Fearing God When Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Our church recently finished a series through Deuteronomy 5-11. One thing that is hard to miss when studying this section is the importance of fearing God. In fact, fear of God and love of God are frequently put forward as dual motivations for obedience to God. Moses alternates between the two often, with the word “fear” occurring 34 times and the word “love” occurring 20 times in the book of Deuteronomy. Fear God. Love God. Keep His laws. 

But this will raise a question in the minds of some thoughtful Christians, “I thought perfect love was supposed to cast out fear (1 John 4:18). Doesn’t that mean that if we love God, we won’t fear Him?” This is probably the most important question a believer could ask: “How should I rightly relate to God?” There is no greater necessity than being properly in tune with our Creator, both in our actions and our attitudes. If we fail to respond rightly to God, we will be like a ship that is no longer oriented to true north, although it thinks it is. The difference might not be immediately obvious, but over the long run we will drift further and further away from God and the truth. We need to get this right.

So should we fear God? And if so, what does that fear look like? And how does love for God push out fear for God? To answer these questions, I want to begin by looking at what it meant that Israel feared God. Then we will take some time to consider 1 John 4:18. Then we’ll see what all this means for us.

 

A Terrifying Encounter with God

The background to the fear of God in Deuteronomy 5-11 is Israel’s response to receiving the 10 commandments at Horeb/Sinai. After Moses repeats the ten commandments for Israel (Deuteronomy 5:1-21), he reminds the nation of the terror they felt when they heard God speak. In fact, they had been so fearful of God that they said they didn’t want to hear anything more from Him directly. Instead, they wanted Moses to go between them and God so that they didn’t die (Deuteronomy 5:22-27). 

Today we might think that is sad. Here God wants to have a relationship with this people, and they are trembling before Him and asking Him not to talk to them directly. What a missed opportunity, right? But God didn’t think it was sad. In fact, He told Moses that the people were exactly right in what they were asking. Why was God so pleased? Well, listen to His response: “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deuteronomy 5:28-29) God desired that Israel continue to have a fear of Him, because if they truly feared Him they would obey Him. And if they obeyed Him, they would enjoy His blessings. 

But it’s not just Israel who saw God and had this reaction of dread. The description of God making a covenant with Abraham shows a similar fear of God. In fact, if you go poking around in the Hebrew, there are some interesting connections between Abraham’s encounter with God in Genesis 15 and the account of Israel at Mount Sinai as recorded in Exodus 19-20.[1] You can check out the footnote if you want the details, but the literary point seems to be that Genesis and Exodus are drawing an intentional comparison between God meeting with Abraham to make a covenant and God meeting with Israel to make a covenant. This helps us understand a little better Abraham’s strange encounter with God, like when we read  that “a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him” (Genesis 15:12). A terrifying darkness isn’t the setting we would imagine for meeting with God, but that’s what Abraham saw and that’s what Israel saw. 

The Old Testament frequently pictures God’s people as responding in dread and terror when they meet God. Think of Moses, Jacob, Isaiah, or Ezekiel. But it’s not just the Old Testament. The aged apostle John, upon seeing the Savior with whom he walked, talked, ate, and even at times questioned, fell down as dead (Revelation 1:17). Apparently, people in both the Old and New Testament who see God fear God. Not just in a reverential, respectful way, although of course that would be assumed. But the fear of God we see is a real, true dread and a legitimate fear when standing in the awesome presence of the Ancient of Days. And if we fear God like this, we will take His words very seriously. In fact, we will take them so seriously that we will hear and do them.

 

Fear… and Love?

But Deuteronomy doesn’t simply tell us to fear God, it also tells us to love Him. Fear and love form the twin heartbeat of Moses’ exhortation. Fear God, and if you fear God you will obey Him. Love God, and if you love God, you will keep His commandments. Moses drives both of these home, and he doesn’t see a contradiction between them. Israel can and should both fear God and love Him. In fact, it would seem that true love won’t exist without fear and true fear will lead to love. But that brings us back to 1 John 4:18. Doesn’t love cast out fear?

To answer that question, it is important to get the full verse because that context will help us: “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.” The word for torment here is kolasis, a word that could also be translated as punishment. In other words, the fear that is being pushed out here is the fear of punishment. Why? Well, because we love God we keep His commandments. And if we keep His commandments then fear, specifically the fear of God’s punishment for our disobedience, will evaporate. Not all fear will be gone, but the fear that we will face His displeasure, His discipline, or worse yet His wrath will dissolve. There will still be an awe, a fear, a reverence in the presence of the Creator, but not a fear of punishment.

I think an illustration will help. Should a son fear his father? Well, if it’s a good son and a good father, the answer is yes. He should fear the discipline of his father. He should fear the disapproving look of his father. Even when he hasn’t done anything wrong, he should respect his father well into adulthood and hold a special place of honor and respect for his father. Now turn everything about this illustration up by about 100 times. The reverence and respect that a good son has for his good father should be much stronger when it comes to the reverence and respect before the Father of Lights. The fear that a son has against disobeying or disappointing their earthly father should be a great dread when it comes to disobeying or dishonoring our heavenly Father. 

So yes, we should fear God by realizing that He is our Creator and that we are answerable to Him. That fear should keep us from sin, and when it does, the fear of punishment will disappear. But fear itself, in the sense of reverence, awe, and even some trembling will remain as we remember who it is that we are dealing with. Of course, we need fear and love. Fear without love is blind terror. But love without fear can devolve into empty sentimentality, and eventually outright rebellion. We should fear God and love God, so that we will listen to God and obey God.

 

 

[1] In Genesis 15:17, God’s presence is described as a “smoking [‘asan] furnace ” and a “burning [’esh] lamp [lappid].” When Israel hears from God in Exodus 19:18 the Lord “descended upon it in fire [’esh],” and when He did so “the smoke [‘asan] thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace.” Later in Exodus 20:18 “all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings [lappid].” Although a synonym is used for the word “furnace,” the remarkable overlap suggests that Abraham’s encounter with God was a precursor of Israel’s meeting with God on Sinai.

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. You can check out Bible studies he has written as hearanddo.org. 

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