But Jesus commands us to fear God!
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.~ Luke 12:5
This fear is not the terrorising fear for tyrants and evil forces. Instead, it is the right way for corrupt humans to relate to the powerful authority of a just God. (Similarly, it's good when a criminal to fear the police and law courts.) Fear in God yields obedience which pleases God and helps us to take the warnings in Scripture seriously.
So ironically, changing God's image to one less fearful makes people more susceptible to God’s wrath ~ you are removing the impediments to hell. Our fear safeguards us from pride and immorality that brings destruction and God’s judgment of a life sentence in hell. If you tell people not to fear God, they'll stop respecting his commands and living to please him. And so they may actually end up in hell! The abolition of the fearful threat of hell has the ironic effect of evoking God's wrath which leads to the realisation of the threat.
2 comments:
A very useful verse for talking about hell and judgement; it shows Jesus' realism about the world to come and what ought to motivate us.
DBK pointed out the verse in Doctrine of God, Vol I, p198. It's appropriate that it was just after the section on hell.
> it shows Jesus' realism about the world to come and what ought to motivate us.
It's so funny how people presume to speak for God, when he's said the opposite!
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