Is that holy disposition or gracious habit formed in the soul by the Holy Spirit, whereby we are inclined to obey all God’s commands; and evidences itself, <\/p>\n
1. By a dread of his displeasure.<\/p>\n
2. Desire of his favour.<\/p>\n
3. Regard for his excellencies.<\/p>\n
4. Submission to his will.<\/p>\n
5. Gratitude for his benefits.<\/p>\n
6. Sincerity in his worship.<\/p>\n
7. Conscientious obedience to his commands, Pro 8:13. Job 28:28. Bates’s Works, page 913; Gill’s Body of Divinity, vol. 3: book 1:<\/p>\n
I. Old Testament. -There is no mention in the Scriptures of the sentiment of fear in the relations between man and God before the fall of Adam. After the transgression, Adam says, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid” (Gen 3:10). Fear of God ( ) stands thus in close connection with conscience, and with the fact of actual or possible sin. We are probably justified in inferring from the narrative in Genesis that the sentiment of fear, in relation to God, is one of the consequences of Adam’s sin. Since the Fall, fear is a natural and proper feeling on the part of dependent man with regard to the infinite God whom he has offended. Dependence alone, without the consciousness of sin, or of sinful tendencies and possibilities, would not engender fear. In sinful beings, however,. fear is useful and necessary as a preventive and safeguard against transgression. As such it is enjoined in the O.T. especially. (Compare Exo 1:1; Exo 1:17; Deu 6:2; Pro 3:7; Pro 14:2.) So in O.T. we find practical piety generally described as the fear of God: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Pro 1:7); Job 28:8, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding ;” “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever” (Psa 19:9). Fear, thus coming to be almost, if not quite, synonymous with piety, did not (under the old covenant) exclude filial and even cheerful trust in God, and delight in his law and in his worship; the Psalms abound in illustrations of this. Under this covenant, too, the law of love prevailed (Deu 6:5, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”). The promise of a new covenant, also, added the grace of hope to the experience of O.T. believers (Jer 31:31-34). But a fear which is conjoined with love and hope is not a slavish fear, but rather filial fear, veneration (compare Deu 32:6; Hos 11:1; Isa 1:2; Isa 63:16; Isa 64:8). Nevertheless, the sense of the filial relation to God through Christ, such as appears in the N.T., was wanting in the old covenant, and fear was, perhaps, under that covenant, the prevailing element in the consciousness of believers, so far as their relation to God was concerned.<\/p>\n
II. In the sphere of the N.T., the fear of God, in the sense of slavish or untrusting dread, is completely dispelled. True, in the economy of salvation through Christ fear finds a useful place as a preventive of negligence and carelessness in religion, and as an inducement to penitence (2Co 5:11; 2Co 7:1; Php 2:12 Eph 5:21; Heb 12:28-29), and is enforced in this sense by Christ himself (Mat 10:28). But as Christian experience deepens, and the soul is consecrated to God, the sense of fear vanishes, and love takes its place (Rom 8:15; 2Ti 1:7; 1Jn 4:18). On the other hand, where, there is nothing more than the form of Christian life, without its inward power, the old Jewish and even pagan fear springs up. So the Romish Church does not admit a-free and direct approach to God, but demands the intercession of saints, etc., and makes of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in which Christians are lovingly to surround his table, a tremendous and fearful mystery. In Protestant theology, on the contrary, the fear to approach God is considered as a consequence of the Fall, and free access to him is held to be an essential element of true Christian life. Edwards, in his Treatise on Religious Affections, remarks as follows on the relations of fear and sin: “For so hath God contrived and constituted things, in his dispensations towards his own people, that when their love decays, and the exercises of it fail or become weak, fear should arise; for then they need it to restrain them from sin, and to excite them to care for the good of their souls, and so to stir them up to watchfulness and diligence in religion; but God hath so ordered that, when love rises and is in vigorous exercise, then fear should vanish and be driven away; for then they need it not, having a higher and more excellent principle in exercise to restrain them from sin, and stir them up to their duty. <\/p>\n
There are no other principles which human nature is under the influence of that will ever make men conscientious but one of these two fear or love; and therefore, if one of these should not prevail as the other decays, God’s people, when fallen into dead and carnal frames, when love is asleep, would be lamentably exposed indeed; and therefore God has wisely ordained that these two opposite principles of love and fear should rise and fall like the two opposite scales of a balance; when one rises, the other sinks. Love is the spirit of adoption, or the childlike principle; if that slumbers, men fall under fear, which is the spirit of bondage, or the servile principle; and so on the contrary. And if it be so that love, or the spirit of adoption, be carried to a great height, it quite drives away all fear, and gives full assurance; agreeable to that of the apostle, 1Jn 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” These two opposite principles of lust and holy love bring hope and fear into the hearts of God’s children in proportion as they prevail, that is, when left to their own natural influence, without something adventitious or accidental intervening, as the distemper of melancholy, doctrinal ignorance, prejudices of education, wrong instruction, false principles, peculiar temptations, etc. Fear is cast out by the Spirit of God no other way than by the prevailing of love; nor is it ever maintained by his Spirit but when love is asleep” (Edwards, Works, N. Y. edit., iii, 56). See, on the different dispensations of grace, Fletcher, Works, iii, 175 sq.; Stowell, On Nehemiah, lect. i; Herzog, Real-Encyclopadie, v, 280.<\/p>\n
Reverence<\/p>\n
Gen 35:5<\/span>; Exo 18:21<\/span>; Exo 20:18-20<\/span>; Lev 22:32<\/span>; Deu 4:10<\/span>; Deu 5:29<\/span>; Deu 6:2<\/span>; Deu 10:12<\/span>; Deu 10:20-21<\/span>; Deu 6:13<\/span>; Deu 13:4<\/span>; Deu 14:23<\/span>; Deu 28:49<\/span>; Deu 28:58<\/span>; Jos 4:24<\/span>; Jos 24:14<\/span>; 1Sa 2:30<\/span>; 1Sa 12:14<\/span>; 1Sa 12:24<\/span>; 2Sa 23:3<\/span>; 1Ki 8:40<\/span>; 2Ki 17:36<\/span>; 2Ki 17:39<\/span>; 2Ki 17:28<\/span>; 1Ch 16:30<\/span>; 2Ch 19:7<\/span>; 2Ch 19:9<\/span>; Ezr 10:3<\/span>; Neh 5:9<\/span>; Job 28:28<\/span>; Job 37:24<\/span>; Psa 2:11<\/span>; Psa 4:4<\/span>; Psa 15:4<\/span>; Psa 19:9<\/span>; Psa 22:23<\/span>; Psa 22:25<\/span>; Psa 25:12-14<\/span>; Psa 31:19<\/span>; Psa 33:8<\/span>; Psa 33:18<\/span>; Psa 34:7<\/span>; Psa 34:9<\/span>; Psa 34:11<\/span>; Psa 46:10<\/span>; Psa 52:6<\/span>; Psa 60:4<\/span>; Psa 64:9<\/span>; Psa 67:7<\/span>; Psa 72:5<\/span>; Psa 76:7<\/span>; Psa 76:11<\/span>; Psa 85:9<\/span>; Psa 86:11<\/span>; Psa 89:7<\/span>; Psa 90:11<\/span>; Psa 96:4<\/span>; Psa 96:9<\/span>; Psa 99:1<\/span>; Psa 102:15<\/span>; Psa 103:11<\/span>; Psa 103:13<\/span>; Psa 103:17<\/span>; Psa 111:5<\/span>; Psa 111:10<\/span>; Psa 112:1<\/span>; Psa 115:11<\/span>; Psa 115:13<\/span>; Psa 118:4<\/span>; Psa 119:63<\/span>; Psa 119:74<\/span>; Psa 119:79<\/span>; Psa 66:16<\/span>; Psa 128:1<\/span>; Psa 128:4<\/span>; Psa 130:4<\/span>; Psa 135:20<\/span>; Psa 145:19<\/span>; Psa 147:11<\/span>; Pro 1:7<\/span>; Pro 9:10<\/span>; Pro 2:5<\/span>; Pro 3:7<\/span>; Pro 8:13<\/span>; Pro 10:27<\/span>; Pro 13:13<\/span>; Pro 14:2<\/span>; Pro 14:16<\/span>; Pro 14:26-27<\/span>; Pro 15:16<\/span>; Pro 15:33<\/span>; Pro 16:6<\/span>; Pro 19:23<\/span>; Pro 22:4<\/span>; Pro 23:17<\/span>; Pro 24:21<\/span>; Pro 28:14<\/span>; Pro 31:30<\/span>; Ecc 3:14<\/span>; Ecc 7:18<\/span>; Ecc 8:12<\/span>; Ecc 12:13<\/span>; Ecc 5:7<\/span>; 1Pe 2:17<\/span>; Isa 2:10<\/span>; Isa 2:19-21<\/span>; Isa 8:13<\/span>; Isa 25:3<\/span>; Isa 29:13<\/span>; Isa 29:23<\/span>; Isa 33:6<\/span>; Isa 33:13<\/span>; Isa 50:10<\/span>; Isa 59:19<\/span>; Isa 60:5<\/span>; Jer 5:22<\/span>; Jer 10:7<\/span>; Jer 32:39-40<\/span>; Jer 33:9<\/span>; Hos 3:5<\/span>; Mic 7:16-17<\/span>; Zep 1:7<\/span>; Zep 3:7<\/span>; Zec 2:13<\/span>; Mal 1:6<\/span>; Mal 3:16<\/span>; Mal 4:2<\/span>; Mat 10:28<\/span>; Luk 1:50<\/span>; Luk 12:5<\/span>; Luk 23:40<\/span>; Act 10:35<\/span>; Act 13:16<\/span>; Act 13:26<\/span>; Rom 11:20<\/span>; 2Co 7:1<\/span>; Eph 5:21<\/span>; Eph 6:5<\/span>; 1Pe 2:18<\/span>; Phi 2:12<\/span>; Col 3:22<\/span>; Heb 5:5<\/span>; Heb 5:7<\/span>; Heb 12:28-29<\/span>; Jas 2:19<\/span>; 1Pe 1:17<\/span>; 1Pe 3:2<\/span>; 1Pe 3:15<\/span>; 1Jn 4:16-18<\/span>; Rev 11:18<\/span>; Rev 14:7<\/span>; Rev 19:5<\/span> <\/p>\n \n Conspicuous instances of those who feared:<\/p>\n \n – <\/strong>Noah, in preparing the ark<\/p>\n Heb 11:7<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Abraham, tested in the offering of his son Isaac<\/p>\n Gen 22:12<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Jacob, in the vision of the ladder, and the covenant of God<\/p>\n Gen 28:16-17<\/span>; Gen 42:18<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>The midwives of Egypt, in refusing to take the lives of the Hebrew children<\/p>\n Exo 1:17<\/span>; Exo 1:21<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>The Egyptians, at the time of the plague of thunder and hail and fire<\/p>\n Exo 9:20<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>The nine and one-half tribes of Israel west of Jordan<\/p>\n Jos 22:15-20<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Phinehas, in turning away the anger of God at the time of the plague<\/p>\n Num 25:6-15<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Obadiah, in sheltering one hundred prophets against the wrath of Jezebel<\/p>\n 1Ki 18:3-4<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Jehoshaphat, in proclaiming a feast, when the land was about to be invaded by the armies of the Ammonites and Moabites<\/p>\n 2Ch 20:3<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Nehemiah, in his reform of the public administration<\/p>\n Neh 5:15<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Hanani, which qualified him to be ruler over Jerusalem<\/p>\n Neh 7:2<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Job, according to the testimony of Satan<\/p>\n Job 1:8<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>David<\/p>\n Psa 5:7<\/span>; Psa 119:38<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Hezekiah, in his treatment of the prophet Micah, who prophesied evil against Jerusalem<\/p>\n Jer 26:19<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Jonah, in the tempest<\/p>\n Jon 1:9<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>The Jews, in obeying the voice of the Lord<\/p>\n Hag 1:12<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Levi, in receiving the covenant of life and peace<\/p>\n Hag 1:5<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>The women at the sepulcher<\/p>\n Mat 28:8<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Cornelius, who feared God with all his house<\/p>\n Act 10:2<\/span> Conviction, Of Sin<\/span>; Faith<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Cultivated<\/p>\n Exo 3:5<\/span>; Exo 19:12-13<\/span>; Heb 12:18-24<\/span> <\/p>\n \n Guilty<\/p>\n \n – <\/strong>General references<\/p>\n Job 15:20-25<\/span>; Job 18:11<\/span>; Pro 1:24-27<\/span>; Pro 10:24<\/span>; Dan 5:6<\/span>; Jas 2:19<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n – <\/strong>Instances of guilty fear:<\/p>\n \n b Adam and Eve<\/p>\n Gen 3:8-13<\/span> <\/p>\n \n b The guards at Jesus’ tomb<\/p>\n Mat 28:4<\/span> <\/p>\n \n b Judas<\/p>\n