What Does It Mean to Fear God? — The Most Misunderstood Command in the Bible

# What Does It Mean to Fear God? -- The Most Misunderstood Command in the Bible

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)

"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." (Proverbs 1:7)

The command to fear God appears throughout Scripture -- in the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, the wisdom literature, and the New Testament. It is not a minor theme. It is one of the central postures Scripture calls human beings to have toward their Creator.

And yet it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Bible. Here is what it actually means.

## The Problem With "Fear"

The word "fear" in English carries almost exclusively negative connotations. Fear is what you feel before a car accident, when you hear an unexpected noise at night, or when you receive bad news from the doctor. It is an unpleasant emotion associated with danger and threat.

If this is what "fearing God" means, it sounds like a terrible thing -- a God-relationship built on terror and dread. Many people have experienced exactly this kind of toxic religious fear, and it has damaged their relationship with God rather than fostered it.

But this is not what the Bible means by the fear of the Lord. Or rather -- it is not all that the Bible means. The Hebrew word most often translated "fear" in connection with God is yirah, and it carries a range of meaning that the English word does not fully capture.

## Two Kinds of Fear

Theologians have historically distinguished between what they call "servile fear" and "filial fear."

Servile fear is the fear of a slave toward a harsh master -- pure terror of punishment, with no love involved. This is not the biblical fear of the Lord.

Filial fear is the fear of a beloved child toward a parent they deeply respect and do not want to disappoint. It involves awe at the parent's greatness, love for the relationship, and a genuine desire not to harm it through disobedience. This is much closer to what Scripture means.

The fear of the Lord is a combination of awe, reverence, love, and moral seriousness in the presence of a Being who is infinitely holy, infinitely powerful, and infinitely good. It is not primarily about being afraid of what God will do to you -- it is about being genuinely overwhelmed by who God is.

## What Does Fearing God Look Like?

The fear of the Lord shows up in concrete, practical ways.

It shows up in worship. The person who fears God approaches worship with genuine gravity, not casualness. They do not treat the Sunday gathering as a social event or a performance. They come before God with a sense of who He is -- Creator, Redeemer, Judge, Father -- and that shapes how they pray, sing, and listen.

It shows up in moral decision-making. Scripture consistently connects the fear of God to avoiding evil. "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil" (Proverbs 8:13). When no one is watching, when you could get away with something, when the temptation is strong and the consequences seem remote -- what keeps a person from sin is the awareness that God is present and God is holy. Joseph's reason for refusing Potiphar's wife was exactly this: "How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9)

It shows up in humility. The person who genuinely fears God has an accurate assessment of themselves relative to God. They do not pretend to be more than they are. They do not elevate their own opinions to the level of divine authority. They hold their convictions carefully, knowing that God's thoughts are not their thoughts and His ways are not their ways.

It shows up in trust. Paradoxically, the fear of the Lord produces peace rather than anxiety. Proverbs 19:23 says: "The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble." When you are appropriately in awe of God, you are less anxious about everything else -- because you have accurately calibrated who is actually in charge of the universe.

## Is This Compatible With Love?

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment." (1 John 4:18)

Does this verse contradict the call to fear God? Only if you misread both texts. John is talking about the punishing, tormented kind of fear -- the servile fear of a slave who expects only punishment. He is saying that the person who has truly received God's love does not live under that kind of terror.

But John himself says elsewhere: "This is love for God: to keep his commands." The love of God and the fear of God are not opposites in Scripture -- they are deeply intertwined. Jonathan Edwards described it this way: true fear of God is love for God that has accurately reckoned with who God is. You love Him and you are awed by Him simultaneously, and those two things reinforce each other.

## Why the Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom

Proverbs says the fear of the Lord is the "beginning" of wisdom -- not the end, not the totality, but the beginning. This is because wisdom, in the biblical sense, is the ability to live skillfully in the world God made according to the principles God built into it. The person who does not acknowledge God as the author of reality will fundamentally misread reality -- and therefore be unable to live wisely within it.

The fear of the Lord is the epistemological foundation: the starting point that makes genuine knowledge of the world possible. Without it, you are trying to navigate with a broken compass.

## At FBC Fenton

At First Baptist Church of Fenton, we preach a God who is both holy and loving -- and we believe that a genuine encounter with His holiness produces exactly the kind of reverential, joyful, life-changing fear that Scripture describes. We would love to have you join us. Services are at 10:30 AM on Sundays at 860 N. Leroy Street, Fenton, Michigan. You can also reach us at (810) 629-9427.