"The only thing we have to fear," FDR famously said, "is fear itself." We humans have a love-hate relationship with fear. We embrace it all the time -- horror shows, scary rides, irrational fears, etc. -- but we shun it with a vengeance. "There's nothing to be afraid of." "Fear," a popular Christian song says, "is a liar." So ... what about fear? Is it good or is it bad? The correct answer is "Yes."
We often hear in the Bible, "Fear not." Is that an injunction not to fear? No. No, it is not. One of the accusations against Man is "there is no fear of God before his eyes" (Psa 36:1; Rom 3:18). So, without much digging, we can see that there are times not to fear and there are times we ought to fear. In fact, fear, rightly applied, is God's mechanism built into His creation that is designed to keep you safe. In the right doses, fear will keep you from stepping in front of a moving bus or taking unnecessary risks. Fear gives you a heightened awareness and a readiness to respond to dangerous circumstances.
They tell me that fear can help you lose weight and boost your immune system. Scripture tells me that the fear of the Lord is absolutely necessary and the failure to have that fear is a flight from reality.
We try to tell people that fear is pointless and we ought to discard it. It might, when wrongly applied, keep you from the best, but fear is not your enemy. Wrong thinking is. "The fear of the LORD," Scripture tells me, "is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding" (Psa 111:10). It is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7), prolongs life (Prov 10:27), and turns us from evil (Prov 16:6). Fear, despite what FDR assured us, is not all bad.
4 comments:
I agree that fearing a few things—particularly God and His wrath—helps us make good choices in life! I do believe that the statement you quoted in your first line was more famously made by Franklyn D. Roosevelt, though. FDR was before our time, of course, and perhaps JFK repeated it, as others have done since. (I would guess that FDR did not think it up, either.)
~Lorna~
Fear of the right things and for the right reasons should be seen as healthy and smart. If we see someone casually walking up to a pride of lions, we have to assume they're damaged in the brain or on drugs. But I guess that explains why we don't fear the Lord, sin rots the brain.
I've read that "fear" in this context is not "stark terror", but something more akin to respect or reverence. What say you?
Yes, fear doesn't always have to be abject terror.
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