What is the fear of God? - RC Sproul
THERE IS ONE FEAR, HOWEVER, that many of us do not have that we should have. It is the fear of God. Not only are we allowed to fear God, we are commanded to fear Him. A mark of reprobation is to have no fear of God before our eyes.
Luther made an important distinction concerning the fear of God. He distinguished between servile fear and filial fear. He described servile fear as that kind of fear a prisoner has for his torturer. Filial fear is the fear a son has who loves his father and does not want to offend him or let him down. It is a fear born of respect.
When the Bible calls us to fear God it is a call to a fear born of reverence, awe, and adoration. It is a respect of the highest magnitude.
Luther’s distinction is comforting to me. It is important to know the difference between servile and filial fear. These are different kinds of fear. But they are also both different kinds of fear.
The unbeliever may experience the way of the wicked who flees when no one pursues him, or the pagan who trembles at the rustling of a leaf. These are types of servile fear. The unbeliever has far more to fear than he is usually ready to acknowledge. It is a fearful thing indeed to fall into the hands of the living God who reigns as a consuming fire. The paradox here is that the unbeliever has “no fear before God” he is still said to flee at his shadow. Perhaps this means the unbeliever’s fear is subliminal. He wills not to have God in his knowledge; he suppresses the truth of God that is plainly manifest to him. But suppression does not destroy knowledge. It buries it but it gnaws away at the uneasy conscience.
The filial fear the believer has differs from the fear of the unbeliever but it is fear nevertheless. We are called to fear Him and keep His commandments. We are called to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
It is because God is a loving Father to us that Luther spoke of filial fear. It is an analogy drawn from family life. Some people have a hard time even thinking of God as “Father” because of the horrible abuse they suffered from their earthly father’s hands. But God is a Father who never abuses His children. But He does punish them. He chastens those He loves. It is wise for the child of God to fear the corrective wrath of the Father.
When God puts His heavy hand on me it hurts far worse than any punishment wrought by my football coach. This is not to suggest that God is “heavy handed” in the pejorative sense. But His hand of discipline can be heavy indeed. It would be far worse, of course, if I screamed at Him, “Take Your hands off me!” … and He did. If God ever took His hands off us we would perish in an instant.
One of the most poignant episodes of the judgment of God occurred in the Old Testament case of Eli. Eli was a judge and priest over Israel. He was, for the most part, a godly man. But his sons were wicked and profaned the house of God. Eli rebuked them but did not fully restrain them. God revealed to Samuel that He would judge the house of Eli:
Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them … (1 Sam. 3:11f).
When Eli persisted in asking Samuel what God had said, Samuel finally told him. When Eli heard the words, he said: “It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him” (v. 18).
What seemed good to God was to punish the house of Eli. Eli recognized the word of God when he heard it because he understood the character of Him whose word it was. A God before whom we need to have no fear is not God but an idol made by our own hands. ■
Sproul, R. C. (1996). Right Now Counts Forever: Thou Shalt Fear. (R. C. Sproul Jr., Ed.)Tabletalk Magazine, October 1996: Fearing God, 5–7.
