“The fear of God” is perhaps the most common phrase in the Bible from beginning to end, transcending authors, cultures, and even testaments. Whatever it may mean, it obviously describes a healthy way to relate to God. This suggests that ‘fearing’ must be distinguished from ‘being afraid’ despite the fact that those phrases pick out the same emotion in English in any non-theological context. That there must be a distinction is recognized by biblical authors; it was John who observed that fear is contrary to love, because “perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18).
I wonder how clear the difference between fearing and being afraid really is. It’s the easiest thing in the world to invent some trite distinction based on what we think the difference should be, or a distinction that serves our personal theological narrative. But I think complete honesty demands more of a struggle. For instance, the same Greek word for 'fear' in the sense of proper relation to God is the same word that John uses in 4:18.
John’s thoughts on love and fear are thought-provoking. It seems to be true that you cannot love something and also be afraid of it, at least not simultaneously. Love has other contraries of course – hate and indifference come to mind – but these are not nearly as interesting as fear, because there is nothing redeemable about hatred and indifference; we simply label them as ‘bad.’ Fear is different, because at least according to the biblical cannon, there is something desirable about fear. This means that unlike hatred and indifference, we are responsible to discover what is positive about fear and what is negative.
Any thoughts? How do you understand the phrase 'fear of God'?(If you are reading this on my blog, the comment feature is turned off, so you will have to visit me on Facebook, which is slightly more complicated these days because my facebook last name is now ‘Collins’).
