The fear of the Lord is a very prominent theme in the Scriptures, and yet we rarely hear much about it in our churches today. The Scriptures speak of the fear of the Lord or of fearing God literally dozens of times, including no less than 14 times in the book of Proverbs alone! In his book, The Forgotten Fear, Albert Martin notes that “there are no fewer than 150 to 175 explicit references to the fear of God” in the Bible! (p.1-2)
In his book, Principles of Conduct, John Murray (1898-1975) calls the fear of God “the soul of godliness,” and further states that “If we are thinking of the notes of biblical piety none is more characteristic than the fear of the Lord.” (p.239)
In Psalm 119 the Psalmist twice refers to his fellow believers as “those who fear you [i.e. God].” (v.74, 79) So you could say that in many ways the fear of the Lord is clearly an identifying mark or characteristic of believers in the Lord. Similarly, in Psalm 103 David speaks of the people of God no less than three times3 as “those who fear him” (i.e. the LORD). The promise of God’s everlasting steadfast love, boundless forgiveness, and fatherly compassion in Christ are said to belong specifically to those who fear the Lord.
Likewise the absence of the fear of the Lord is one of the defining characteristics of wickedness and unbelief. For example, in our Lord Jesus’s parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, He describes the unjust judge (in the judge’s own words no less!) as neither fearing God nor regarding man (v.4). That is precisely the reason that he could not be counted on to judge justly except for wanting the poor widow to stop bothering him. And in Romans chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to impress upon us the sobering truth and reality of the doctrine of the total depravity of all of mankind in Adam, he essentially caps off his argument there by citing the words of Psalm 36:1, saying, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (v.18)
As we saw from Dr. Murray’s quote above, the fear of God is in many ways the essence of godliness. At the very end of the book of Ecclesiastes we read the following:
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, ESV, Italics added)
Fearing God and its corollary, keeping God’s commandments, are at the very heart of our duty to God, both as our Creator as well as our Redeemer. In fact, Paul tells us that growth in holiness in the fear of God is part of the duty that is required of us in light of the promises of God in the gospel. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 he writes:
“Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (ESV)
It would seem that a right biblical fear of God is necessary in order that we as believers might grow in holiness. And the Lord promises His blessing to those who fear Him. Psalm 128:1 tells us:
“Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!” (ESV)
May the Lord in His mercy and kindness to His church grant that we might recover, not just the right biblical doctrine of the fear of God, but also the experience, practice, and blessing of it as well!
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