Recently, in prayer I again realized that God’s love for me (and you) is far greater than my love can possibly be for God. God loves in perfection. God’s love is a gracious choice towards humanity, not based in need. My love for God is imperfect, based in my weakness and need. Rather than selfless love, my love for God is selfish. I NEED GOD more than I want God. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
A friend recently asked, “How do we fear the same One who loves us unconditionally?” I pondered, “Do I fear God?” I quickly came to the realization that I do indeed fear God; that even after years of devotion and study there remains a mystery, an awesome quality about God that provokes wonder and fear.
The tension between love and fear is appropriate. “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). God cannot be properly loved unless God is properly feared.
Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? (Exodus 15:11).
We fear God because God is wholly other, beyond compare of anything we can know or understand. God is awesome. This quality of God provokes anguish, dismay, trembling, terror, and dread (Exodus 15:14-16). Those who have been redeemed by God’s mighty acts rejoice in God’s awesomeness, because they have been delivered. God is “awesome is praises” because God is to be feared.
The disciples were often encouraged, “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 1:20; 14:27; 17:7; et al). The apostles declared that God is “Abba” whom we approach with boldness and confidence (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16). We approach God in and through Christ and Spirit, not in ourselves (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Even so, Jesus declared, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). The resurrection of Jesus provoked “fear and great joy” (Matthew 28:8). The signs and wonders of Pentecost provoked “a sense of awe” (Acts 2:43). When Ananias and Sapphira were judged by the Holy Spirit there was “great fear” in the church (Acts 5:11). Paul warned that if we approach the Table of the Lord “in an unworthy manner,” then we eat and drink judgment upon ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-29). An ancient pastor reminds us that “those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Hebrews 12:6). He continues, “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). The lack of proper fear of God leads to self-love and self-exaltation, and an undue familiarity with God which breeds contempt and apostasy (2 Timothy 3:1-4; Jude 11-13; Revelation 2:4-5).
The God who is “Abba” is “a consuming fire.” To love God is to approach God with confidence and boldness that is marked by gratitude, reverence, and awe.
The apostle John wrote, “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:17-19). This is the goal of God’s love toward us. As we walk in the love of God, God’s love is perfecting us. Ultimately, “in the day of judgment” love overcomes fear. In that day the love of God perfects us so that “we will be like Him” (1 John 3:1-2). When we are glorified with Christ we will be “perfected in unity” – us in Christ and Christ in God (John 17:23).
