Fear and Love go together and are opposed
For fear is a double edged sword.
Positive Fear is aligned with Love
Here, what one loves he also fears (reveres).
The fear of displeasing or being without or apart from someone/something
The love of money is proven by the fear of not having it.
So it is with the love of God.
“The Lord your fear”
Is. 8:13
“Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”
Dt. 10:12
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
Pr. 9:10
**********
Negative Fear is aligned with hate, opposed to Love
Here, what one hates he also fears (phobia) “to be afraid of”
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”
I Jn. 4:18
“I was afraid, and went and hid your talent.”
Mt. 25:25
(not the selfless fear of God, but negative self-serving fear
found in the despising of God and His ways)
We are told to fear the Lord and to love the Lord
Yet in loving the Lord, we are told not to fear anyone or anything else, positively or negatively
“Him only shall you fear”
Dt. 6:13
**********
God does use the negative fear of hell as incentive to love Him.
This calls for discernment of fear as a “two-edged sword.”
“Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”
Mt. 10:28
**********
God’s love removes not all fear of God, only the negative fear.
But today, all fear of God is removed in the name of “love.”
Yet one cannot love God without fearing Him in the constructive sense.
Again we see that all love is to a standard of perfection and holiness
against which one realizes he falls short,
to which one thus surrenders in total commitment.
**********
The fear of the Lord matures
From self-enlightened negative incentive of judgment by Him
To alarm at displeasing and being without Him
To deep abiding sense of momentary accountability to Him
But there is no self-serving cowering fear in love
[For a deeper study on the enigmatic relationship between love and fear, please see the two part article The Fear That Cleanses & the Fear That Cowers]
Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island
First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org1/12
BACK TO TOP
Webmaster littleflock@netzero.net
Page created May 24, 2017
