SeventyTimes7
Active Member
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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