Your ShelfYour Projects

THE FEAR OF GOD

17%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 26, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 48.

Read the full edition

THE FEAR OF GOD.

By L. A. S.

WHAT is the fear of God? God has answered the question himself. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Prov. 8:13.
The fear of God is a mark of the righteous person, and its absence is a characteristic of the one who is wicked. But the righteous person is not afraid of the Lord, as of one whom he would not wish to meet, or who would be likely, in his view, to perpetrate some injustice upon him. This kind of fear is felt only by the wicked. The unrighteous person fears that he will be overtaken by justice, and therefore does not wish to meet the God of justice. He knows God only as an avenger who has threatened punishment for every evil work in the day of final reckoning.
But by those who know Him aright, God is known as a Father, as the pardoner of transgression and the bestower of every good gift; as One at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The feeling which is inseparable from this knowledge of God is love. And “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18.
The more one loves the Lord, the greater will be one's hatred of evil, since evil is the exact opposite of God's character. And therefore the greater the love of God in a person's heart, the more will that individual possess the true fear of God. God is averse to all that is evil. Not for all that there is in the universe, not for any consideration that could ever possibly be, would God commit an unrighteous act; and therefore God himself possesses the same “fear” which man is exhorted to have, and that in greater degree than man could possess it, as God is a being of higher attributes than man. It is the fear of God; not the feeling of being afraid of God, but the sharing of the feeling which God has for sin and evil. We must share this feeling with Him if we are to be like Him. This is the only fear of God that is known by the upright in heart.
L. A. S.