BE NOT AFRAID may be Jesus' message but it is erasing real concerns
One of the things that is found most endearing about Jesus is his seeming
dislike of fear.
At his birth, a group of angels told the shepherds not to be afraid (Luke 2).
Jesus told the disciples when their boat was about to sink and when they thought
he was a ghost not to be afraid (Mark 6).
Jesus said that fear is useless and what is needed is trust.
A man claiming to be an apostle who had learned at the feet of Jesus, wrote,
“There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete,
perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear
brings with it the thought of punishment, and so he who is afraid has not
reached the full maturity of love” (1 John 4:18). The verse before shows that he
is thinking of loving God.
These verses may only teach that we must not be afraid of God because we can
trust him. Feelings and the will are two different things so we can trust God
while feeling afraid of him. The Bible is not as consoling then as it looks for
its fondness for self-abuse would suggest it wants us to live in terror. The
angels did not censure fear and told them not to be afraid of THEM for they were
scared the shepherds would make a run for the gate.
Jesus meant when he told the apostles not to fear that they were not to fear him
for he was no ghost.
The John text does not tell us to be unafraid of God not to serve God because of
fear for that would not be loving God at all. God casts out the fear that
prevents love and that is the fear John means.
We are to be afraid of ourselves. James and Jesus both taught that we have no
evidence that we will be alive tomorrow or all right tomorrow. That tells us
that we cannot be sure if we will remain without sin until five minutes have
passed.
Jesus said that sin was so terrible that it is better to be murdered or drowned
than to cause it. He allowed us to have feelings so if sin is so bad then we
have to be more afraid of it than anything else in the world or universe.
The Bible could tell us not to fear God and still advocate terror for since the
will and the emotions don’t go together you may have no fear in your will but
have complete and utter fear in your emotions.
When the price of sin is eternal torment that means that Christianity is to be a
cult basted in fear.
