What to fear and not fear about God.
“There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.”
1 John 4:18 HCSB
Check out how the EASY version translates this verse.
“If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.”
God’s love is perfect toward us. We are not to fear Him as a god who is waiting to strike us down because of every mistake, but He is The God who is there to help us up when we make a mistake. But there is a fear of God that we must have and the punishment of God also must come. If we only see God as love we miss out on the discipline that God brings our way to conform our bodies to Jesus’ body.
So what does the fear of God accomplish in us? We are to fear Him as holy! Therefore our fear is respect for His holy name, holy book, and holy power. He, God the Father has given His son the name that is holy above all others, Jesus! For in the name of Jesus demons tremble! In the name of Jesus, all knees will bow!
“The Seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.”
“so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:10-11 HCSB
But then also the name of God was so holy that the Jewish scribes would use only one pen to write His name and the priests would only pronounce His name once in seven years to a disciple above water. His name is Yehovah.
Check out this YouTube video on more information on God’s name.
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in holy array.”
Psalms 29:2 NASB1995
God’s word is to be feared as holy!
“I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
Revelation 22:18-19 NASB1995
Not only Revelation but all 66 books we have in our Bible for all scripture is God-breathed and is Holy (2 Timothy 3:16).
God’s power is to be honored. Yes, He can strike us down for our breath is the breath of God as it was in the first breath of Adam and Eve.
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:7 NASB1995
Our very life is in his hand. So respect God in a way that honors Him. There will be a time when those who will not repent will have to face judgment. God is still holy and cannot be in the presence of sin. It is only through the blood of Jesus that we are able to make it to the throneroom of God and are welcomed as sons and daughters. Those who are found without the blood of Jesus applied to their sins will be not welcomed into His throneroom and kicked out to eternal punishment.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:16-18 NASB1995
“And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Luke 24:46-47 NASB1995
But above all else God’s power is to work through us and not against us!
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