24 June 2011

The Fear of the Lord, Part One


The idea of fearing God has often seemed strange to me. I understood that in some sort of abstract way we were supposed to fear him. I had read that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that the fear of the Lord leads to life. But I had also read that we have been given a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. I had read Jesus’ words, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” In other words, on the surface (and this is certainly a surface-level view) fear in the Bible seems to be spoken of contradictorily: on the one hand, be very fearful of the Lord; on the other, fear not. As in most cases where the Bible presents an apparent contradiction, the correct answer to the conundrum is, yes. They both are right.

My house church here in Manhattan is going through the Gospel of Luke this year. There is so much in there to unpack, and one of the consistent themes of the gospel is the topic of fear. In this brief series of posts, I will look first at a way to think about fear and then examine a couple of passages in Luke’s gospel’s twelfth chapter which instruct us in the words of Jesus on the topic of fear.

First, my own thoughts on the principle of fear. This is not directly from Scripture, but I believe it is derived from the Bible nonetheless.

Fear, in many ways, functions as a proper acknowledgment of what you are confronting. A few years ago Clara and I went on a backpacking trip with a few friends and family to climb the most secluded 14ers in the state of Colorado. The trailhead is only accessible by train and then you have to stomp into the bush for several miles to get to the base of the peaks. Two of the mountains required semi-technical climbing moves and one required a quite literal leap of faith. The very tippy-top of Sunlight Peak is not a nice smooth rock, but a crazy sharp one that juts out of the north face of the peak. The picture gives an idea of the approach to the top. (Sorry that Blue and I are sticking our butts out, it was intentional.) It is surrounded on three sides by a 1,500 foot drop. And to get to it, you literally have to jump. Not very far, but any jump with a several second free fall and mangled corpse as the reward for messing it up must be approached with caution. And so we approached that jump with caution. We still did it, but we knew it was risky to do it and prepared ourselves for that risk.

This is not a perfect analogy to what it is to fear God, but it drives towards my point for this post which is that fear need not be paralyzing only clarifying. Knowing God’s great power is not meant to keep us in a state of catatonic fear, but to inspire reverence. God is not only the one to whom we cry Abba, Father, but the one who will, after Christ has laid all things at his feet and made him all in all, rule over both heaven and hell. This is no small thing to be trifled with. But very much at the same time, he loves us and knows us intimately and created us for his enjoyment and, as the authors of the Westminster Confession have it, so that we may enjoy him forever. We must hold on to both of these things when we think of God. We need not be afraid to fear. We must not be too fearful to love and enjoy.

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