Fear Of The Lord

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

God is good.  God does love us, all of us.  Let's start there.  If He was not good or loving he would never have sent His son, Jesus.  Without Jesus, we would all be doomed to spend eternity away from our Creator.  Never being able to walk with Him.  Eternally kept away from the original plan of celebration.  The fact that God did send Jesus is testament to His goodness.  As I said, that's not in question.  Still, God is powerful and there is a fear we are called to have of Him.

God is the creator of everything.  He has placed the universe into existence.  He has defined the rules of physics and thermodynamics to create a place suitable for us to live.  He has also established the rules of life.  God gave us a standard that we are to live by, the 10 Commandments.  We cannot live up to them.  In fact, our enemy tricked the first man and woman and brought sin into the world.  That same enemy is constantly working to trip us up.  As Christians, we have a perfect high priest interceding on our behalf.  When we confess our shortcomings, he is sure to forgive us.  But is that all Jesus is to us?  A rag to wipe off with?

God has said we are to have fear so we may grow.  It is a dangerous place to be when you believe that because you are a Christian you can just live life and say "sorry" when you make a mistake.  That's not what we read in the Bible.  We are to be transformed into the image of Jesus.  We are to ask God to work in us and convict us so that we may grow.  Do we do that?  Always?  Or sometimes do we sin knowing we'll say sorry later.  It's not about the sorry, its repentance.  Repentance is to "turn from" so we don't do it again.  If we focus on the character of God, on His judgment of us in the future, would we act the same?