Whom Do We Fear?

Part 3

Even as I write these words, I can't help but anticipate the average American Christian's reaction to the above paragraph. We instinctively recoil at these words. The average Sunday morning churchgoer has been given such a steady diet of "God's too good to send anyone to hell, too loving to hold anybody accountable, too gracious and merciful to bring anybody into judgment" But that's not the God of the Bible; that's a caricature manufactured by men who don't know God. The God of the Bible is the God who rained fire down on Sodom; vented His anger at self-righteous Pharisees: turned tables topsy-turvy in the temple; and rebuked a self-serving apostle for attempting to prevent His death. Christians are to fear God! "Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear, God honor the king" (1 Peter 2:17).

The follower of Jesus Christ is called to fear neither the disapproval of unbelievers, nor his judgmental brothers, while at the same time walking in holiness before a holy God. Let's see what the Scriptures say about this subject.

If the Christian possesses a reverential fear of God, he need not fear the disapproval of unbelievers. Frequently our Christian witness is diluted or defeated because we are intimidated by those who are antagonistic toward the Christian faith. "The world is no friend of grace to help us on to God." The heart that contains some love of the world in it will often, when put to the test, side with the world against God. How else can the denials of the Apostle Peter be explained? This double-minded disciple blew hot and cold because of an unpurified heart, an uncleansed self. He failed to stand with Christ in the hour of temptation because at that moment he feared man more than he feared God.

Leslie B. Flynn, in his book entitled Day of Resurrection, tells a story of a Christian soldier who sorely failed His Lord in a moment of weakness. The soldier's witness for Christ having been tarnished, he walked into the chaplain's office the next morning with the doleful announcement: "I've hauled the flag down, sir."

Countless believers are "hauling the flag down" because of a carnal fear of man. And they manifest a man-fearing spirit because they have failed to surrender to the fiery cleansing of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter, who vacillated in his commitment to Christ when under pressure a few weeks before, following the mighty Pentecostal cleansing, fearlessly confronts a gainsaying crowd on a Jerusalem street comer with the gospel. The difference? An upper room experience. The fullness of God provides no place for a fear of unbelieving man. In the words of another apostle we read: "purify your hearts you double-minded" (James 4:8c).

If the Christian possesses a reverential fear of God, he need not fear his judgmental brother. I recently heard an evangelist remark "We Christians are not afraid of the world as much as we are afraid of one another." I understood the preacher to mean that in his opinion too many Christians are living in bondage to the opinions of their brothers and sisters in Christ. They are not enjoying the liberty with which Christ has made them free.

Whenever something like the above is mentioned there is often at least one in-bondage Christian present who cautions: "Remember, there are those among us who are weaker than we are; we can't simply ignore their convictions." Indeed, the mature Christian is to take care how he exercises his liberties in Christ in the presence of immature Christians (see Rom. 14 :1-15; 1 Cor. 8). I'm not speaking here of the weak Christian. but of the warped Christian!

Even good and godly people are occasionally susceptible to caving in to the mind-set of these judgmental, narrow-minded,. self-appointed heresy investigators. Paul says Peter succumbed to the rigidity of the rigorous radicals and compromised the very core of the gospel. He allowed his sympathies toward the "circumcision" denomination to dictate who he was known to fellowship with (see Gal. 2:11-21). Paul saw the gospel message was being threatened by Peter's man-fearing actions, and later recounted the incident in his Galatians letter: "[Peter] began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group" (v.12). Peter was momentarily overcome by fear, a fear of what these well-intentioned, uninformed minds thought of his Gentile associations. Peter allowed the influence of some in the circumcision sect to restrict his fellowship.

This same fear is pervasive in the body of Christ today. We won't fellowship with that person because he is not one of us. We are conspicuously uncomfortable with those who don't wear our prescribed man-made labels. It's not enough to be evangelical, or associated with the same theological grouping within evangelicalism. No, we persist in imposing our distinct brand of evangelicalism on other authentic evangelicals.

To be sure, all thinking Christians have reached certain doctrinal conclusions with which they are comfortable. However, these conclusions should not prevent us from enjoying Christian fellowship with other evangelical Christians who have reached different conclusions. If I, in an attempt to be biblically correct and intellectually honest with myself. arrive at a different interpretation regarding debatable truth, I must not allow my understanding to keep me from your fellowship; nor should you close the door to my fellowship. While zealously promoting our "Shibboleths", we rend the church and wound the heart of God. If Christ sheds tears as our intercessor, He must weep as He looks upon the fragmentation of His body, the Church. And so much of this happens because we are afraid--afraid of one another, afraid of what someone else will think Some of us who testify the loudest about being dead to other peoples' opinions are in bondage the most to those of our exclusive group.

If a Christian possesses a reverential fear of God, he will pursue a life of holiness. One's relationship to God determines the degree to which he will hunger for God. The Apostle Paul exhorted the immature Corinthians:"let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

The fraternity of the hungry-hearted have such a reverential regard for their Lord that they instinctively and decisively reject everything and anything which would imperil their fellowship with the Almighty. Whatever tends to "contaminate" the body or the spirit is to be avoided at all costs if one wishes to bear the yoke of Jesus. The believer cannot consider himself a true disciple of Jesus Christ while at the same time embracing contaminates. If one is to faithfully follow the Master, he cannot simultaneously tolerate that which tends to defile. The Father commended the Son by saying, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness,..." (Heb. 1:9). On this same point, Paul in writing to Timothy, quoted the words from an early Christian hymn: "Everyone who confesses the name of Christ must turn away from wickedness.'" (2 Tim. 2:19c). A proper fear of God will cause the devout to constantly and consistently aspire to be like Jesus.

I have one deep, supreme desire, that I may be like Jesus.

To this I fervently aspire, that I may be like Jesus.

A captain in Moby Dick announced, "I will have no man on my boat who does not have a fear of whales." Similarly God demands that everyone in His Church have a deep, loving, reverential fear of Himself. In the words of F. F. Bruce:

“It is an aspect of the character of God as revealed in the Bible that plays little part in much present-day thinking about Him; but if we are to be completely "honest to God", we dare not ignore it. Reverence and awe before His holiness are not incompatible with grateful trust and love in response to His mercy” (The Epistle to the Hebrews).

Now, Reader, would you join me in asking God to so fill your heart with the right kind of fear--a reverential, holy fear of God--until you are cleansed of the fear which produces a Christian coward on the one hand, and small-minded Christian on the other? And then, would you ask the Holy One of Israel to search your heart in order that you might know whether you are allowing anything to contaminate either your body or spirit? Let us determine to daily be engaged in the business of perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

– Soli Deo Gloria –