Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” Exodus 20:20 ESV
Reading this text might sound ironic, for Moses said “do not fear” and immediately follows by saying that the “fear of God” may be before you, that you may not sin. Why put the fear of God in them when you don’t want them to fear at all? If we are talking about the same meaning for fear, this statement might sound ironic, even contradictory. But if the Scriptures is referring to fear in general for the first word fear, and reverence and awe of God in the 2nd statement, it will now make sense. Some Christians who understand the concept of the grace of God and His mercy have slowly drifted off in the faith and have lived compromising lives because they lost the fear of God. They have over emphasized the grace of God to the point that sinning can easily be excused as something that God will readily forgive. Even if that were so, Paul in one of his epistles say, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. When Paul wrote that, he knew there will be people who might abuse what he said or put words into his mouth that he never actually said. Paul was not giving Christians license to sin, he was offering them a license to return to God if they already did. If the fear and reverence of God remains in our lives, we will avoid sin more consciously. If the fear of God remains in our lives, we will avoid the appearance of evil. He is our loving heavenly Father, we should not tremble in fear before Him, but still have the reverence and awe of His holiness, justice and mercy. 24 January
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