Fear Not?

There is an ad campaign lately for the streaming company, Sling. They show people doing incredibly stupid things because they have confidence after having watched so much stuff on Sling. "You can be confident of the best programming on Sling," they say. "Maybe too confident." The commercials are somewhat amusing, but the ad misses on a very important point. The characters were "too confident" that they could do things they actually couldn't because they had watched Sling. But Sling specifies the confidence -- "you can be confident of the best programming." Not everything. And, in fact, if you take the commercial at face value, they are warning you not to have too much confidence ... in Sling's best programming.

In Scripture we are told a lot about the fear of the Lord. It is vital. It is important. It's terribly wrong to fail to have it. We are also told repeatedly, essentially, "Fear not." So, what's that all about? We are told "There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Rom 3:18) as if it's wrong and "Perfect love casts out all fear" (1 John 4:18) as if it's good. So which is it? Are we supposed to fear or not? The normal mode of operation is "I'll go with what I like and reject the other." What I think is going on here is precisely the same thing as that Sling commercial. You need to take into account what we're talking about fearing. When it says, "Fear not," why is it saying that?

To answer that, let's first ask, "What does the 'fear of the Lord' look like?" It's not terror. It's not panic. It's not "deer in the headlights." Here's what God says. "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul ..." (Deut 10:12). Here Moses calls on Israel "to fear the LORD your God" and then explains precisely what that means. It means to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve Him with all your heart and soul. In Proverbs 3:7 Solomon writes, "Don't be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil." Same thing. The fear of the Lord is to turn away from evil and follow God. In fact, God commanded them "to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive" (Deut 6:24). Fearing God is beneficial -- "for our good always." The Bible favors the fear of the Lord.

So, when we see "fear not" kinds of stuff, what is that? In Genesis 15 Abram was told to "fear not" not because he was afraid of God, but because he had no heir. So God told him he had nothing to fear because God was His shield (Gen 15:1). God told Joshua not to be afraid as he entered Canaan because "the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Josh 1:9). These "fear nots" are not "Don't fear God;" they are "Don't worry about your circumstances because I am your God."

What's my point? Sling suggested you can be "confident," but (rightly) specified what you could be confident about ... and then suggested you could be over-confident ... about their programming. Scripture says that the fear of the Lord is a very, very good thing. Scripture never says the opposite. So when it says, "Fear not," we need to pay attention to what it is saying we need not fear. We need not fear enemies or circumstances or troubles or the unknown. We need not fear them because God is with us. To assign "fear not" to a blanket "anything at all" is not only poor hermeneutics; it's lousy reasoning. Sling thinking.

Sidenote: "Hey, what about that 'perfect love casts out fear' thing? Doesn't that say we don't need to fear God?" No. And here's why. First, not one of us lives in "perfect love." Thus, if that text meant "You don't have to fear God," it is predicated on perfect love ... something none of us possess. Second, it specifies the fear that is not necessary -- "fear has to do with punishment." I don't fear falling off a cliff because I fear punishment. I don't fear running into traffic because I fear punishment. Conversely, if I loved perfectly, I'd be an idiot to not fear those kinds of things. They're not about punishment. If I love perfectly, I will not be sinning. In that, I will have no fear of consequences of sin. Currently, I don't love perfectly, but because I am perfectly forgiven, I am not much concerned about the consequences of sin. Jesus took that on my behalf. But I still fear God. I still fear displeasing Him, getting in His way, letting Him down. Because I'm afraid of punishment? No, because He's worth so much more than my poor performance.