We all pro­bab­ly have ex­pe­rien­ces of fear. Fear may come in­to our thoughts. It may al­so bot­her us. Fear may be cons­tant­ly pre­sent in a per­son’s life, who thus li­ves in fear. What are you af­raid of? Why are you af­raid?

It is dif­fi­cult not to be af­raid of what will hap­pen in the fu­tu­re, as we con­ti­nuo­us­ly hear mes­sa­ges of dest­ruc­ti­on from dif­fe­rent parts of the world. It is ea­sy to name the ob­jects of fear co­ming from out­si­de. We can dis­cuss them with our friends, usu­al­ly ha­ving a com­mon un­ders­tan­ding of what has cau­sed them. Ho­we­ver, there are al­so ot­her cau­ses of fear. Fear may come from in­si­de us. These fe­ars are not al­wa­ys as ea­si­ly dis­pel­led as those cau­sed by ex­ter­nal in­ci­dents. It may be dif­fi­cult to find an exp­la­na­ti­on for a rest­less mind. God´s Word dis­cus­ses both fear that is im­por­tant and ap­p­rop­ri­a­te to man and fear cau­sed by sin.

Man, whom God cre­a­ted in His own ima­ge and me­ant to live in con­nec­ti­on with Him, does not feel good if this con­nec­ti­on with God has bro­ken. His he­art is overw­hel­med by rest­les­s­ness and fear, con­fu­si­on about the know­led­ge that the lights shi­ning from the Hou­se of the Lord are no lon­ger sho­wing him the way. Mes­sa­ges of un­for­tu­na­te events may furt­her inc­re­a­se his bur­den of dist­ress.

Good mes­sa­ges

Where are the good mes­sa­ges, ones that pro­mi­se us re­lief from fear? Are they overs­ha­do­wed by the ne­ga­ti­ve mes­sa­ges? Does man, in the midst of fear, tend to deny the ac­cess of good mes­sa­ges in­to his awa­re­ness?

On the wall of a dig­ni­fied school buil­ding in my home town there is the text: “The conc­lu­si­on of all doct­ri­ne is: Fear God and keep His com­mand­ments.” In this way, the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry so­cie­ty exp­res­sed its sup­port for the Chris­ti­an va­lu­es of life. We can find many si­mi­lar gui­de­li­nes for life in the Bib­le. “Be­hold, the fear of the Lord, that is wis­dom; and to de­part from evil is un­ders­tan­ding.” (Job 28:28) “Te­ach me thy way, O Lord, I will walk in thy truth: uni­te my he­art to fear thy name.” (Ps. 86:11)

Can this ad­vi­ce, which ex­horts us to fear, help one who is li­ving in fear? There seems to be fear that is ac­cep­tab­le to God and gi­ves se­cu­ri­ty in life, and there is al­so fear cau­sed by the bon­da­ge of sin. Paul wri­tes to the Ro­man cong­re­ga­ti­on: “For ye have not re­cei­ved the Spi­rit of bon­da­ge again to fear; but you have re­cei­ved the Spi­rit of adop­ti­on, whe­re­by we cry, Ab­ba, Fat­her.” (Rom. 8:15)

In God’s love

Is not the fear of God about avoi­ding sin and main­tai­ning the con­nec­ti­on bet­ween God and man? This con­nec­ti­on me­ans being a par­ta­ker of God´s love, the love with no fear, as “per­fect love cas­teth our fear” (1 John 18).

There hen­ce seem to be many kinds of fear and love. Pe­op­le would not like to make a dis­tinc­ti­on bet­ween them, but would rat­her have even di­so­be­dien­ce co­ve­red by love. Comp­le­te love is God´s love. We are ex­hor­ted to strive for that love.

“Yea, though I walk through the val­ley of the sha­dow of de­ath, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they com­fort me. Su­re­ly good­ness and mer­cy shall fol­low me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the hou­se of the Lord for ever.” (Ps. 23:4,6)

Veik­ko Si­vu­la

Trans­la­ti­on: R.H.

The ar­tic­le was pub­lis­hed in on­li­ne Päi­vä­mies on 3 Feb­ru­a­ry 2016.