Fear

‘Does fear get in the way of us loving God?’. My guess is that most of us started life fearing God, let me tell you why.

Throughout history even up to the present day man has feared God and the gods; in some parts of the world today people still sacrifice animals to their gods. Why, so as to please God, put another way ‘to stop God doing something bad to them’. The theory goes the more valuable the sacrifice the more the god or gods are pleased, which is why people in the past sacrificed people and children because they are the most valued possession you have. The Jews in Jesus’ day made sacrifices for their sins; they did this in the temple by buying things to sacrifice (the role of the temple is one of the things Jesus came to change).

This understanding is deep in our worldview and culture; if we look at our own faith then I am sure you can think of a number of situations in which we are made to fear God. For instance, the man in the street with the sign ‘the end is nigh’ is saying to me that God will punish me and is to be feared unless I turn to him or the nuns in school who kept the children in line by frightening them with tales of hell fire and a God who will punish them if they do not behave themselves. 

It is hard for us to see God as loving with all this going on, so we too out of fear try to please God in order that we might not be punished and the danger is that we turn God into a God that rewards us if we please Him. For some this has become a doctrine and this is called the ‘prosperity gospel’ this way of thinking says you do the right things for God and God will reward you in this life, with good health, a good job, lots of money, a big house etc, etc, and in the next eternal life.

The problem is, the down side to the view is if you are poor or unhealthy and do not have a job then you are at fault something is wrong with you and God might be punishing you. Maybe it’s your faith that’s the problem. The prosperity gospel doctrine has no place for the under achiever. This makes God out to reward the people who do the right thing and punish people who do not do the right thing, like, not trusting God, not loving God enough, or and lack of faith. This is a very dangerous place to be as if you take this view point then the poor of the world - and that’s about half the world - have to take the blame themselves. It’s their fault and clearly God does not and is not blessing them.  Not only that but if it’s their fault and God is not with them or on their side, then why should I help them. This view in my opinion goes against all that I read in the gospels of a Jesus who comes to free people and bring life not death to all people.

So then if we develop a faith based on fear of God then it’s likely that two things will happen. The first is that we are more likely to have a law based faith, that is we say to ourselves, if I work in the church for God, or in my community for God then God will be pleased with me and bless me.  The second is that we will always try to control God. If you fear God you must deal with that fear and the best way to deal with fear is always control. If we are in control of God by what we do for God then we address the fear and have no need to be in relationship with God; it’s the great get out.

If we find controlling God difficult then we start to feel guilty so we find ways of doing more things for God in our Church or our neighbourhood whatever it is, these feelings can stop us from the very real things God is offering us, that is where we left off last time.

So once again God sent his Son to save the world, to bring the world and its people back into relationship with Him, without relationship there simply is no Church, no faith and no hope. How do we get over our fear by surrendering ourselves over and over again to God?  It’s called  ‘a thousand  surrenders’. Remember Jesus said, “Perfect love casts out fear”. If God is love, then God is only loving us, God can only love us. Jesus said to the disciples, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father who sent me”. Jesus then comes to show the world a God of love. God loves us no matter what we do. Jesus is saying to us, “Do not be afraid”, for we have nothing to fear, “Trust in me”. Jesus says, ‘He is the way to God the father’, and that way is the way of love.