First off, I apologize for no new post last week. My cat is ill and has been taking up a lot my time with caring for her. She’s nearing 16 and we may be looking at the end for her but in the meantime trying to keep her comfortable and medicate the symptoms the best we can. Just seeing if she can recover this time. If you ever had an aging or ill animal you know the stress and exhaustion (and expense) it can bring. Posts may be sporadic temporarily. Don’t give up on my blog. I appreciate anyone who visits here.

Now for the topic at hand, should you fear God, or should you revere God? Is there a difference? The short answer is, yes, there is a difference. I often hear people say you should “fear God” and by the way they describe this fear is they are fearing what God will do to them. They fear that God will strike them down with a fatal illness, or just end their life abruptly. Some fear that God will punish them if they don’t live up to some standard they created in their hand or when they make a mistake. There are people that fear they are not “saved” and God that will reject them. Finally, some people fear that they just aren’t doing enough for God, as in works.

To fear…

The definition of fear from the Free Dictionary is, “A very unpleasant or disturbing feeling caused by the presence or imminence of danger”, although it does also include reverence towards a deity in the full definition. Does reverence mean something different? From the same dictionary we see the definition of reverence as being, “A feeling of profound awe and respect and often love, an act showing respect”. By dictionary standards then it would seem these words are different from each other. To fear God, as to have a feeling of dread, or danger, in my opinion is not what Christians should be feeling or expressing. I don’t feel it is what the Bible tells us about God.

It’s my opinion that rather than saying “fear God” we should should say, “revere God” or “respect God”. When blurting out the words “fear God”, it brings a completely different meaning than saying we need to respect God. Imagine trying to witness to a non-believer or a new believer and saying they should “fear God”. What do you suppose they would think you mean? Is that ever explained? Are they told it does not mean to tremble with a feeling of dread or danger that God might do something negative to them? Sometimes I hear pastors and others explain it as reverence towards God. However, do we take for granted that everyone knows that that means?

Or to revere…

So what does it mean to revere God? Well, look at the definition again. It means to be in awe of, love and respect of God. That’s how we should look at God. He is not some entity out to get you, as in hurting you in some way. He is not there to frighten or scare you into submission. He demands respect and we should be glad to give it to him. Why? Because he loves human beings so much that he sent Christ to die to pay the wage that we owe for the consequence of our sin. That consequence is death and as I’ve explained before, this is a permanent separation from God.

Yes our physical bodies die, but was that always part of God’s plan, I can’t say for sure. Some argue that it was not. Perhaps not, but the Genesis account clearly shows us a picture of broken communion with God. As soon as Adam and Even disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the tree of knowledge, they lost their connection to God. Completely shut off. Imagine what that must have been like. They once had a direct connection to the Father and their sin separated them from that, like someone hanging up you and blocking you from communication. Did the serpent know this would be the case and figure that Adam and Eve would think physical death? I am almost certain of this. When he told them they wouldn’t die he knew exactly what he was doing. But God had a plan for redemption and that’s the theme of the scripture.

How do we put this in practice?

When you come to learn about God, his power, his love, and his sovereignty, it should bring you to a place of awe. You then would show God how much he means to you by your faithful obedience and submission. There’s not a place for pride or selfishness. We can never pay back what Christ did for us, but we can be forever thankful for it and in turn live our lives honoring the Lord. We are saved by the grace of God, not by any amount of works that we do. Your “works” would be you showing that respect, awe, and love towards God by living a life of humility and obedience. While we have many examples of this of humans in the scriptures, we have one that should be our top example and that’s Christ himself.

Christ came as a humble servant. He was born in humility and he lived a life of honor and respect to the Father. He obeyed the will of the Father every moment he walked on this Earth. He laid down his life on the cross and died to show how much he not only loves us, but loved the Father. Yes, Jesus is God in the flesh, but if you have not yet, you should read my post on the 3 persons of God.

When Noah was tasked with building a massive vessel to protect his family, animals and himself from the coming wrath of God, he was not afraid of God. He faithfully obeyed even if he did not understand what exactly was going to happen. We can see this throughout the Bible. Paul did not go out to preach to gentiles because he was afraid if he didn’t God would inflict harm on him. He did so because of his great respect and awe. He was a changed man, once a Pharisee who hated and killed followers of Christ, but then lived his life in faithful obedience after God literally got his attention. Why did Paul do this in response? To show God how much he loved him, not because he trembled in fear of God doing something to him. There are so many examples like this in the scriptures.

I am going to leave you with this that I stumbled upon:

“1 John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” This verse highlights that fear of punishment is replaced by a mature love that respects and honors God.” Bible Hub