What Does It Mean to Fear God? (It’s Not What You Think)

Every week before I preach I deal with the fear of public speaking. You’d think after decades behind a microphone that would go away. It hasn’t. But there’s a deeper fear that actually drives everything I do — the thing that gets me out of bed, into the Word, and back on stage every weekend. It’s the fear that I’m going to miss what God wants to say through me to people who are desperately searching for answers.

That fear is the fear of God.

And here’s what I’ve noticed: we fear everything in our culture except God. We fear failure, rejection, the economy, what people think of us. We fear our kids making wrong choices. We fear being alone. But the one fear the Bible actually commands us to have? We’ve mostly abandoned it.

I want to fix that today.

We’ve swung the pendulum too far

Here’s what happened. A generation of people grew up in churches that preached hellfire and brimstone non-stop — and a lot of them got damaged by it. So the pendulum swung. Hard. Now all we talk about is grace, mercy, love. God is your buddy. God is your genie. He’s a UPS God who just wants to deliver blessings to your door no matter how you live.

That’s not the Bible. That’s Christianity Light — and it’s fluff.

The Scripture gives us a beautiful balance between the love of God and the fear of God. You cannot talk about one without the other. You can’t talk about mercy without talking about judgment. You can’t talk about grace without acknowledging the holiness God requires. The fear of God and the love of God are two sides of the same coin. Strip one out and you’ve got a counterfeit.

So what is the fear of God actually?

Let me give you my working definition: the fear of God is a 24/7, 360-degree awareness that everything you do, say, and think is in front of a holy, just, and powerful God who sees everything and judges everything.

We try to decaffeinate this. People say, “Oh, it just means reverence.” “It just means respect.” “It’s just being in awe of God.” All of those things are part of it — but we’ve diluted those words too. We say everything is “awesome” now. That was an awesome touchdown. That was an awesome hot fudge sundae. No. God is awesome. When we flatten the word into meaninglessness, we lose the concept too.

Proverbs 1:7 says something that should stop us cold: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Not the middle. Not an advanced concept for seminary students. The beginning. The starting line. The foundation of everything.

Think about that. We didn’t start with the love of God. We started with the fear of God. Why? Because think about who we really are — self-centered sinners, fallen and fallible, standing before a holy God who cannot wink at sin or brush it aside. That awareness should produce something in us. That something is fear.

From that fear, love flows. From that foundation, grace makes sense.

The Starbucks test

I stopped at Starbucks on the way to preach at one of our campuses recently. Ordered a coffee. The barista asked me: “Do you want any room in that?” Room for cream. Room for half-and-half.

Here’s the question I want to ask you: does your definition of God have any room in it? Room for his wrath alongside his love? Room for his judgment alongside his mercy? Philippians 2:12 says to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Fear. And trembling. That language is in the Bible — it’s not an accident, it’s not an overstatement.

We’ve casualized God. He’s our homey. He’s our buddy. We joke about him, take his name casually, live however we want and assume he’ll rubber-stamp it. We’ve lost the fear of God. And I believe the loss of the fear of God is behind a lot of the breakdown we see — in our culture, in our families, in our marriages, in our churches.

What the fear of God actually produces

The fear of God isn’t paralyzing. When you get it right, it’s one of the most productive forces in your life. Here’s what it produces:

Wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 doesn’t just say wisdom begins with the fear of God — it says that’s the only place wisdom starts. You want to make better decisions in your dating life, your finances, your career, your parenting? The fear of God is the beginning of that. It’s a wisdom download available to every person who chooses it.

A hunger for the Word. Psalm 25:14 says, “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.” When you fear God, you hear God. And when you hear God, you fear God more. They feed each other. Ten minutes a day in your chair, open Bible, listening — that’s not a spiritual discipline for super-Christians. That’s the minimum if you actually believe God has something to say to you daily.

A walk that stays on the path. Proverbs 16:6 says “the fear of the Lord keeps one away from sin.” I’ve been married to Lisa for a long time and I’ve only ever been with her. I wish I could tell you every decision to stay pure was just because I love God and I love her. That’s true. But it's only part of it. I fear God. I fear what it would do to Lisa, to my kids, to this church, and to my standing before a holy God. The fear of God keeps things in their right order.

Generosity. This one surprised me when I found it. Deuteronomy 14:22-23 says to bring a tithe and that “doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.” Giving and the fear of God are connected. Lisa and I have tithed for decades. I won’t lie — not every time do I feel like writing that check. Sometimes it’s pure faith in God’s promise. But sometimes, honestly? I fear what happens when I don’t. That’s not a bad motivation. That’s the fear of God working exactly the way God designed it.

A witness that actually witnesses. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says, “Because we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade people.” The fear of God is what makes us actually care about the people around us who don’t know him. Not just want the best for them in a vague way — but urgently, specifically care. I’d rather scare someone into heaven than lull them into hell.

Fear God and you’ll stop fearing everything else

Here’s the paradox at the center of all of this: when you properly fear God, you stop fearing everything else.

Think about it. If the Creator and Judge of the universe is on your side — if his eye is on you, if you’re in his hands — what else do you have to be afraid of? The fear of God is the vaccine against every other fear. It doesn’t add weight to your life. It removes it.

The problem is most of us have that backwards. We fear everything except God. We give enormous energy to the opinions of other people, to what might go wrong, to what we might lose. And then we treat the God who holds the universe together like he’s just a supportive friend we check in with occasionally.

Flip it. Put the fear of God back at the beginning — right where Proverbs says it belongs — and watch how much of the other fear starts to shrink.