The Fear of the Lord

Posted September 30, 2025

Love and the Fear of the Lord

The Scriptures are clear that we need to obey the Father’s, the Son’s, and the Spirit’s commands if we will make heaven our eternal home. And They are not only concerned about our obedience but also our motive for obeying Them and doing Their will. They want us to serve them out of love and gratitude for what They have done for us.

1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”

Jesus put it this way:

John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Commentator Albert Barnes says this about this verse:
Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: “Do not show your love by grief at my departure merely; or by profession, but by obedience. This is the only proper evidence of love to Jesus, for mere profession is no proof of love; but that love for him which leads us to do all his will, to love each other, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow him through evil report and through good report, is true attachment.”

Sometimes, though, our love for and gratitude to the Godhead is not all that it should be, and in those times, the fear of the Lord will go a long way in helping us to obey Their commands.

Now, we may think that love and fear are not compatible with each other and that they therefore cannot coexist, but that is not so. The type of love that God calls us to manifest, agape love, is not just emotions or strong feelings, but above that, agape love is a deliberate act of the will, a choice we make.

So, when God speaks to us and commands us about something we should do or stop doing, however He may speak to us, and we are considering in our minds whether we will obey His command and do what He says or not. Often there is a struggle going on inside of us because a part of us does not want to obey Him, and sometimes the loving feelings for Jesus are not there, and our will is waffling. In these times, the fear of the Lord and of the consequences of disobeying Him could be the deciding factor in us ending up obeying Him and doing His will.

Though we, mankind, usually make fear out to be a very negative thing, in the Bible the fear of the Lord is always presented as a very positive thing.

Job 28:28 “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’”

Ecclesiastes 12:13 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.”

Psalm 19:19 “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.”

Proverbs 14:27 “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.”

Proverbs 31:30 “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Malachi 4:2 “But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.”

Acts 9:31 “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.”

Philippians 2:12 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;”

1 Peter 1:17 “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;”

These scriptures, among so many others, demonstrate the truth that is known to all who have an honest heart: we need to both love and fear our glorious Lord.

I will end this article with two more verses from Hebrews that deal with godly fear. The first one pertains to us and the second to Jesus. Lastly, I will include Vine’s definition of “godly fear.”

Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Hebrews 5:7 “Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.”

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words: eulabeia – signifies, firstly, “caution”; then, “reverence, godly fear,” Hebrews 5:7; Hebrews 12:28, in best manuscripts “reverence”; in general, “apprehension, but especially holy fear”; “that mingled fear and love which, combined, constitute the piety of man toward God; the Old Testament places its emphasis on the fear; the New Testament on the love, though there was love in the fear of God’s saints then, as there must be fear in their love now.”

Savior AND Lord

Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Here is the process by which we are saved. We confess with our mouth Jesus as our Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. With our heart we believe and are made righteous and with the confession of Jesus as our Lord we are saved.

What happens, though, if we believe in Him and confess Him as Lord but do not obey Him as Lord and do His will, are we still saved?

Suppose a person receives Christ as their Lord and Savior and then reads in the Bible the Lord’s command to be baptized in water and with the Holy Spirit. If he refuses to obey Him and do these things, is he saved? How much of God’s will that is revealed to us in His Word, and by His Spirit can someone refuse to do and still be saved? If they refuse water and Spirit baptism, could they also refuse to forgive others, refuse to love one another, refuse the great commission to go into the world and preach the gospel, or refuse to do anything else that the Lord commands us in His Word to do after we are saved, and remain saved?

“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

Now, we are certainly not made righteous, justified, by what we do. We are forgiven because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and because we have put our trust, faith, in Him. I understand that. But I also believe that the Bible teaches very clearly that we can be made unrighteous after we have believed in Jesus by what we do or what we refuse to do that is in rebellion to His will as it is revealed to us in the Bible or by His Spirit.

1 John 3:7 “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.
8 He who sins is of the devil…”

I know that the process of salvation takes place over a lifetime and is worked out between God and His child. We work through things by God’s grace, and He is patient and gentle, loving and kind, and He never gives up on us. If He did, we would all be lost.

Thank God that we can repent, confess our sin, and ask for forgiveness as many times as we need to in this process, and He will forgive us and we can then continue on with a clean slate. I also thank God that He is the One who judges us, and that it is not me or any other man. He knows what is in our hearts, and I believe that if we love and fear Him, and we are seeking to obey Him and do His will, it will be well with us on Judgment Day even though we are far from perfect.

But I write this because I see many Christians who treat doing the Father’s will as though it were optional. Then I read scriptures like Matthew 7 where Jesus, speaking to His disciples, says, there will be many, many Christians, on Judgment Day who will not enter heaven because they did not do the will of the Father.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

And there are many leaders in the Church today who teach this easy believe-ism, rather than teaching the full counsel of God’s Word. They don’t warn their followers to flee from sin, worldliness and carnality, and to do the Father’s will, and this scares me. They tell people what they think they want to hear so that they can get them into their churches, when they are supposed to be preaching the whole counsel of God to them so that they can get them into Heaven.

Whose kingdom are they building, theirs or God’s?

The Goodness and Severity of God

God our Creator is such a good, kind, loving, merciful, patient, gracious, tender, gentle, and forgiving God to us, that sometimes I think we can make the mistake of interpreting His goodness and love and forgiveness to mean that He does not really care about our sin. But Paul tells us clearly in Romans that His gracious dealings with us are not to cause us to become complacent in our sin, but rather to lead us to repent of it.

Romans 2:4 “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6 who “WILL RENDER TO EACH ONE ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS”:
7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;
8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,
9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;
10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11 For there is no partiality with God.”

In verse 4, Paul says that the goodness of God is meant to bring us to repentance. He also mentions two other words in that verse: forbearance and longsuffering, which both mean self-restraint before proceeding to action. Peter teaches this same thing in his second letter to the church:

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

We cannot afford to allow the devil and our flesh to convince us that because God is dealing with us in love, kindness, goodness and patience, that it means He does not really care about our sin or carnality.

Some may believe that because God is dealing with me about my sin that means I’m still saved – but God deals with everybody about their sin to one degree or another, so in reality, that is no assurance of salvation.

Others may think God is using me even though I am living in sin, so I must be okay. The Bible records many instances of God working through people who were not saved, so that is not a guarantee of salvation either. He does tell us, though, that if we repent and turn from our sin, carnality, and self-will, and return to Jesus and follow Him, that we will be saved.

God is a good God, and He is trying to keep us from perishing and from experiencing His wrath, but we must repent.

Later on in his letter to the Romans Paul warns:

Romans 11:22 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”

What should our response to Paul’s exhortation be?
He tells us a few verses later:

Romans 12:1“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We should repent of our sin and present our lives completely to the Lord to live out His good, acceptable and perfect will. God is good and He is severe, so let us allow His goodness to lead us to repentance and then let us continue in His goodness so that we will not experience His severity and be cut off!

Love, Fear, and Judgment

By writing as much as I have about; repentance, obedience, receiving the Holy Spirit, the fear of the Lord, getting victory over the flesh, holiness, being conformed to the image of Jesus, walking in the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, doing the will of God, etc. I am in no way belittling the love of God, His mercy and grace, His patience and goodness, gentleness and kindness, or His faithfulness, the fact that He never gives up on us, nor the truth that He pursues us even when we want nothing to do with Him.

If not for all these wonderful attributes of God and His million other glorious qualities that He manifests towards us, His creation, none of us would be saved. I have not been deluded; I need every one of His gracious mercies and all of His divine love to even have a chance of making Heaven my home. I am under no delusions, without Him, left to myself, I would not even stand a chance of making it into the imaginary realm of purgatory.

My reason for focusing on the subjects I have is that there is so much emphasis on His love and all His other wonderful attributes in Christian literature, preaching and teaching, Christian music, the internet, blogs and all the rest, but so very little mention of our responsibilities to Him.

The revelation of His love is to cause us to fall in love with Him. His goodness is meant to lead us to repentance. His forgiveness is to lead us to forgive others. His desire for our best is meant to lead us to trust and obey Him in every area of our life. His call for us to live holy, be gracious, kind, forgiving, merciful, loving, patient, gentle, self-controlled, humble, faithful, etc. is meant to draw us to Him for His grace to live that way, to show us our need to be born again, filled with the Spirit, connected to the Vine.

Because of His great and steadfast love for us He is doing everything necessary for us to be able to be and do all that He created and redeemed us to be and do, but we have to do our part. No one is going to coast into heaven on cruise control. We can’t just sit back and leave the driving to Him; He’s not Greyhound. We are responsible moral agents, created in His image with a free will and we will be held accountable by Him for what we do with our life. Someday every one of us is going to stand before Him and give an account of what we did with this life He has entrusted to us.

Romans 14:10 “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written: ‘AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD.’
12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

There won’t be any excuses on that day. No shucking and jiving and fast talking Him; He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Everything will be exposed for what it is and was, end of story.

There is another portion of Scripture though that gives us great insight and hope for the day of judgment. There are actually a number of them, but I want to look at this one because it relates to what I talked about in the first part of this blog.

1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 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.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

What I see in these verses is: God is love and He loves us totally; so much so that He gave His Son for us. He loved us first and because we have known and believed the love He has for us, we have chosen to love Him in return. “We love Him because He first loved us.” This as I said earlier is one of the purposes of God revealing His great love for us; so that we would love Him in response.

Verse 17 says some really exciting things. First that this love has been brought to maturity in us which gives us boldness in the day of judgment. It continues; “as He is;” how is He? He is love; “so are we in this world.” As God has loved us, now we are loving Him and others in the world. The Bible is very clear and says over and over that to love others is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets. If I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and obey Him and love my fellow man I will not sin against God or man! So, I have no need to fear judgment; I have been made perfect in love and perfect love casts out fear! Let’s make sure that we are clear on this point, the only way I can love others is if I first love God completely. That’s why He can say if I hate my brother, I don’t love God, because if I love God, I would love my brother. And of course, this is only possible because of the work and power of the Holy Spirit abiding in us. He is the One who develops this fruit of love in us. This is great news for us!

God does not want us to live our Christian life in fear of judgment. He wants us to love Him and love one another and live above sin. And if we are doing that then our lives should be filled with the peace of God and the joy of the Lord. But if we don’t love Him, then we won’t love one another either, and if we choose to live in sin and rebellion to Him then we should live in fear of judgment.

Hebrews 10:26 “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”

To be honest this admonition was written to a specific group of people, to Jewish Christians who were considering turning back from following Jesus and returning to the Jewish religion, but the principles still do apply to all who choose to sin willfully. If we choose to sin, we will sense that we are endangering our souls, and we will live in fear of judgment. We see this truth evident right from the beginning of the Bible when Adam and Eve sinned, they were afraid and hid from God. The source of this fear in our hearts is the Holy Spirit convicting us in an effort to bring us to a place of repentance. When we repent of and confess our sins, we receive God’s forgiveness, and we will once again be able to enjoy the peace of God and the joy of the Lord.

I said that God does not want us to live in fear of judgment; that should only be our lot if we are living in willful sin. But I am not saying that God does not want us to fear Him. The fear of the Lord is a good thing. It is pure, holy, clean, righteous and to be desired; in fact we should pray for God to give us a healthy fear of Him. The fear of the Lord can help to keep us from sinning, but if we do sin, the fear of judgment can help to bring us to a place of repentance.

No Fear

In recent history as the church returns to being the Book of Acts, New Testament church it was meant to be, we see progress was made first with the restoration of the teaching of justification through faith in Jesus Christ. Then a return to water baptism after repentance and trusting in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and tongues. We’ve also seen a resurgence of miracles, signs and wonders, with more to come in the future I believe.

But one of the things that was prevalent in the Old and New Testament church was the fear of the Lord, and it doesn’t appear that has been brought back to the same place of prominence that it held back then. The emphasis in our day is on grace, faith and love, and rightly so as these are paramount to God’s people, but not to the expense of neglecting the fear of the Lord.

We are commanded all through the Word of God to fear Him.

God said, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever” (Deuteronomy 5:29)!

Moses said, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12),

Jesus said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him” (Luke 12:5).

Peter said, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear” (1 Peter 1:17);

Paul said, “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

The writer of Hebrews said, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28).

The Bible in Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

But most Christians are not working out their salvation, they are coasting along, and I believe one of the main reasons for that is because they have no fear of God.

In Paul’s description in Romans 3 of how and why all people are sinners, one of the things he lists is:

Romans 3:18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Sinners have no fear of God and when Christians lose a healthy fear of the Lord, they start to live like sinners again. All people have a sinful nature, the flesh, which has no fear of, nor love for, God; it loves the things of this world. So, if we don’t fear the Lord, we end up living our life in the flesh for the things of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And our lives end up producing the works of the flesh, of which the Bible says in Galatians that those who do are not going to heaven.

Galatians 5:19 “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

These things are sin, and the wages of sin is death, eternal death, separation from God forever! Hell is for those, sinners, who have no real love for nor fear of God, who don’t repent and serve Him, but live their lives serving the flesh, the world, sin, self and unwittingly the devil.

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Who are those who do not live according to the flesh and die and go to hell, but who by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, the works of the flesh, and inherit eternal life in heaven?
We can answer that by looking at how the Bible describes those who make it into heaven in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 11:18 “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Revelation 19:5 “Then a voice came from the throne, saying, ‘Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great.’”

One of the chief characteristics of those who serve Him and who God says are going to heaven is that they all fear Him; both the small and the great. The reason for this, I believe, is that without a healthy fear of the Lord, we will not serve Him, and serving the Lord is another attribute of those who will make heaven their eternal home.

In fact, we have a Word of prophecy from the book of Malachi, which talks about a people who fear and serve the LORD, which I believe are the same people we just read about in the Book of Revelation.

Malachi 3:16 “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.
17 “They shall be Mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
18 Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.”

The one who serves the Lord is the one who fears Him, and the Lord puts their names in His book of remembrance (the Book of Life?) and He spares them and makes them His jewels. I believe these are the ones that the Bible shows us, in the Book of Revelation, who are going to be with the Lord in heaven forever and ever!

The fear of the Lord is not a negative thing, in fact, the Lord values it in His children because it is one of the chief attributes of those who serve Him; those who will be His bride in Heaven for all of eternity!