Read today’s texts first: Malachi 3,4; Psalms 148; Acts 5
The fear of the Lord simply means reverence, respect
and awe – otherwise known as love.
and awe – otherwise known as love.
Another theme emerged from both the OT and NT readings today – the fear of the Lord. This topic has always stretched me beyond my understanding. Because God is much bigger than we are, His thoughts and ways are much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8,9). That’s why we struggle when we try to fit God into our preconceived doctrinal boxes - God’s sovereignty and man’s free will, God’s justice and mercy, the fear of God and the comfort He brings. Notice that these are not mutually exclusive, either/or; they are both/and! We will likely always struggle understanding the tension between these complementary attributes of our awesome God!
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase (Acts 9:31). Fear and comfort seem like opposites, yet we should find both simultaneously in our relationship with God if we want to be part of a growing church.
The Malachi reading sternly warns of the consequences of disobeying and not serving God, but offers promises to those who fear Him (3:5,16;4:2). The Acts account tells the scary story of Ananias and Sapphira, who made a generous offering to the church but said they gave all when they held back some for themselves. The sin was not the gift or the sum that was withheld – the sin was lying to the church, and when you lie to His bride you are essentially lying to God (5:4,9). When they were struck down by God, “great fear came over the whole church” (5:11). You think?!
Legalists love this topic – they think we need a revival of fear to fall on the church today. Those who overemphasize God’s comfort are “uncomfortable” discussing a fear-based relationship with a compassionate God. Neither group fully understands the breadth of God’s love. None of us do.
My Dad modeled this tension as well as any human could. Mom tried to discipline us but as we got older her wooden spoon became more of a joke to the six headstrong Buzza brats. But her threat, “wait till your father gets home,” put the fear of God back into our hearts. Sometimes he used a belt (I can remember only one time, but I was the baby of the family, and a good one at that!), but mostly it was just a stern warning quickly followed by unconditional love. We were never terrified by our dad, but we did respect him and what he believed.
The phrase “fear of the Lord” in both the OT and NT (remember, He’s the same God) means reverence, respect and awe – otherwise known as love. We don’t obey God because we are terrified of Him or even of the consequences of sin. We obey Him because He is worthy of our obedience and we love Him (John 15). “Lord, may I discover today how my reverence for You is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
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