God is Love

There are many verses in scripture that reaffirm God’s love for us. Scripture goes beyond that and tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8). God doesn’t just love, but love is part of his nature. His essence. His very being.

Scripture also tells us that God is our father: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are,” (1 John 3:1) and, “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10).

These are a few of the many verses in Scripture that reinforce the idea that God loves us and is our loving father.

Fear the Lord

But we also read in Scripture that the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him (Psalm 147:11), and it makes us ask questions. What type of God is pleased when we are afraid of Him? If we are only worshiping Him and praising Him because we fear Him, is that really worship and praise? Is it really love? Or is it simply fearful obedience?

As a father, I never wanted my children to fear me. That doesn’t sound like a loving father to me. As our Father, does God only want us to love Him out of fear?

In 1 Corinthians 13:4, Paul defines love as being patient and kind, not envious or boastful, and not arrogant. If this is love, why should we fear a patient and kind God?

When we read the word fear we think of being scared, but that’s not the only way Scripture uses the word. We have to ask ourselves if our understanding of the term fear is flawed or incomplete.

Reverence and Awe

We looked at part of Psalm 147:11 above: “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him.” But the second half of that Psalm is revealing. It continues, “in those who hope in his steadfast love.” And now we have to reevaluate what the Psalmist was saying.

Let’s put the whole Psalm together: “But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,  in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

The Bible uses the term fear in two ways. Yes, there is fear of God’s judgment, but there is also awe and reverence at His awesome power. As Psalm 147:11 reminds us, those who fear Him in this respect have hope in His steadfast love.

Wisdom

Scripture also tells us that wisdom comes from fearing the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). What does this verse mean? How does fearing the Lord bring wisdom?

When you realize how awesome and how powerful God is, you begin to look at Him with great reverence and awe. The God who created the universe and everything in it cares about you and me because He loves us.

Scripture makes the connection between the fear of the Lord and standing in awe of God, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” (Psalm 33:8).

It humbles us to realize this mighty God cares about us. When we’re humbled, we’re more open to listening because we’re not coming from a place of pride. Listening opens our minds to learning because we’re no longer leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), but trusting in something much greater than ourselves.

“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 15:33). Fear of the Lord in this case isn’t fear as we most commonly define it today. It’s awe and reverence at the greatness of God.

Fear

But there is the sense of fearing God’s judgment throughout Scripture as well. This would be more along the lines of how we commonly define the word fear today, and this article would be incomplete if we didn’t discuss this.

 “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

And there is more, “let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Here again we see reverence and awe, but the thought of God being a “consuming fire” makes us uneasy, and it should. There will be judgment, Scripture is very clear about this.

Putting it All Together

There is fear and there is awe, and we sometimes conflate the two. Scripture uses the father/son analogy quite a bit. While we can’t fully understand the depth of God’s love, this analogy comes the closest.

When a just father punishes his son, it’s for his son’s own good. The child could be engaged in destructive behavior. It might be something that could hurt him now, or maybe down the road. The father is punishing the child out of love. He doesn’t want to see him hurt. The son might not understand why he is being punished. He only knows that he has disobeyed the will of his father.

A child might obey his father because he’s afraid of being judged and punished for what he did. Or, he may obey his father because he respects him and doesn’t want to let him down by disobeying him. Those are two different reasons altogether.

As a father, I wanted my children to respect me. God wants us to respect Him.

When we have a fear of the Lord, as in reverence and awe, we shouldn’t want to disappoint God with our actions. That’s different than avoiding sin out of the fear of being judged for our actions. Fear of the Lord should make us want to change our ways out of respect for who He is.

Love and Punishment

God’s steadfast love was fully displayed at one pivotal moment in history when He sent His Son to pay the punishment for us. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Jesus laid down His life for us. The Son bore the judgment for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to face the punishment we deserve.

Love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment (1 John 4:18). But if we have been reconciled through Christ, we should have no fear, for Jesus has redeemed us.

This type of sacrificial love shows us how much God cares for us. This alone should give us awe at God’s great grace and mercy. In other words, it should give us the fear of the Lord.

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