faith and fear made practical

Lk 12:32-34 - “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This command to fear not comes on the heels of the passage commanding the disciples to not worry about food or drink or what they will wear. We are commanded to not fear where our money will come from or how we will eat. God will take care of us. But, fear God by trusting Him. Fearing God requires faith. And as we fear God more than our needs on this earth, he will give us not only our daily bread but also the kingdom.

faith and fear and persistence

Lk 18:1-8 - And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

When we fear God, we will have faith. Faith produces godly fear. This will win out so that we can approach God in faith. This judge didn’t fear God, but didn’t want to be worn out by the lady. But it was her persistence that enabled her to keep going. Persistence is faith in action and if faith is the opposite of fear, this should be a great lesson for us.

The eternity of fear

Lk 12:4-7 - “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

We are not to fear those who can kill the body. We are only to fear the one who has authority to cast into hell or heaven. Our eternal destination is a lot greater than our life here on earth. Therefore, we can lead a fearless life if we have understood and believed in Christ for eternal salvation. The God who knows the number of hairs on our head is very much involved in our lives. We will not be forgotten. So, we need to fear God only in the difficult times. Nothing on this earth should make us fear.

A fear wrongly diagonsed

Lk 8:26-39 - Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The people in village were afraid of this demon-possessed man. He was bound with chain and shakles and left by himself to be tortured by these demons. When Jesus came and cast the demons out, the fear of this demon-possessed man was now a fear of this man who had cast the demons out. Where the man who was healed and made whole began to go throughout the city to proclaim the goodness of God, these people in the village missed it. They had the wrong fear of God and thus missed (forever?) knowing the God of the universe. Sometimes it is common and easy to fear God wrongly. Instead of a fear that draws us in and teaches us how to live, they feared God and sent him away. We send God away as if he was some bad-luck charm and we don’t understand that that the fear of God is beginning of wisdom.