What Does It Mean to “Fear The Lord”?-4 Sobering Thoughts

The question, “What does it mean to fear the Lord?” came to me twice in a short amount of time. The first time was a negative reply to one of my Bible verses that I share daily I don’t remember what the particular verse of the day was, but it was something concerning fearing the Lord. In my mini devotional which I write to accompany the verse, I tried to simply and quickly explain about the fear of the Lord.

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One of my readers saw the verse with my explanation and then wrote to me and saying they thought I was scaring all of my readers. Honestly, I didn’t know I wielded such power! This woman identified herself as a pastor’s wife, and, according to her husband, to fear the Lord meant to have reverence toward God, not to be “afraid” of Him.

Then just a few days after that instance, a friend of mine was visiting, and she said, “We hear so much about loving God, but not about fearing God. Would you write an article about what it means to fear God?”

In answer to both these inquiries, here are some thoughts to answer the question, what does it mean to fear the Lord. Obviously, this will not be an exhaustive study, but what I will share I hope will help you in your Christian life.

God Commands Us To Fear Him

While doing a quick search in the Bible, I found the phrase “fear the LORD” in 32 verses, and the related phrase “fear God” 10 times in the Bible. The phrase “fear the Lord” and the related phrase “fear God” are both commands of God. If God commands us to do something, He expects us to obey Him. But, in order to fully obey this command, we first need to understand what it means to fear the Lord.

Like my friend so aptly observed, many times the love of God for us and our love back to Him is emphasized, even while the same God of love also tells us to fear Him. However, even among believers, the fear of God is largely ignored. This dichotomy may be because love has a positive connotation, but fear, a negative one.

We would rather think about, and practice, love rather than fear. This is normal. The Bible itself tells us “Fear hath torment.” (1 John 4:8) KJV

Yet, the same loving God Who had holy men write the Bible, and told us about the torment of fear, commands His children to fear Him. This love versus fear in our relationship with God seems to be a contradiction.

Fear The Lord or Love God?

Our relationship with God is similar to our human relationships with those we love. In all of our relationships that we value, nourish, and enjoy, there is a mix of both fear and love. A wife who loves her husband, is careful to honor him, and not to allow herself to develop affections for another man. Because she loves her husband, she has a healthy fear of hurting and angering him.

In good, solid, and time-tested friendships, or even among family members, there may be mutually agreed upon topics that both parties have strong, but opposing, views. Everything related to these potentially explosive topics are carefully avoided for fear of damaging the relationship.

A child loves his father. Yet, when the father tells the child to do something, and the child is disobedient, they will be punished. They fear the promised retribution, and to avoid it the child obeys his father’s order.

In all of the above examples, the “fear factor” is a type of boundary in the relationship. Both parties know their boundaries, and as long as the boundaries are respected there is love. At the same time, there is a fear that “not playing by the rules” of the relationship will result in jeopardizing the harmony of the connection.

Realizing we fear damaging our valued human relationships, we learn to both establish, maintain, and respect boundaries. It is not a great stretch to understand that God has conditions, too. He wants His children to love Him as He loves them. Yet, as a Heavenly Father, God also has boundaries. Since God is so much greater than we, we are like the child who loves, but also fears, the righteous anger and just retribution from a disrespected parental figure.

God Has Boundaries Too

This concept of God having boundaries, and thus, humans respecting those boundaries, has largely been swallowed up in words such as “love” and “grace.”

Since God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and we are flesh, it is difficult to fully understand our relationship, including our boundaries, with God. Furthering complicating our relationship is the fact that God, although He is just and righteous, is also longsuffering.

That is, He patiently endures our disobedience for a very long time. This does not mean He is not grieved by our actions, i.e., our sins, and it does not mean there will not be consequences to our disobedience.

Just as a loving parent gives a child chores to accomplish and expects those chores to be done correctly and in a timely manner, so, too, does God expect His children to do what He has told them to accomplish. God gave us commands, far more than just the Ten Commandments.

The New Testament is full of God’s instructions to His people (One person counted 1050 New Testament commands!). God expects His children to fear to disobey those things that He has expressly told them to do.

How To Become A Friend of Jesus and Fear the Lord

Jesus Himself in John 15:14 said His followers were His friends, if ─ and here is the caveat ─ they do all those things that He commands them! Friends of God have a responsibility to contribute to that special relationship.

What Jesus was referring to in that Scripture verse was not the Ten Commandments, but rather, all of the instruction that He would give in the future that is contained in the New Testament.

Some of the examples of these commands of Jesus Christ are:

• Galatians 6:2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” KJV
• 1 Thessalonians 5:22 “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” KJV
• Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness…” KJV
• Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without murmurings and disputings:” KJV

Many times, Christians look for spiritual loopholes, or we blatantly disregard a direct command in Scripture, even trying to convince ourselves “God doesn’t really mean THAT!” or spiritually invoke the Christian words of “grace” and/or “forgiveness” as an excuse not to obey a direct command of Scripture. Doing such things is not fearing God.

Just like in our human relationships, especially the ones we value, we would not dream of purposely offending our friends, thinking that they would immediately forgive and forget our misdeeds. God is so much greater than our companions. He has done far more for us than those who love us could ever do, and He is far more powerful. Considering both the character and power of God, we need to be truly afraid of offending Him.

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The wonderful fact of God is that, when we strive to please Him, and we ask Him to help us do just that, He delights to do so. Don’t be afraid to fear God. Rather, ask Him to help you to do just that and watch how your relationship with Him will become deeper and more fulfilling as you walk in harmony with your holy, heavenly Friend.

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