing. As children, the fear of discipline from our parents no doubt prevented some evil actions. The same should be true in our relationship with God. We should fear His discipline, and therefore seek to live our lives in such a way that pleases Him.
Believers are not to be scared of God. We have no reason to be scared of Him. We have His promise that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). We have His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Fearing God means having such a reverence for Him that it has a great impact on the way we live our lives. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshipping Him in awe. -
** if one is a unbeliever, then why would he fear God since God wouldn't exist for the unbeliever...............LOL
* you develop wisdom by fearing something ???...............LOL
* the 2nd and the very 1st statement at odds with each other..............LOL
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Thanks, StarDust for this interesting article.
Agree that the fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshipping Him in awe, rather than to be 'afraid of Him'.
But just to mention again that it's not so simple as believers fearing Him in one way and unbelievers fearing Him in another. He looks into each and every of our hearts, believer or not, and the way we respond to Him (according to our own understanding) has a big part to play on how we 'fear Him'.
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Thanks for excellent article, however, if it is copyrighted you need to quote the source. Btw, NIV bible have a copyright also attached to it, hence, need to be careful. God bless
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Unbelievers do not fear God. Judgement day will never come because if it will, it would have come long ago. Don't believe in judgement day. Humans are just waiting for something which will never happen.
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Fear of God is not as great as love of God.
If you fear you do so out of fear of repercussion, not the sincere want or desire to worship due to love of God.
So I find that people who espouse fear in God (i.e. You will go to hell if so-and-so) might not be as effective as spreading the word of God as opposed to those who do so because they are happy to share the news and want to show people the 'love', so to speak.
Plus not to mention if you create what looks like a hostile barrier between the 'unbelievers' and yourself, its kind of hard for them to see you lead by example and be inspired to learn about God.
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Originally posted by Pinknutri:
Unbelievers do not fear God. Judgement day will never come because if it will, it would have come long ago. Don't believe in judgement day. Humans are just waiting for something which will never happen.
There's quite alot of disasters happening around the world. Global warming wars famine etc etc -
Originally posted by -StarDust-:
There's quite alot of disasters happening around the world. Global warming wars famine etc etcIf you read up on humans' history, you will notice these signs (global warming, wars, famine, floods etc) are on going in humans' history. Sometime last week, newspaper just reported global warming happened long time ago too.
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Originally posted by Pinknutri:
If you read up on humans' history, you will notice these signs (global warming, wars, famine, floods etc) are on going in humans' history. Sometime last week, newspaper just reported global warming happened long time ago too.
Some scientist already warned about global warming and its implications. -
:) wow tats nice gamegoddess. Yes, love creates love. Fear creates fear. Hate create hate. Have u guys watch star wars?? Wat yoda has taught? Dont think its just a movie. Its a illustration. May the force be wid u. Guess wat the force means?? As mentioned if u stay IN the box, wat do u see? Of course is the box!! Love not hate! Love not fear. Open your arms and love. Not create fear! Bible is not written by god nor son of god! Its written by human being during the romans empire! Politics is exercise in there. Few versions of bible. Each can write their own. Wats left of god teaching? Some concept is still there but not all. Not all...