Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that, for the Christian, "fear" in relationship to God is a mixture of awe, respect, reverence, and obedience that is an appropriate response to a Being who is infinite, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. It is the deference that humans exhibit toward earthly authority figures, but magnified to the nth degree.

However, "fear" can also refer to a justified sense of terror based on the knowledge of the temporal and eternal punishment that God is capable of (and fully justified in) administering to those who do not avail themselves through faith in Christ of the means of salvation (attaining eternal life) that God has provided (Luke 12:4-5).

August 12 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Good question, Peter!

According to NAVE (Nave's Topical Bible), the fear of God means reverence for God:

Matt. 10:28; Luke 1:50; Luke 12:5; Luke 23:40; Acts 10:35; Acts 13:16, 26.
LU 23:40 states, "But the other [thief on the cross next to Jesus] answering rebuked him, saying, 'Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?'" AC 13:16 says, "Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, 'Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.'"

And according to EBD (Easton's Bible Dictionary) the fear of the Lord is a holy fear enjoined or commanded also in the New Testament as a preventive of carelessness in religion, and as an incentive to penitence (Matt. 10:28; 2 Cor. 5:11; 7:1; Phil. 2:12; Eph. 5:21; Heb. 12:28, 29).

I know for a fact that I fear God. I'm like Joseph and Jonah in the Old Testament who said this.

Joseph told his brothers, "Do this and live, for I fear God" (Gen. 42:18). Jonah told those aboard the ship he was on, "I fear the Lord." (Jonah 1:9)

December 15 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report