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The fear of God

Unknown
edited September 2006 in Faith Issues
What exactly is the fear of God and how can we attain it?

Comments

  • mikeforjesusmikeforjesus
    Fear Him I think means to respect and revere Him with dread at the same time I think because He is much more holier than us... because we are to rejoice with trembling?


    At the same time we should fear His punishment if we disobey Him I think...

    We should fear God who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell


    Matthew 10:28 (King James Version)

    28And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

    From
    http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew 10:28;&version=9;

    I hope I answered it correctly and clearly.. maybe someone can give a better answer or explain it more and better?
  • Youstina SYoustina S
    I will give you the simplest analogy that i always tell my s.s. kids...

    let's say your mother tells you that you must eat your entire lunch at school and you are not allowed to throw it out...well, for the sake of obedience, you listen to your mother. In this case you are fearing your mother because you are afraid to upset her. If your mom sees that you're not done your lunch (though she deliberately told you to finish it), how do you think that would make you feel? More importantly, how would that make your mom feel?

    So, the bottom line is, fearing God means that you would feel guilty if you comitted something wrong before God. So, instead of comitting a sin, you fear God because you are afraid that if you commit the sin before God you would upset Him.

    Fearing God is a healthy behaviour especially if you want to grow spiritually. Fearing God can prevent you from comitting lots of sins because it enables you to use your conscience.

    Hope i helped, take care,

    NOP+
    Youstina S
  • Believer in GodBeliever in God
    Forgive me and correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the fear of God is, in a sense, the way to love God. The Lord loves the humble people, as we all know. When we fear God we learn to respect God and become humble before Him, as several others already suggested. This is because we learn to treat God, not as an equal, as some who would not fear God would see, but as the great and Divine God that He is. No one, I repeat NO ONE OR NOTHING, can come even close to God, not even the angels of God who are the very powerful beings who are in Heaven and we are nothing compared to them. I don't know how to emphasize that to the point that I really mean that. Just as the angels of Heaven serve the Lord out of humility we must serve the Lord, even more if possible, out of humility. For the angels of God have already submitted their free will to God and have proven their loyalty to Him by fighting the powers of the devil. We must submit our free wills to God as the angels have to truly serve Him according to His will and not according to ours. We must learn to fight the devil as the angels of God have. We must fear the Lord in order to do all of that and achieve true humility before the Lord. For without fear of the Lord we may fall into the same trap of the devil, as the atheists have done, and look to God as a fallible human being as they are. For they do not believe that such a Divine God as ours can have such immense power and therefore consider that our Lord does not exhist. I believe that the fear of God is the gift of the Holy Spirit to us because without it no one can truly understand anything that the Orthodox Christian doctrine teaches us. Please forgive me for any lack of humility.

    Please pray for me always,
    Believer in God
  • Believer in GodBeliever in God
    To fear God does not mean to treat Him like an enemy. NEVER SAY THAT!!! The definition of fear according to dictionary.com is, To be in awe of; revere. That means to see God as the magnificent God that He is. When one fears God one loses pride in himself and sees himself as less then dust compared to the magnificence of God.
  • Believer in GodBeliever in God
    In most cases it is like that, yes. Please forgive me and correct me if I am wrong. When we talk about fearing God, as His children, the word fear should be considered like that. There are instances though where the word fear is meant to be afraid. For instance in Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, FEAR not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. In that instance God said to Abram not to be afraid because God is always with him and will be His shield.

    Please pray for me always,
    Believer in God
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