No Fear Of God

What’s happened to the fear of God, so many are living as if there is no God, so what happens when the fear of God is missing?

The fear of God is not completely understood by those outside the church. The fear of God is not a fear of being struck down by God when you sin or having the dread of hell hanging over your head, although that is a real fear for nonbelievers, but rather, the fear of God is a deep, holy, reverential respect and awe of God, for God’s Word, and for obeying God’s commands. Believers don’t obey God out of fear, but out of love, the fear of God is living in obedience to God. Solomon wrote,

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction” -Proverbs 1:7

Fearing God is hating sin, as Solomon writes,

“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and prevented speech I hate“ -Proverbs 8 13

Believers should not be living in fear of God’s judgment because they have their sins paid for by Jesus. The wrath of God that was our due has been placed on Jesus instead of us. This means there is no more fear of God’s wrath if you believe.

In John 4:18 John wrote,

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear had to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love”

Someone who follows Jesus should not fear God’s punishment because Jesus has taken it upon Himself as our punishment for sin.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” – Romans 8:1

So, what is there to fear? As for nonbelievers, Paul wrote,

“There is no fear of God before their eyes” -Romans 3:18

And what happens when there is no fear of God in the land? Paul writes,

“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The poison of vipers is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of peace, they haven’t known” -Romans 3:13-17

Doesn’t that sound like the world we are living in today?

When sin increases, it is because there’s no fear of God in the land or people’s hearts, and where there is no fear of God, there is no limit to evil. In Noah’s days, the earth had grown so wicked that God had to begin again, with Noah and his family since,

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil” -Genesis 6:5

In other words they spent all their time inventing new ways to sin, so it’s no wonder that,

“The earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on earth” -Genesis 6:11-12

There was no fear of God at all. They rejected Noah’s preaching and as a result, they all perished. Jesus told the crowd in Luke 13:3 “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.” Where there ifear of God is, no good is to be expected.

In Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 Solomon’s summary of the whole book says,

3”The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.”

Fearing man is a stumbling block, but fearing God is the wisest thing you could do. Jesus tells us who to fear and said,

“Do not fear those who kill the body but can not kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell“ –Matthew 10:28

And scripture tells us in Hebrews 10:31,

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

If we trust in Jesus, we never have to worry about fear again.

If we look at the world we can see there is no shortage of sin. If people do not fear God, than its anything goes.

“Because sentence against evil work in not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons (and daughters) of men is fully set in them to do evil“ -Ecclesiastes 8:11