When Jesus gave his disciples counsel on the way to live their lives, his desire was to set them free and to live lives free of fear and anxiety. One example of this was when Jesus instructed his disciples not to fear men, but rather to fear God (Luke 12:4-13). When considering Jesus’ teaching here it is important to remember what Jesus meant by the word “fear”. While Scripture on numerous occasions instructs us to “fear the Lord” and “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, Jesus also commanded his disciples to stop being afraid in times when they encountered angels or God. Obviously, Jesus was not contradicting himself, but rather using the term “fear/afraid” in two different senses. On the numerous occasions when Jesus instructed his disciples not to be afraid; he referred to their being stricken with terror. Jesus doesn’t not want us to be terrified when we are in God’s presence, his presence or the presence of an angel. Jesus has revealed himself as our friend, being terrified of him is completely inappropriate.
However, when Jesus instructed his disciples not to fear men and to fear God, he meant fear not in the sense of terror, but rather in the sense of being concerned about what men or God think; other words we might use are “respect” or “honor”. In Luke 12 Jesus told his disciples not to fear men, because their power is limited. They can only kill the body. In contrast Jesus instructed them to fear God for this reason. God had the power to impact their existence after death, as well as caring for them in life, even the very hairs on their head were numbered. Jesus gives to us a very practical way of living, we are to pay attention to the one who truly cares about us, rather than those whose care for us is inconsistent and often tainted by their own interests.
Jesus continued to address the disciples’ heart, by addressing how they live their lives. If they confess Jesus before men, then Jesus, the Son of Man, will confess them before the angels of God. However, if they deny him, then they will be denied as well. This response is the practical result of what Jesus said before, fear drives our behavior. As before fear is this case is not a terror related fear, but a caring what another person will think. Ironically, we do not know what another person will think in a given situation, we may think we know based on past experience, but we do not know for certain. If we fear men, then our behavior will be impacted by that fear. Our fear motivates us to act in a way that we believe will put in us a favorable light in that person’s eyes. That means our life will always be controlled by our opinion or belief what another person will think when we say or do a certain thing. In other words we have now given the power to control us to other people. That is in effect a self-imposed slavery to another’s opinion and a pretty miserable way to live. However if we fear God, knowing at the same time that we may look foolish or simple or possibly even offend men, then we reveal that our hearts are aligned toward God and we truly care more about God than we care about the opinions of other men. The benefit of following Jesus’ approach to life is that first we know what God will think and do when we live that way, because Jesus tells us, along with experiencing his promise to care of us. Second we don’t have to live in fear of what other men may or may not do, which greatly reduces our anxiety and correspondingly increases the level of peace we experience.
David Freitag 