Fear
What is fear?
I was thinking about this today as I was walking to Uni.
The way I see fear is realising the consequences to particular actions and therefore avoiding facing those consequences by avoiding the actions.
For example, If one fears heights they are aware of the consequences of falling (injury or death) and so avoids heights.
Simple?
You can apply the same to God. If one fears God, they are aware of the consequences of disobeying Him and thus avoid disobeying Him.
Which is good, because that is part of the way we are to perceive God. He has the power to destroy everything in our life in a second. That's certainly something to be feared.
So lack of fear is defined as "not realising the consequences of a particular action and therefore inviting it"?
So a man with a lack of fear of heights can stand on the edge of a building without worrying about the consequence if he should fall and die because he has put that thought out of his mind.
But what about a man who knows well the consequence of falling but welcomes it. Does he fear heights?
Perhaps a better definition of lack of fear is "not realising the negative consequences of a particular action outweigh the positive consequences of the action and therefore inviting it"
So to put in a wider perspective; A man that has no fear of God is one who either ignores the truth that God is omnipotent and omniscient, or has decided that the "benefits" of rejecting God are greater than the benefits of fearing Him.
So that includes not only those who do not know God, do no understand that He is real, but also those who know Him but do not trust, rely and depend on Him.
The Bible tells us to fear only God. So should we not fear heights, animals, materials, blood, death, etc?
How do we practically apply that to our lives?
I was thinking about this today as I was walking to Uni.
The way I see fear is realising the consequences to particular actions and therefore avoiding facing those consequences by avoiding the actions.
For example, If one fears heights they are aware of the consequences of falling (injury or death) and so avoids heights.
Simple?
You can apply the same to God. If one fears God, they are aware of the consequences of disobeying Him and thus avoid disobeying Him.
Which is good, because that is part of the way we are to perceive God. He has the power to destroy everything in our life in a second. That's certainly something to be feared.
So lack of fear is defined as "not realising the consequences of a particular action and therefore inviting it"?
So a man with a lack of fear of heights can stand on the edge of a building without worrying about the consequence if he should fall and die because he has put that thought out of his mind.
But what about a man who knows well the consequence of falling but welcomes it. Does he fear heights?
Perhaps a better definition of lack of fear is "not realising the negative consequences of a particular action outweigh the positive consequences of the action and therefore inviting it"
So to put in a wider perspective; A man that has no fear of God is one who either ignores the truth that God is omnipotent and omniscient, or has decided that the "benefits" of rejecting God are greater than the benefits of fearing Him.
So that includes not only those who do not know God, do no understand that He is real, but also those who know Him but do not trust, rely and depend on Him.
The Bible tells us to fear only God. So should we not fear heights, animals, materials, blood, death, etc?
How do we practically apply that to our lives?
posted by Rayd at 2:39 pm
3 Comments:
I think it's sad that sometimes the only reason people follow God because they fear the consequences of not following him. Not really related to what you have to say
AMEN to your first sentence, Andrew Brown, and you'd probably be amazed how related it is.
In the (King James) Bible, "fear" "believe" and "obey" are pretty much used interchangeably with regards to God. It is imperative to understand the idiom of permission used in the OT: The Hebrews expressed it as if God were actively punishing them for evil. It's not until you understand Job in light of the church epistles you realize God merely stood aside, and let the adversary "pay off" those who did his will (Romans 6:23).
The fact the Scripture addressed to us in this day and time makes clear is, our rewards-here, and hereafter-will always match our service (Galatians 6:7).
I wonder what's become of Rayd, these days.
Here's hoping the totals and toils of life haven't taken their toll, and I haven't lost another blogger!
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