Fear of God - revisited

[IKTCA]

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[ablikespaintball]

Fear of God refurs to, not being scared of God but to know his awsome Glory and Power. Thats my opinion of the Fear of God.

God Bless,
AB

 

[Andrew]

Jesus defines for us the fear of God as "worship".

 

[altya]

The last sentence of the last post (by Andrew I believe) reads "it is a big a subject." That means it can be revisited.

Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, MAKING HOLINESS PERFECT IN THE FEAR OF GOD. (2 Cor 7:1)

I am trying to understand FEAR OF GOD in this verse.

In the previous thread, fear of God was often equated to fear of punishment. In fact, fear of punishment may help me stay clean. But I have difficluty seeing it make holiness perfect. Fear of God must be substantially more than fear of punishment. What is it then?

If we have a promise that God would dwell in us, that He would be our God, that He would be our Father, we should remove from us whatever is offensive in His sight, and become perfectly holy.

People, who expect to be made pure without any effort of his own, will never become pure, and to do it all by yourself will fail. The influences of the Holy Spirit is to motivate us to diligence purify our own hearts, and to advise us to make backbreaking efforts to overcome our own sins. We need the Holy Spirit together with our own efforts.



The filthiness of the flesh represents obviously the disgusting and corrupt appetites and passions of the body. The evil thoughts proceed out of the heart, and that pollute the man the man who is defiled in his “spirit” is often a man most corrupt and sensual in his” flesh.”



We are obligation to make an effort to be entirely holy out of fear and reverence of God. This fear seems to me, that in the presence of God we are overwhelmed by His Awesome Holiness and this cause a ‘fear’ to represent the Holy Image of God to the world through our (holy) life. If we represent a crooked Image of God, sinners won’t change their ways. I believe the fear of God is not fearing God but fearing the Image of God that we represent to the world. (We will never become a god; we will only become an image bearer of God)

 

[Andrew]

In fact, fear of punishment may help me stay clean.

On the contrary the fear of God in the sense of the fear of punishment will make you hate God eventually.

FEAR can be defined as fear becos of
• 'punishment/pain'
• reverant 'fear' for an awesome God which has nothing to do with punishment but his goodness displayed in his power

In the OC, the people feared God in both senses, but more so in the first sense becos of the system of law -- if you don't obey all 10 commandments, curses (sickness, poverty etc) will come upon you -- hence a fear of punishment.

In the NC, we are no longer supposed to have this fear once the Spirit of God comes into us to make us his sons and daughters.

Ro 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Jesus came to reveal God as FATHER -- Daddy/Papa (Abba). Our relationship is so close to him now that all fear is cast out when we realise how perfectly God loves us -- perfect love (and God is love) casts out all fear!

Today, to fear God simply means to "worship" him in awe in response to his perfect love, goodness and mercy, not becos we are afraid that if we do something wrong he's going to knock us over the head. That's an abusive relationship of the devil.

When Jesus was tempted of the devil in the dessert, he said, "Thou shalt WORSHIP the Lord....". This was a direct quotation from the OT. But in the OT, it actually says, "Thou shalt FEAR the Lord...". Hence, Jesus shows us that to FEAR God is to WORSHIP him.

 

[Andrew]

to advise us to make backbreaking efforts to overcome our own sins.

back-breaking?

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

If we have to strive with so much effort to change, it ain't the yoke of God.

If anything, we "labour to enter the rest". When we are at rest God works in us both to will and do. He transforms us from inside out. The change is effortless. All genuine sin overcoming change is effortless if done by the power of the Spirit. IOW, you dont commit x anymore becos you simply dont even have the desire for it anymore.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Eph 5:21
submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God.

The construction of this verse in very interesting.

I will begin my point by giving you the Didy explanatory version:

"And submit yourselves to one another with the same kind of reverance that Christ had"
or

"submit to each other with the reverance of Christ"

Many times in the NT we see the expression "love of Christ" or "faith of Christ"

These are refering to the manifestion of the fruit of the spirit that we all received when we were born again. We now possess these same spiritual attributes that Jesus had. I beleive this verse is refering to the spiritual attribute of love. This love part of our new man will submit to others first just like Jesus did.
Note that I used "Christ" instead of "God"... this is what all the best manuscripts have. Also note that I have correctly translated it "of Christ." This is also what is in the greek and is so rendered in the litereal versions (Χριστου = of Christ)

So this is not really talking about fear of God, rather it is talking about walking in the spirit and being guided by it's attributes of love and submission.

Peace
Didy

 

[SavedByGrace3]

It is fear or faith that overcomes sin?
Although the writings of Paul are the source of most of my teaching... 1 John is by far my favorite epistle.
Look at this:
1 John 2:16
(NASB) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
This is the sin were are go overcome.
How do we overcome it?
Not by fear... but by faith:
1 John 5:4

(KJVA) For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
We overcome the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life with faith.
How would this work?
Some years ago I bought Young's literal translation of the Bible. Young is renowned for his meticulous rendering of the Hebrew verb tense. This is amazing, look at how he rendered the commandments:
Exo 20
13 `Thou dost not murder.
14 `Thou dost not commit adultery.
15 `Thou dost not steal.
16 `Thou dost not answer against thy neighbour a false testimony.
17 `Thou dost not desire the house of thy neighbour, thou dost not desire the wife of thy neighbour, or his man-servant, or his handmaid, or his ox, or his ***, or anything which is thy neighbour's.'
Quite a difference from the "thou shalt nots" of the KJV.
These sound more like pronouncements of fact than commandments. They are telling us what we are rather than what we should be.
I began to encorporate this concept into my faith. Faith means to believe something and to confess the same thing that you believe. I began to say these same things about myself. I spoke the Word to my mind and flesh.
I do not fornicate..
I do not lie..
I do not covet...
I do not lust...
I do not hate...
I do love, I do have joy, I do have peace, I do have longsuffering and patience, I am kind...
Each night as I went to bed I would make this part of my prayer and meditation. I would rehearse what the word said about me, who I am, and what I can do.

I am a totally changed person today from what I was before I began this. It was a revolution in my walk toward God and my fellows. Sin bonds of the flesh began to lose their strength. Old problem areas began to fade. I discovered that this is the method by which we "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."
The flesh is always there... but we can overcome it as John said, by our faith.
A couple supportive scripture:

Psalm 199:11
(NASB) Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
Psalms 199:13
(YLT) With my lips I have recounted All the judgments of Thy mouth.

Peace in Him
Didy

 

[altya]

Andrew, by backbreaking I mean some people are so bound by their own flesh and to come loose from it is really a battle for them.



Yes God’s yoke is easy

 

[Andrew]

iktca,

Christians no longer observe the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is Saturday, not Sunday. Christians now treat Sunday as a rest day or day of worship becos Christ arose on a Sunday. Christians who still keep the Sabbath and worship on a Saturday (like 7-day Adventist) still live under the OC or mix both.

Secondly, your headache is certainly not a punishment from God. Rather than be so quick to 'blame' God, have you ever considered the possibility that it was the devil? -- "The devil comes only to steal kill and destroy."

Your idea or image of God is somewhat 'warped' in the sense that you believe he punishes his own with pain and sickness. The Bible says Jesus is the EXACT representation of God. Jesus said and did only what he saw his Father do and say.

Thus, if your statement is true, how is it Jesus never gave painful headaches or any sickness or pain for that matter, to anyone in the Gospels. I see only that he always heals. In fact, one of his names is Jehovah Rapha or The Lord that Healeth Thee.

Do you know an aspect/facet of God that the Gospels failed to mention, or that Jesus failed to represent/reflect? Can you see what I am saying?

 

[IKTCA]

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