Romans 3:11There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace have they not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace have they not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
“Fear of God” seems like such an antiquated, Old Testament phrase. Something that is out of sync with the modern world. After all, our God is a God of Love. This fear of God thing may be appropriate to Muslims and their Allah, but certainly not the God who provides our every need and just wants us to be rich and famous. (can you read the sarcasm?)
And yet the first 17 verses of Chapter 3 of Romans is such an accurate description of our world: no understanding, no seeking of God, uselessness, lack of do gooding, deceit, cursing, bitterness, shedding of blood, destruction, misery and lack of peace. Yes, check; that’s us alright. But does verse 18, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” offer an explanation for the sad state described in the previous 17 verses?
Yes, Church, it does. There is clearly no fear of God in our world; but more importantly there isn’t much in the Church. We are a generation that doesn’t understand that fear of God and love of God are consistent. We don’t understand that “fear” here doesn’t mean insecurity but awe and respect that grew our of first, His great holiness and, then, His great love.
Perhaps our confusion comes from a misunderstanding of 1 John 4: 17-19 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
When we are children we should have a certain fear of our Father. This is much lacking now but it really is necessary. We should mature into a feeling of awe for Him. Our fear, originally based on judgment and dread of punishment, matures into awe for the perfect love that allows us boldness on the day of judgment. This is true not because our Father changed. He didn’t become slack and less holy. We have changed through His grace. Our obedience becomes possible because of love when, before, it was impossible in our lost and fearful state.
We, the Church, are, regretfully, at fault for the state of the world. We have failed to be salt and light. We have failed to broadcast Christ in our lives: perfectly holy and perfectly loving. We don’t demonstrate lives lived at a higher standard made possible by the grace of our Father. We don’t portray a Holy God who doesn’t lower His standards, but empowers His creation.
Fear of God. Hard to believe it’s the cure for our times. It’s the cure for all times. It’s the final fix.
Fear rightly and Be Blessed.
Nick
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