We have spoken much, almost a whole book, about exchanged love between God and man, but I feel it is my duty to speak also about the fear of God.
Some people under the pretext of love lose fear, and due to the familiarity between them and God they become reckless and indifferent. They think that God in His love forgives everything and seeks only the heart, not caring about our works however sinful they may be!!
Does our love for God imply fear? And is the there any contradiction between love and fear? Does a person who attains such love have no more fear in his life? This is today##s topic:
We may love God, but such love should not hinder fear but rather make it obligatory.
True indeed are the words of the Scripture: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 Jn 4: 18) But let me ask you expressly:
Has anybody attained to such perfect love?
None, but suppose that someone has attained it, this may remove away fear or terror but not awe.
Actually awe, reverence, and respect are very necessary in our relationship with God, therefore the Lord Christ, speaking about the oppressive judge, said that he did not fear God nor regard man (Lk 18: 4). Moreover the Scripture says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps 111: 10)
Can there be anyone purer than the angels, especially the Cherubim and Seraphim, or love God more than them? Yet in the presence of God, because of the feeling of awe and reverence for God, with two wings they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet.
This awe was clear when the Lord appeared in the temple, with the seraphim around crying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. Then Isaiah the Prophet said, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips … for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.” (Isa 6: 1- 8)
Yes, when a person gets more attached to God, he will feel himself unclean, becomes afraid and says, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” God requires such awe from us and blames us for not having it. He says, “If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?” (Mal 1: 6) And when the Lord God appeared to Moses the Prophet in the wilderness in the bush, He said to Moses, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” (Ex 3: 5)
Awe then is not only for God, but also for His holy places.
Jacob the Patriarch in a dream saw a ladder set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven, and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. In that place he received from God blessing and promises, therefore when he woke up he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Our father Jacob became afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Gen 28: 12- 17)
How awful indeed is this place, the house of the Lord! We should enter it with awe, feeling unworthy and sinners, for, “Holiness adorns Your house, O Lord, forever.” (Ps 93: 5) See how the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” (Lk 18: 13, 14) We should therefore say with David the Prophet:
“But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.” (Ps 5: 7)
The father priest says these words “In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple,” every time he comes out of the temple with the incense. Also we say similar words in the Thanksgiving Prayer at the beginning of every Prayer of the Hours: “We ask and appeal to Your goodness … that You grant us to conclude this blessed day and all the days of our life in peace and in Your fear.” So, if love removes away fear, why do we ask for it in every prayer?!
We often repeat the words “fear of God” in our ritual prayers.
On reading the Gospel in the Divine Mass, the deacon cries out, saying, “Stand with the fear of God. Let us hear the holy Gospel.” Then the high priest removes away the crown from over his head and stands in fear before God to read the Gospel, while the congregation stand in awe repeating the words of the Prayer for the Gospel, “May we be worthy to hear and to act according to Your holy gospels!”
On the descending of the Holy Spirit the deacon cries out, saying, “Worship God in fear and trembling.” Truly, standing before God and kneeling down before Him are aspects of awe, reverence and fear, especially when our heads clings to the dust, as David the Prophet says, “My soul clings to the dust.” (Ps 119: 25)
This awe, fear, and worshiping appears clear in the Book of Revelation.
The twenty four elders, for instance, (Rev 4: 10) sitting around the throne in white robes and golden crowns on their heads, when the four living creatures gave glory and honor to Him who sits on the throne, the twenty four elders fell down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him and cast their crowns before the throne saying, “Your are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.” (Rev 4: 9- 11)
Abraham the father of the fathers and prophets, who had such great favor with God that God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” stood in awe before God, and said, “I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord … Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more.” (Gen 18: 27, 32)
And John the Beloved who leaned on the Lord##s chest and who loved the Lord more than all the other apostles, when he saw the Lord in the Revelation, he fell at His feet as dead (Rev 1: 17).
Can there be deeper love and fear than this?
The dwelling of the Lord amidst His people was received with awe and love. His dwelling in their midst was a sign of love, yet His tabernacle was on a reasonable distance from their tents. The tents of the priests were nearer in distance to the Lord##s than the tents of the people. This is kept up till now, for most of the people fear to dwell near the church lest they sin beside the holy places. That is why we prohibited the dwelling of the cantor or the other workers, and even the priest in the Church so that the awe of the Lord##s house may be preserved without a family life practiced there.
Yet some of the young deacons and altar ministers, because of being used to enter into the altar often, lose awe and talk together during the most holy times of the Holy Mass! Actually because people – including the photographers – are used to enter often into the place, they look to it as an ordinary place, and the place loses its reverence and awe.
Therefore love should not make us lose fear and awe, for the Lord Christ called us to love and also to fear.
He says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Lk 12: 4, 5) Actually whoever walks in the fear of God can attain to the contrition of heart and humbleness, and love will pour within that one##s heart by the Holy Spirit. And through fear one can live with cautiousness.
On the other hand, whoever walks in familiarity without fear will lose his cautiousness, and may become indifferent and heedless.
In our prayers we say to the Lord, “Your great and awe-inspiring name”, and we describe his second coming as “fearful and full of glory”. The fear of God protects us from falling, fills our hearts with a feeling of reverence and respect for the deity, and gives us springs of cautiousness accuracy.
Many of those who left the fear of God fell in pride of heart and hard-heartedness. Instead of rising over the level of fear, they fell into the level of recklessness and did not feel the gravity of sin.
You ought then to live in love and in the fear of God as well.
Love the Lord with all your hearts, and also fear and revere Him with all your hearts, and be of contrite heart before Him. And whenever you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, “We are unprofitable servants.” Listen to what St. Paul the Apostle says: “Do not be haughty, but fear … therefore consider he goodness and severity of God: on those who fell severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Rom 11: 20- 22)
Bothers, the subject of fear is a long subject which has to do with many virtues:
It is connected with repentance and cautiousness in spirituality.
It is connected with humbleness, self-reproach, and heart contrition.
It is connected with the awe necessary for our relationship with God and for prayer and worship.
Saints spoke about fear of God in their spiritual writings and through what they derived from the spirit of the Scripture. Therefore I would like to continue this subject of the fear of God with more detail, and explain its meaning, its necessity, and its relationship with love and with other virtues, and what did the saints say about it. So let this be in another article, God willing.