Answer:
ANSWER: The fear of God is an idea you find throughout the bible… and to understand it better it helps to look at the descriptions of people who have NO fear of God. An opposite can sometimes help us understand something by defining what it’s NOT. Check this out:
Gen 20:11 Abraham replied, "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.' NIV
Deut 25:18 When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God . NIV
So catch this: when people in Scripture are said to have NO fear of God what goes along with that? A sense of no accountability and immoral behavior. A sense that I can do whatever horrible thing I want, because I do not fear the just punishment of God on evil actions. Abraham says, I couldn’t TRUST you not to kill me and take my wife for yourself because you don’t fear God would see that and judge you for it. In Deut, Moses says, the Amalekites indiscriminately killed you for no reason. Why? No fear of God; no sense that he sees killing of the innocent and judges it as evil and will treat me accordingly.
So no fear of God means a person has no sense of accountability. They have no respect for God’s ability to bring justice into their life. The result is an amoral life.
Therefore, to HAVE fear of God, does not mean you’re afraid of him, the same way as being panicked about being in the same room as a tiger. It means you respect God’s ability to bring justice into your life in response to our actions. And as Christians our “fear” of God only goes up because we understand eternity in a way Moses and Abraham did not. That is, our respect for God’s justice is magnified by an understanding of the eternal (not merely temporal) stakes involved in our decisions.
So in one sense you could say that a person who “fears” God is someone who lives as if God’s eyes are on them all the time. They live with a sense of reverent awe in God’s ability to see all and judge justly, even if a person escapes the arms of human justice… God still sees. A person with no “fear of God” mocks this idea that “God sees.” Paul responds to them, “Gal 6:7-8 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
A person who has healthy fear of God, really, what defines them, is not a panicked sense of “oh, no, God is out to get me!” it’s more like, “I live to please God more than anyone, even myself.” So really, you might say that when you “fear” God, it’s a way of eliminating all other fears – because a reverent awe and respect for God puts you in good standing with the One who is the ultimate Judge. And if you’re in good with Him, then does it matter what other scary things are out there? Not really. Is the disapproval of others as scary, if by fearing God you have God’s approval? No. If fear of God puts you at peace with God, then all other dangers don’t have to be feared. Isaiah captures this idea that fearing God is actually a path of safety not panic:
8:13-14 Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. 14 He will keep you safe. NLT
So the meaning is different from what we give the phrase because we equate fear with uncertainty. I’m afraid of a tornado, because I don’t know when or where it could hit. I am afraid of the police in a completely different way. They operate according to rules, they can be counted on, so my “fear” of the police, actually leads to me liking the police. They’re predicable and if I just cooperate with their rules, I’m actually safer with them there than if they weren’t there – but the situation would be opposite IF I didn’t fear them.
So “fear of God” doesn’t mean, “live in panic because at any moment for no good reason, God’s gonna get you!” We hear “fear” and we think of words like capricious, random, unpredictable, scary… none of those words apply to our steady, just God. But he IS just. So fear does have a punishment angle to it… it’s just not about God being silly or mean; he’s totally fair. Who wants the Lord of the Universe to be any other way? When you were a kid, and you wanted to hurt your brother or sister, what stopped you sometimes was, “oh no, mom/dad will find out.” That healthy instinct some people have about God, and some don’t. Those that don’t are said to be fools:
Ps 14:1
The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God ."
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good. NIV
So, the command to fear God is more like this; “don’t live and act as if God doesn’t exist and God doesn’t see, because he does.”
