God fearing?

Tellyontellyon

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Would somebody explain the what is meant by fearing God please?
Does it literally mean we should be generally scared of God all the time, and that's the correct way to regard God.
It sounds like there must be a more nuanced meaning to this phrase, or it may mean a few things depending on context?
It's a phrase I've sometimes heard and it is used in a positive way to describe a good Christian, but I wonder what exactly it means?
How did this phrase come about?
Is it in the Bible?
How does being God fearing look in the daily life of a Christian?

Thank you

Thank you
 

Lawrence87

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In my understanding its not like we are somehow a hostage, and we walk around constantly afraid that God will destroy us if we are displeasing to us.

I think of it more like when you love someone deeply, to some degree you fear hurting them, offending them, disregarding them and so on. But its not a threatening kind of fear, but more a fear of alienating that person, and being cut off from them. It's not a fear that is the forefront of your mind at all times, maybe it is if you do something wrong, but generally your motivation is love, and you wouldn't want to harm that person because you care deeply for them. Not because you think they will harm you.

I suppose this is a poor explanation, and there certainly is a small element of being afraid of genuinely angering the Lord of all things, but most Christians stay well away from that line. I think in some sense though, its just another way to say that they love God.
 
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public hermit

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I think there is a natural awe consequent on a sustained recognition that everything I am and all I experience is dependent on One who depends on no one and nothing else. I think that natural awe, in terms of a healthy respect for the significant ontological distinction between God and I, is the target reference for biblical "fear of God." That's not to say someone who is mean spirited, and knows it, wouldn't experience a more severe fear than awe.

Couple that awe with the notion this One loves me (us) and desires unbroken relationship with me, and the awe (healthy fear) becomes love and gratitude, without thereby losing the awe.
 
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BrotherJJ

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Fear of God as a Non-Believer & Fear of God as a Believer.

Believer Fear Definition: The "fear" of the Lord is about "reverence toward God", "respect for Him", "love and appreciation", "holding God & His beloved Son in high esteem" "Awe".
(Reverence-Respect-Honor-Awe!)

Non-Believer Definition: "anticipation of danger" "dread of danger" "alarm"
(Danger-Dread-Alarm)

(parenthetical) emphasis added:

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of (reverent) fear for Christ.

Proverbs 22:4 humility and the (reverent) "fear of the LORD" are riches, and honour, & life.

Psalm 25:14 The secret of the LORD is with them that (reverently) "fear him"; & he will shew them his covenant.

Psalm 33:18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that (reverently) "fear him", upon them that hope in his mercy;

Psalm 34:7 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that (reverently) "fear him", & delivereth them.

Psalm 34:9 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that (reverently) "fear him".

Psalm 85:9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that (reverently) "fear him"; that glory may dwell in our land.

Psalm 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that (reverently) "fear him".

Psalm 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that (reverently) "fear him".

Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that (reverently) "fear him" and his righteousness unto His children;

Psalm 111:5 He hath given meat unto them that (reverently) "fear him": he will ever be mindful of his covenant.

Psalm 145:19 He will fulfil the desire of them that (reverently) "fear him": he also will hear their cry, & will save them.

Psalm 147:11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that (reverently) "fear him", in those that hope in his mercy.

Luke 1:50 And his mercy is always on them that (reverently) "fear him".
 
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Soyeong

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Would somebody explain the what is meant by fearing God please?
Does it literally mean we should be generally scared of God all the time, and that's the correct way to regard God.
It sounds like there must be a more nuanced meaning to this phrase, or it may mean a few things depending on context?
It's a phrase I've sometimes heard and it is used in a positive way to describe a good Christian, but I wonder what exactly it means?
How did this phrase come about?
Is it in the Bible?
How does being God fearing look in the daily life of a Christian?

Thank you

Thank you

The Hebrew word "pachad" refers to the type of fear that causes us to want to run away and hide while the word "yireh" refers to the type of fear that causes us to see and want to run towards someone. In other words, there is the type of fear where we don't want to be close to someone who is evil and the type of fear where we don't want to be separated from someone who is good, and the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom is the latter.
 
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com7fy8

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One way I got it is this > if you have a really good relationship, you make sure you do not do anything that can spoil the loving you so appreciate having with each other. You are not afraid of losing your love with each other, but you are very attentive to not letting anything spoil it. This attentiveness to not spoiling a good thing is like our fear of God.

When you fear something which is bad, it can have your full and undivided attention. You can be in awe of the thing you dread, making such a big thing out of it . . . more than all else. This is the bad way to fear.

But good fear has you in such awe of how great and good God is; so all else does not get attention, like God does. And you so appreciate Him and sharing in love with Him.
 
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Tolworth John

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How does being God fearing look in the daily life of a Christian

For the Christian this fear is the fear of loosing their relationship with God combined with the desire to please him by following his commands.

Jesus said, ' If you Love Me you will Obey my commands.'
His command was to love as he loves.

How does the fear of Almighty God reveal itself in your life?
 
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ViaCrucis

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Would somebody explain the what is meant by fearing God please?
Does it literally mean we should be generally scared of God all the time, and that's the correct way to regard God.
It sounds like there must be a more nuanced meaning to this phrase, or it may mean a few things depending on context?
It's a phrase I've sometimes heard and it is used in a positive way to describe a good Christian, but I wonder what exactly it means?
How did this phrase come about?
Is it in the Bible?
How does being God fearing look in the daily life of a Christian?

Thank you

Thank you

Biblical language presents God, in His Divine majesty as dreadful and awesome. It seems very strange to describe God, who loves us, cares about us, etc as being "dreadful", so that possibly needs some unpacking.

I really like the way C.S. Lewis puts it, he describes being told "There is a tiger in the next room", and you believe it, this should instill a healthy fear, or at least hesitation on your part. After all, you know what a tiger is, and so you respond to that in a particular way--fear, healthy fear, respect. Lewis then presents another scenario, you are told that "There is a great spirit in the next room", and you believe it--what sort of response would one have for this? Well, what is it? Supposing you believe that there really is a great spirit in the next room, you may very well have a different response, dread, the feeling of being near or in the presence of something massive, unknown, and perhaps even unthinkable.

In Lutheranism, in the way that we encounter and read the Bible, we notice that God is described as distant, transcendant, unknowable, unthinkable, so fundamentally other that we can't even begin to properly conceive of God. This Deus Absconditus, the Hidden God, God hidden behind the veil of His own Divinity and Glory, behind the veil of the Law, cannot be approached, seen, known. He is hidden from us, in the story of the Exodus, God is a thunderous voice from the mountain, so dreadful that the Israelites at the base of the mountain are so terrified that they plead for Moses to tell them what God says. When Moses comes before God to see God's "face" Moses is told, "No one can see me and live", but tells Moses that he shall see God's "backside"--just the barest, tiniest, fraction of a glimmer of the Divine Majesty. That experience resulted in Moses coming down off the mountain with a face so bright that he had to wear a thick veil over his face.

God, in His unfathomable Deity, is so incomprehensibly other than us, the only response men can have is to fall down and hide themselves from God. That's dread.

But it's important to understand, this dreadfulness of God is not an activity of God toward us, as though God comes to us to be dreadful; rather it is what arises as the human response to God's power.

But God has no desire to be hidden from us, which is why God unveils--reveals--Himself to us, as Deus Revelatus, the Revealed God. God revealed, clothed in the humility and lowliness of Jesus. When God comes down and meets us, He meets us where we are, and He meets us with love.

When we encounter God in Jesus, we actually meet God, in a very real way, face to face, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father", because the Father has chosen to be known through His Son, who became flesh of the Virgin Mary: Jesus Christ. And thus to know Jesus is to know His Father.

So there is this dimension to the fear of God, the dread of God's awesome majesty; and thus it is an absolutely appropriate response for those of us who believe in Him that in recognizing our sin through repentance, that we take Him seriously in His Law--that we love one another and act just toward one another.

Related would also be fear in the sense of reverence. Reverence and dread aren't the same, but they are related. For example, when on a clear day here in Washington State I can look from the front of my house and see the Olympic Mountains in all their majesty, a feeling of awe, wonder, and reverence for the beauty of it all runs through me. I'm not afraid of the mountains, and not experiencing dread from the mountains, but I am in awe of those mountains and their overwhelming beauty and majesty. That same revering respect can be related to dread, or related to the fear of healthy respect--such as the fear of the tiger in the earlier paragraph.

That sense of awe and wonder is also called "fear" in the Bible. And very often when the Bible talks about fearing God, it speaks of respecting, honoring, revering God. Analogous to how one is to respect, honor, and revere a great king, so should those who worship God revere Him as the King, Melekh ha-Olam, "King of the Universe". In this, it is basically recognizing that the Lord is, well, the Lord.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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Dorothy Mae

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Would somebody explain the what is meant by fearing God please?
Does it literally mean we should be generally scared of God all the time, and that's the correct way to regard God.
It sounds like there must be a more nuanced meaning to this phrase, or it may mean a few things depending on context?
It's a phrase I've sometimes heard and it is used in a positive way to describe a good Christian, but I wonder what exactly it means?
How did this phrase come about?
Is it in the Bible?
How does being God fearing look in the daily life of a Christian?

Thank you

Thank you
I didn’t read what others wrote so sorry if this was answered. Fearing God is the opposite of fearing man, which most people have a large dose of. It doesn’t mean you’re of them as a being in either case. It means you care very much about what they of you. In a struggle, does the Christian care more what other people think of them (fear of man) or more what God thinks of them (fear of God?) From the outside it appears one way but from the inside, that is, when it marks your decisions, it’s a beautiful freeing thing. To fear God most is to be free of the opinions of people as a main motivating force. The fear of man is a trap.
 
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