Who and Who Not To Fear

"And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied?" (Isa. 57:11) "And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him" (Lk. 12:4,5). Now that is one seriously powerful, sobering, and overlooked statement of Jesus. Fearing anyone or anything other than God will lead to lying and many other sins, and it is an insult to God for his people to be afraid of anything other than him. It is also nonsensical to fear anyone but God, seeing that "there is no power but of God" (Rom. 13:1; Psm. 62:11). Jeremiah made the point clearly with this question: "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain?" (Jer. 10:7) And David summed up the solution to this problem perfectly: "Teach me thy way, O LORD… unite my heart to fear thy name" (Psm. 86:11). And as the beloved apostle conveyed to us, only perfect love can "unite" our heart to fear God: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love" (I Jn. 4:18). The fear of God does not have torment like worldly fear, but rather; "In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge" (Prov. 14:26). It was that fear, and the lack of this world’s fear, that enabled Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to choose the fiery furnace over bowing to the kings idolatrous statue, having no fear of the king’s threats (Dan. 3:13-25). And many other such examples do we have in the Bible that demonstrate the reality of this simplistic, but empowering spiritual truth. So let’s end this thought where we started: "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe" (Prov. 29:25). Amen.