The Fear of Man

The fear of man is a powerful force that is capable of robbing a man of all initiative and courage. As a Christian, the first thing we should learn is to look to God and the invisible things, and away from people and the visible things.

As a gift in the bosom bends the paths of righteousness for the innocent, so the fear of man makes a man unsteady in all his ways, causing him to waver in his decisions and be unsound in his faith.

Such a person does not reckon with God’s powerful presence in each situation; he reckons with what people say and think. It is terri­ble to be in such a state; it cannot be maintained. The way to liberty and light is: “By faith.” Then people will become of little significance, irrespective of how strong and great they are, and God and the in­visible things become great.

However, by nature people like to trifle with the fear of man. Whatever is recognized and viewed as being reliable is supported by the masses, which are always carnal. This is the reason why one is afraid of them. One prefers a carnal peace rather than standing wholly on God’s side and suffering all kinds of tribulations. Therefore we need a good portion of the fear of God in order to break with eve­rything that is human, irrespective of how good and right it seems. We need to have a genuine love of the truth to be able to endure the sufferings this causes.

The root cause of the fear of man is unbelief; it rules by the things that are visible and close at hand. It leads to the denial of Jesus’ name and finally into eternal darkness.

The fear of God enables us not to rely on man; it enables us to labor as a sacrifice in the church of God and to stand firmly in the storms of life.