Biblically Speaking

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Often in the New Testament, the Greek word for "fear" when referring to the "fear of God" is "phobos". This word is where we get the English word phobia from, and it doesn't primarily mean reverence as some would have us believe. W.E. Vine says the word used in this context is a healthy dread of displeasing God which drives us to put away sin (paraphrased greatly).

I always thought that we obey God and strive to put away sin because we love God. This is true, but it is somewhat interesting to look at passages about putting away sin. It seems that the starting point for putting away sin and striving to live righteously is generally a love of God and His love for us, but it also seems that in the end, when the rubber really hits the road, it is the fear of God that is the clincher to putting away individual sins. This is the fear of displeasing the Almighty. [I write of this in general terms because this isn't the result of a comprehensive exegesis of every reference but more of just musings on a survey of passages.]

1 Corinthians 7:1 is a case in point. It begins with an acknowledgement of a mutual love, blessings and promises and then a call to striving to live holy lives before God. The passage says, though, that we perfect the holiness in the fear [phobos] of God.

The point is that when we have a Christianity that is all love and no fear, you have an existential Christianity. If God is all love and Christianity is all about love (as some would have us believe), why not do whatever is pleasing in our own sight? God still loves us and so does our Christian brother or sister. The modern existential Christian seems to think that he or she can live just like the world around them, but it's Ok because we have Jesus in our hearts...locked in a little cage in there so he can't get out. I'm not talking about necessarily, carousing and living riotously. I mean just not taking God and the scriptures seriously.

What does James say about the "Christians" who think that they can live as the heathen, but keep their little loving Jesus locked up in their hearts? He says that they are liars who deceive even themselves (James 1:26).

Jesus says in Matthew 10:33 that whoever denies Him before men, that person will Jesus deny before the Father. Jesus isn't talking about going out on a street corner and announcing that God doesn't exist and that the scriptures are lies. He is rather talking about those who, as I too often do, live nonchalantly as though God doesn't really, truly exist and the Bible isn't really true. We don't need to go out on a street corner and deny God to life as an atheist. We just say that the God of the Bible is the one, true God, and we live as if He gives us the scripture as a suggested way of living.