Friends: Fear shouldn’t be the coin of the realm, but it often is.  Love is so much better. See the column ...  God bless! Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #956

March 11, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Fear and Loving   

By Bob Walters

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” – 1 John 4:18

Perhaps you’ve noticed the cultural forces of fear embedded in and surrounding our politics, journalism, government, education, entertainment, and religion. Common sense and faith are healthier than fear, but fear is the greater driver of control.

You want people’s unquestioning action or compliance? Scare ‘em. Threaten them. Punish them.  Mixed in with adequate doses of hatred, distrust, stupidity, and prevarication – i.e., lying to folks – one can perpetrate the most awful, damaging, and vicious violations of the human spirit.  We willfully harm our fellow humans; we all suffer.

You want divine relationship, hope, and peace? All you need is love.

Considering the New Testament was written nearly 2,000 years ago, and the Old Testament was coming together for a couple thousand years before that, fear’s impact on the human psyche and actions is nothing new. Fear of the unknown and the punitive wrath of a righteous God were logical upshots of human sin and the Fall.

As Adam and Eve stood naked and ashamed in the Garden, they hid from God, fearing what He would think of their disobedience. But we can only “hide” from God for so long, and the important third lesson here – after lesson 1) shame and lesson 2) fear – was even though knowing what Adam and Eve had done, God went looking for them.  

Lesson 3: God cares.

There is a reason Jesus, in the New Testament bringing a new covenant of faith, repeatedly says to believers, “Do not fear.” After thousands of years of human disobedience, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the perfect beacon and representation of God’s love, grace, mercy, and truth, came looking for us, “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). And we are still sinners today, but now we know Jesus.  Game changer.

The OT massively speaks of fearing God, while God’s love is rarely mentioned. God’s character – His creativity, righteousness, truth, and glory – is on full display.  The New Testament’s full display of Jesus’s character is faith, trust, obedience, and love of God.  What we must learn is that what is good for God is good for us.  Our “obedience,” etc., doesn’t improve God’s life; it improves ours. God’s glory can’t be harmed; but our unbelief – our fear – harms everyone.  That is what living in fear does to humanity.

The OT reveals not just the character of God but the character of humanity. What Jesus – God the Son – does is reveal the way cursed man is restored, by faith, to relationship with God the Father. That is why in information presented to me, whether in a sermon, a newscast, on the Internet, in commentaries, books, or whatever – what I am listening and looking for is the glory of God found in restoring my divine relationship.

I see far too much divisive human communication aimed at fomenting submission to ungodly ideas fueled by fear.  Truth is better because Jesus is truth and God is love.

I’ve learned that joy comes in the love part of it, not the fear part of it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that today’s column title, “Fear and Loving,” is a rip-off of Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 book, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” about the fall of America’s counterculture.  Love is better than fear; that’s all Walters is saying.