Fearing and Loving the Lord

Fearing and Loving the Lord

These two things belong together, and they cannot be separated from one another if we are to please God. If we fear the Lord without loving Him, the result will be the fear of a slave. This fear can lead us to a certain kind of obedience, but not to the obedience of faith where love is the driving motive. Otherwise it will only result in dead works without a life-fellowship with the Father, the Son, and each other.

The consequence of sin is punishment and fear. Such a life is a heavy life of bondage. This fear is driven away by perfect love. 1 John 4:18. The fear in this love will preserve us. It will fill us with joy, peace, and hope in true liberty; it will keep us in an intimate fellowship with Christ and the saints.

In Ecclesiasticus 40:26-27 Sirach writes: “Riches and strength lift up the heart; but the fear of the Lord is above them both; there is no want in the fear of the Lord, and it needs not to seek help. The fear of the Lord is a fruitful garden, and covers Him above all glory.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom . . . .” Prov. 9:10. It is also the beginning of the most glorious thing God can give us. Jesus is God’s wisdom and the brightness of His glory. 1 Cor. 1:30; Heb. 1:3. A true fear of God results in a fruitful garden for one’s own personal life and for the church; it is covered with a glory that exceeds all other glory.

We are lifted up on high and holy ground with a new song in our hearts, and our steps are established. Ps. 40:2-3. Money, and everything we can buy with money will no longer have any power over us.

There is great power in the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. It is one of the seven Spirits of God that rested on Jesus. These seven Spirits are the lamps of fire before God’s throne. Isa. 11:2-3; Rev. 4:5.

Only those who overcome sin and love God’s refining fire will sit together with Jesus on His throne. 1 Cor. 3:13; Rev. 3:21. In the Spirit of the fear of the Lord they will permit nothing evil or impure to take away their eternal and glorious place before God’s throne.

Paul always kept this throne of victory before his eyes. He raced toward it in all the virtues of Christ. Sin is the only thing that separates us from God, and it was Paul’s desire that not the least little sin should come between him and Christ. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Read Romans 8:35-37. Only through mutual love can we be more than conquerors.

David sings in Psalm 12: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” Those who are God-fearing are godly and faithful, and they will not speak with a double heart. Paul says that we have the mind of Christ, and that is far from being double-minded.

In these days the words godly fear have almost vanished from the earth. Generally speaking, these words are associated with some Christians who lived many years ago who wanted to keep the law. Now people praise grace, whereas the fear of God and obedience to the Word are pushed aside as being bondage. They sing about Jesus, grace, and the blood, accompanied by a lot of shouting and hand clapping, and at the same time they love the world and the things in the world. They don’t bother with the Word of God that says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15. James writes in Chapter 4, verse 4: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

One follows the world both in song and musical rhythm, and as soon as a new fashion comes from Paris, regardless of how improper and unseemly it is, religious people are among the first to follow after it. They don’t bother with what God’s Word says, that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation. 1 Tim. 2:9. They say that God does not look at the outward things. That is not necessary for God, because He sees the abomination in the heart long before it becomes evident on the outside. God looks at the heart, and those who love Him keep His Word. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23.

Jesus says in Matthew 15:19-20, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man.” “I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.” Isa. 1:13. He loves truth in the innermost heart and the life and the song that proceed from it. Only by fearing and loving God will everything be brought into order. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word . . . .” John 14:23.

Money and honor are the cause of much unrest and division in the religious world. Where the tithe has been introduced, the temptation is great not to speak the truth so that the rich members in the assembly will not get offended and leave. One does not seek one’s own where the truth rules; there one is not afraid that the assembly might shrink until only a few poor, insignificant brothers and sisters are left. If they are God-fearing, the church can be built up through them, and then God can add to the church those who are willing to be saved. It does not take long before such an assembly is like a fruitful garden that is covered with a glory that exceeds all other glory.

Paul was a good and watchful shepherd who is worthy of being followed. “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood . . . . Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to exhort everyone night and day with tears . . . . I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.” Acts 20:28, 31, and 33. Paul did not want anyone in the church to grieve Jesus with the least little sin from which they had been redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood. 1 Pet. 1:17-19.

Let us weigh our words and actions on the scales of godly fear. Then we will receive content and weight into our lives.