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What does "The fear of the Lord"mean?

SeventyTimes7

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No problem.

I once believed that fear does actually mean fear. And I'm still not sure that it doesn't, despite what others say to the contrary. I debated the word with others who said that it actually meant awe, or reverance instead of fear. I looked at the greek word in different scriptures, and I concluded that the word phobos either exclusively means fear, or perhaps it has a double meaning. I was not sure, and I'm still not sure, but I am sure that it does in fact mean fear, that much I'm certain of.

The scripture which says that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18) also uses the word phobos and so phobos surely means fear because it would not make sense for love to cast out reverence. Therefore phobos does mean fear, not reverance, or possible it could mean both, i know that some english words have more than one meaning, so perhaps Greek does as well. I raised the question about 1 John 4:18, but I received no answer.

Perhaps even after being perfected in love we can still have fear, but maybe Gods love will cast it out each time, as we pray and wait on him, or perhaps it means something else. I really don't know, and I try not to fret over it, but instead try to live each day, one at a time, in faith.

A classic example is the one of Adam and Eve, at the beginning the fear of the Lord was the one to observe the commandment which said to not eat the fruit of knowledge cause they would surely die.
The Fear of God in this case is to respect God and to love God by observing His command to not eat the fruit.
The Fear of the Judgement in this case is when Adam and Eve ate the fruit cause they knew they hated God and their own lives by sinning against Him.
 
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SeventyTimes7

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So 1 John 4:18 doesn't talk about the Fear of God, but the fear of the punishment,
because we are perfect in love and we Fear God when we don't sin by observing the commandments.
and Those who observe the commandments are perfect in love cause they love their neighbours and they love God.

It's like if I fear my father's punishment cause I broke his car.
But if I feared my Father, I would follow his words to take care of his car and my joy now would be complete because I could still use the car and my father would love me cause I loved Him by doing what he said to me, and there would be no reason to fear his punishment.
 
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Poster0

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A classic example is the one of Adam and Eve, at the beginning the fear of the Lord was the one to observe the commandment which said to not eat the fruit of knowledge cause they would surely die.
The Fear of God in this case is to respect God and to love God by observing His command to not eat the fruit.
The Fear of the Judgement in this case is when Adam and Eve ate the fruit cause they knew they hated God and their own lives by sinning against Him.


It seem that a lack of fear (fear of punsihment) is not necessarily a sign of obedience. The bible says that the ungodly have no fear of God, so a lack of fear could also be a sign of Godlessness. What is your understanding of Jude 1:12?
 
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SeventyTimes7

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It seem that a lack of fear (fear of punsihment) is not necessarily a sign of obedience. The bible says that the ungodly have no fear of God, so a lack of fear could also be a sign of Godlessness. What is your understanding of Jude 1:12?

I am reading Jude 1:12 and it speaks about lawless people who denies Jesus the messiah and change the purity of God in immorality; about these people the verse point at them as egoist shepherds that eat without fear and fill their own bellies.

In this case these lawless people have no fear of to lie cause of their double heart, cause they sin but at the same time they are in the middle of christian community as christians receiving all the material benefits from the community in an impenitent way.
The letter of Jude points at them as lawless, so they are supposed to be people who already broke the law cause they don't fear God and so they don't obseerve His commandments and Jude mentions a lot of sins made by these persons.
So these lawless ones should fear the judgement, because about them in the following verses of Jude it's written:

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

God comes to judge them.
 
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Poster0

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I am reading Jude 1:12 and it speaks about lawless people who denies Jesus the messiah and change the purity of God in immorality; about these people the verse point at them as egoist shepherds that eat without fear and fill their own bellies.

In this case these lawless people have no fear of to lie cause of their double heart, cause they sin but at the same time they are in the middle of christian community as christians receiving all the material benefits from the community in an impenitent way.
The letter of Jude points at them as lawless, so they are supposed to be people who already broke the law cause they don't fear God and so they don't obseerve His commandments and Jude mentions a lot of sins made by these persons.
So these lawless ones should fear the judgement, because about them in the following verses of Jude it's written:

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

God comes to judge them.


Thanks.
 
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Gregory Thompson

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I'm just wondering what it means to fear the Lord because the Bible says we should have that, but I'm not even sure what it is.

Thebible also says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, fear is the best motivator for the flesh/body, but eventually some graduate from fear and realize the born again person bears fruit best in an atmosphere of what the bible describes as "love" . Generally, when people come into contact with God for the first time, it can scare them because they might see things .. like how they can die at any moment .. but this is just their fear manifesting through the probability matrix, when love takes the place of fear, this can manifest as a spiritual gift .. and it's not always prophecy.
 
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Steven Wood

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I'm just wondering what it means to fear the Lord because the Bible says we should have that, but I'm not even sure what it is.
I hope you had a good relationship with your dad when you were a really little kid, about 3 or 4. I did. I say that because that's how I'm going to try to explain this. Do you remember when you were that age and no matter what he said and did you were in awe of. When he picked up something heavy and you tried and couldn't he was the strongest man on earth. If you did something wrong and he punished you, it was the end of the world cuz you let him down, even if the punishment wasn't that harsh it was terrible because he was disappointed so you couldn't help but cry because him talking to you was the worst. When you were facing punishment you were scared to death wondering what he was going to do? Your dad was the Alpha and the Omega to you when you were that age. That's the fear of the Lord that we should have and how we should look at GOD, with the love, respect, fear, and amazement that he deserves knowing that he can do all. That he can and will keep us safe and everything he does he does because it's best for us. Just like a dad does for his child.
 
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The Portuguese Baptist

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I hope you had a good relationship with your dad when you were a really little kid, about 3 or 4. I did. I say that because that's how I'm going to try to explain this. Do you remember when you were that age and no matter what he said and did you were in awe of. When he picked up something heavy and you tried and couldn't he was the strongest man on earth. If you did something wrong and he punished you, it was the end of the world cuz you let him down, even if the punishment wasn't that harsh it was terrible because he was disappointed so you couldn't help but cry because him talking to you was the worst. When you were facing punishment you were scared to death wondering what he was going to do? Your dad was the Alpha and the Omega to you when you were that age. That's the fear of the Lord that we should have and how we should look at GOD, with the love, respect, fear, and amazement that he deserves knowing that he can do all. That he can and will keep us safe and everything he does he does because it's best for us. Just like a dad does for his child.

Man, that was a very good explanation! That was an interesting analogy which I had not even thought of — allow me to praise you for this! I would never have done better! :)
 
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Steven Wood

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Man, that was a very good explanation! That was an interesting analogy which I had not even thought of — allow me to praise you for this! I would never have done better! :)
Thank you. I really appreciate that. I don't know if I'm comfortable with praise though. Anything I wrote that made any sense at all came from God and not me, I can't put batteries in a remote control correctly lol.
 
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The Portuguese Baptist

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Thank you. I really appreciate that. I don't know if I'm comfortable with praise though. Anything I wrote that made any sense at all came from God and not me, I can't put batteries in a remote control correctly lol.

Yes, you're right: ‘praise’ was not really the best word; let me check the dictionary for a better one...

Ah! Here's a more appropriate one: ‘commend’. I commend you for that analogy: it was a very good one.
 
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tturt

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foundational info- How to have the fear of the Lord:
"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God" Pro 2:1-5.
 
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