A true fear of the Lord will keep us from a world of pain. But to tell you the truth, very few people actually fear God. It has either been watered down or ignored entirely which puts us in a dangerous place. Without the safety net of a good healthy fear of God, compromise is then easier to slip into when we don’t realize there are consequences for our actions.

The fear of the Lord is reverence. When we reverence Him we tremble at His word, we hold everything He says, thinks, and desires as the supreme authority in our lives. When we reverence Him no matter what He asks of us we do it immediately without complaining. We love what He loves and hate what He hates. We will allow our understanding to take the low road and give our minds over to Him to be tutored by His thoughts alone. It is an extreme respect for all that He says and thinks. We hold Him as weighty and precious to our hearts and are sensitive to His every request.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (see Proverbs 1:7) God will trust His secrets to those who fear Him. Why? Because they can be trusted with the responsibility these revelations bring. When a person does not fear God they don’t tremble with submissive obedience to God’s word, so if the Lord were to share a secret with them, they would not have the maturity to obey what has been revealed to them. This in turn makes them more guilty at the judgement because they know more and are without excuse. God withholds revelation many times because He knows we are not ready to obey what He has to say. So He waits till we fear Him and are humble enough to submit to the wonderful truths He wishes to reveal.

The fear of the Lord is ultimately the fear of continuing in sin because we know that, “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) In the words of Christ we are not to fear man that can only kill the body, but fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Christ takes sin seriously, and if we persistently continue in it we will find ourselves damned when we stand before a righteous King.

The true fear of the Lord is a complete terror of being apart from Him. An authentic fear of God manifests in holy living and deep intimacy with the Holy Spirit because it will cause us to run to Him and cling to Him for dear life. It’s not to be afraid of having a relationship with Christ, nor is it to be cautious of drawing near, rather it’s a fear of losing this glorious relationship with Him and falling back into our old lives of rebellion which we know will land us front row seats in the lake of fire.

Fear then is the safety net that keeps us from falling back into rebellion and sin. Its stern voice reminds us to stay sober and diligent so that we will not return to our old lives, because we know what awaits us if we backslide.

Consider these passages:

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.” (Proverbs 16:6)

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13)

“The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” (Psalm 25:14)

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)