Fear

2 Corinthians 5:10,11a

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror [phobos] of the Lord, we persuade men”

Philippians 2:12b

“…work out your own salvation with fear [phobos] and trembling.”

1 John 4:18

“There is no fear [phobos] in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

How are we Christians to view “fear [Gr. phobos],” since we are seemingly being told two contradictory things here in these verses? On the one hand we are told to work out our salvation IN FEAR, being FEARful of the Lord concerning that coming judgment seat, and on the other hand it appears that if we have fear, then we are not in love… and as we know, God is love; therefore, if we fear, we must not be abiding in God.

Let’s look at the context of 1 John 4:18, particularly vv. 16-17 –

16 And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.  God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

The paradox shown in this idea of fearing and not fearing at the same time can be seen elsewhere. According to John, if we Christians abide in God’s love, then we are abiding in God, for God is love; therefore, we can have confidence in that day of judgment as long as we abide in love. This is exactly the same idea in John 15 where we are told to “abide” in Christ and we will be “abiding in God’s love,” thereby producing much fruit. But also according to John chapter 15, if we do not abide in Christ, we will be thrown out and “burned” (John 15:6); in other words, if we are not abiding, we would then have fear in that day of judgment (I John 4:17). This is also the same idea as being told that there is “no condemnation for those who follow after the Spirit and not the flesh” (Rom. 8:1), meaning, there IS condemnation for those who follow after the flesh and not the Spirit. And this is the same paradox that can be seen in 1 John 3:9 and 1 John 1:8 that “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” – and in seeming contradiction in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

So which is it? Do we sin, or not? Should we fear, or not? Can we have confidence, or not?Per these Scriptures, all of these scenarios are conditional. IF we abide in God/Christ/love, THEN we are perfect and THEN we will not sin. IF we abide, we need not fear. However, we know that we will still sin and we will fall out of that perfect “abiding” because we are imperfect still… the day of perfection remains yet future. So as long as we maintain that abiding, we needn’t fear anything. BUT, we will fall out of that abiding – guaranteed. That “abiding” is not a constant state of being.  The real issue is, should that happen too often and become a lifestyle choice (us NOT abiding in Christ) then we do indeed need to fear what the Lord will do. Because He said exactly what He will do – to those who do not abide in Him and thereby do not produce fruit, they will be cast into the fire and burned (relative to the kingdom age, not eternal security). So really, that fear will always –and should always – be with us in this life.

I think there are many variables in the idea of fear. First and foremost, we are to always fear the Lord, no exceptions. While we are in this body of death, plagued by a sin nature that is our constant passenger, we are to always fear what the Lord can and will do to us should that sin nature overcome us. Here are just a few verses that tell us this:

Exodus 20:20

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.”

Leviticus 25:17

Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.

Psalm 2:11

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Psalm 111:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments;

Psalm 145:19

He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

2 Corinthians 7:1

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The idea from John is about CONFIDENCE regarding the day of judgment vs. FEAR of the day of judgment. And in connection with that, CONFIDENCE in the Lord and His promises, or FEAR of all else. The distinction here is to be found in where your fear is placed–

Matthew 10:28

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The confidence (or boldness) we are to have (while having a healthy fear of the Lord) is summed up in the following verses:

Hebrews 3:6

…but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

Hebrews 10:35-36

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.37 FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. 38 BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

Because we FEAR THE LORD, we are to stay faithful to the word of the Lord/to Christ/to God, which means we abide in Christ/follow the Spirit/abide in God’s love. If we do that, then we needn’t fear anything else. Because that perfect love casts out all other fear. As it should, since we would be doing that which we are supposed to do, according to what God said to do, so we will receive what God has promised. That’s confidence, isn’t it?  And this confidence comes from knowing what God has promised…and knowing what God has promised means KNOWING HIS WORD. Knowing His Word means knowing the Word that became flesh… Jesus the Christ is the Word made flesh. We must not only abide in Christ, but we must abide in His Word – the Scriptures (they are One and the Same). Only when we KNOW what God has said can we truly have confidence in what God has indeed said. And that takes work, perseverance and endurance. 

One other thing concerning 1 John 4:18, he says that “fear involves punishment.” That word for “punishment” is only found one other place in the New Testament, and that’s in Matthew 25:46 with the issues surrounding inheriting the kingdom/entering into life or NOT inheriting the kingdom and receiving “eternal [age-lasting] punishment” (issues about the kingdom age, NOT eternal security). That Greek word, as we have discussed previously, is not so much the idea of vengeance; it’s more of the idea of correction. So fear involves “correction.”  Of course it does – if one lives in fear of the world, the enemy, whatever, he/she is walking by the flesh and not the Spirit and therefore MUST BE CORRECTED. 

It appears to be an issue of maturity, doesn’t it? When we are babes in Christ, we fear everything. We fear the unknown, we fear our enemy, we fear the world, we may even fear each other… but when we fear the Lord, the wisdom comes. When wisdom comes, we understand what we must do, WHY we must do it, and for WHOM we must do it. And with that understanding and wisdom, coupled with lots of practice (Heb. 5:14), we gain CONFIDENCE. We know that victory is ours because Christ declared it. We know that even though we will fail at times, we have a High Priest to wash and cleanse us. We know that our works will be tested and we can be confident that our works are righteous… so we therefore need not fear our enemy anymore, we need not fear the judgment seat anymore (but have a healthy respect for it because it WILL happen), we need not fear our God who judges righteously. We learn to live in His love. We learn not to fear. Not that we can live and abide in His love on a continual basis… but that those moments of abiding increase, day in and day out. We hopefully experience more moments of abiding than NOT abiding. More moments of being one with Him. In those moments we are truly born of God, not sinning, truly in the Spirit and truly in perfect love where there can be no fear.