The English word Fear or a form of fear is used in the KJV Bible over 500 times, with 18 different words in the Hebrew language being translated as fear. Clearly this is an important topic, so what does the Bible mean when it talks about fear?

First, what does the English language define fear as?

Let’s go back to the New American heritage dictionary that we have been using, fear is ascribed the following definitions:

1: a feeling of alarm or disquiet caused by the expectation of danger, pain, disaster, or the like. Terror; dread; apprehension.

2: an instance or manifestation of such a feeling.

3: a state or condition of alarm or dread.

4: extreme reverence or awe.

5: A ground for dread or apprehension.

Or also: to be in awe of; revere.

What about the 18 Hebrew words?

In every instance where God is speaking with His people and mentions fear in regards to their view of Him, the proper word would be reverence or awe, not a sense of terror or dread.

Fear, in regards to God, is not about being scared, terrified, afraid or worried, stressed or in dread of Him or His actions, but that rather we should stand in awe of Him.

Is there a place for fear? Absolutely; those who do not have a relationship with God may feel fear, but fear is not for the believer. Fear was not for the children of Israel, even those who struggled with doubt and sin, fear was for those who stood at war with God’s people, and even then it was a fear, a dread of the Israelites.

Fear of eternal damnation can lead us to seek a way out, fear of punishment, but even this fear is not fear or dread of God, but a fear of the consequences of one’s own actions and lifestyle choices.

Fear, can lead us to seek a way to avoid what we are afraid of, we should never fear God, but fear a life lived outside of or away from God, if we are to have fear let it rather be of a fear of the consequences of sin, a fear or being an enemy of God and what that will look like, but again fear has no place for the believer.

Perfect love casts out fear

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18

What is mercy? Mercy can be described as compassionate treatment especially of those under one’s power, kind and compassionate treatment of an offender, enemy, prisoner or any other under your authority, clemency, a disposition to be kind and forgiving, something for which to be thankful or a fortunate occurrence, or a blessing.

Is there a biblical difference in mercy? Let’s see.

Unger’s Bible dictionary defines mercy as

“Mercy is a form of love determined by the state or condition of its objects. Their state is one of suffering and need, while they may be unworthy or ill-deserving . Mercy is at once the disposition of love respecting such, and the kindly ministry of love for their relief.” (A quote from Miley, syst. Theoly., I, 209, 210). The expression, “I will have mercy not sacrifice,” indicates that God is pleased with the exercise of mercy rather than the offering of sacrifices “, though sin has made the latter necessary. Mercy is a Christian grace, and is very strongly urged toward all men.

We will then look at mercy from God to man, and mercy from man to man

God, has every right to judge man for our misdeeds, we are all under the authority of God, as He is the sovereign, the sole creator, and the only pure, righteous and perfect judge.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, therefore we are all worthy of judgement, but it is the nature of God to be merciful, and so He in His goodness and mercy, extends mercy to each and every one of us, it is only by His mercy that any of us are able to escape from the fiery judgement which we are all worthy.

We have all broken God’s law, and therefore we are all under the authority to be judged by the lone lawgiver, but He offers us mercy, and His desire is that we would all accept His mercy.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God’s mercy is without limit, is offered freely and openly to all, and is the only thing that can save us from our path to destruction. God is not required to offer mercy, in fact that’s the beauty of mercy, mercy is not earned, but is given solely by the one who has the authority and power to judge the one under their authority.

What about mercy of men? How can we showcase mercy? are we obligated to show mercy? Is mercy love, or love in action? Can one love and not show mercy? Some of these questions will be answered in another post as we compare love and mercy, but for now we will tackle obligatory mercy and how we can showcase mercy.

This life gets hard, and it gets messy, and hurt people tend to hurt people. We are all in some measure broken and hurting, and that pain, that hurt and that brokenness can lead us to hurt others, whether we mean to or not.

People, even with the best of intentions can still hurt other people, and when we are hurt it can be easy for us to want to exact vengeance, to see the other person pay for their hurt they have caused, and sometimes it can be within our means to requite them if their wrongdoing.

These moments, when we are fully justified for wanting someone to pay for their wrong, both in the eyes of man and God, we can choose to have someone pay. Nobody would judge us for exercising our right to seek just recompense, it is reasonable, right and just.

In those moments however, we can offer mercy. Where judgement should be, we can choose to offer mercy, it is not required, often it is misunderstood and can be mocked and hated of the world, but mercy, when extended, can be life changing, behavior impacting, and Christ like.

Do we have to choose the path of mercy? No, there are times when the wrongs done to us truly are worthy of judgement and we have the right to seek out justice and judgement, now many instances we may desire justice for slights that are not worthy of justice, where it is out of our flesh and our selfish desire that we seek for others to hurt for what we presume to be slights, but there are also slights and wrongs worthy of harsh judgement.

Those moments, when someone truly wrongs us to the point of having genuine aught against them, and have a right to seek recompense, we have a choice of seeking out that retribution that their behavior merits, or we can choose to show mercy. In those instances where there is a path, and a choice, we get to choose right judgement without fault, or we can choose mercy, only God can be the judge over us in those moments. We will see, there are times where Christians can execute harsh judgement and we see God not imparting judgement on them for it.

Now, lest I leave any confused, and it sounds like an opportunity to hold onto grudges, there are a great, and I dare say most, offenses, slights and transgressions we suffer at the hands of others, both within the body of Christ, and without, do not deserve judgement; they are slight misgivings that hurt our pride more than cause real harm, these do not fall under items that justify judgement.

Only the feelers injuries permit harsh judgement, but slights that wound our feelings or pride do not give us such justification, or else everyone will run around holding grudges over the smallest of thing, of which should have no place amongst the body of believers, but in all things we should esteem others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.)

Rather, mercy should always be the path chosen, and we should keep infighting and forgiveness amongst the household of faith, for the eyes of the world are always on us, watching how we behave ourselves, and by our love they will know we are Christ’s disciples.

Be blessed brothers and sisters, to all the dear saints who read this, may the grace and mercy of Christ be with you and in you. May you be strengthened to endure this life of trouble we wrestle with until the day of our glorious ascension when we take our place in the heavens where this is no variance or dissimulation.

Let God’s grace fill you to your brim that your cup may overflow, stand strong in the unity of the faith with all those who are called by Christ’s name. Amen.

Over the next few posts we are going to be looking at several major themes, but even before that we are going to do a study on the word for each theme. The reason for this is so we have a clear understanding of the word we are trying to look at. Unfortunately in our modern world, many words are starting to lose their definition, a clear sense of meaning and precise nature of a word.

So, before we look into our subjects, such as love vs mercy; love vs fear; and love to reverence, we need to clearly define and understand those words. Love, like so many other words, has been losing its definition,

The 1975 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language New college edition, ISBN 0-395-20360-0, has a great definition of the word love.

1: an intense affectionate concern for another person.

In our modern society we use love to represent acceptance of everything, pure affirmation and confirmation, to many of the modern Americans love no lingers means concern for another, it means you have to accept and approve of them, and more importantly you have to approve of whatever they believe or think, or else you do not love them.

This is not true, love is deeper than just acceptance and affirmation, love is a deep yearning and care for the well being of another person, and if we truly love someone and they are in self destructive behavior or desires, our job is not to approve of that behavior but to love them through it, to be there for them, to walk with them, to show compassion and care; but never to accept or promote that which is wrong.

The Bible gives us another definition of love as well:

“Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth…”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭4‬-‭8‬ ‭ASV‬‬

“This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭ASV‬‬

Even amidst the powerful message of biblical love, one thing remains evident, true love is about caring more about the well being of the one you love than you care about your own well being.

If you see someone walking a path that leads to destruction, love does not encourage that behavior, but challenges it, shows mercy, compassion, care and grace to that individual through that journey, to bring them out of it, not that they might abide in it and follow the path whose ways lead to hell, death and the grave.

If I see someone running towards a cliff, and they have a blindfold on, is it love to let them continue running in that direction? Even if they love the direction they are heading? God forbid, lest I tell them not that there journey leads to destruction and warn them not, their blood becoming required at my hand who knew but did nothing to warn them, moreover if I let them go that way it shows a lack of love, as not warning them shows I do not care for their well-being.

Love then, is not blindly affirming what someone desires in the moment, but is more concerned about their well being, not the short term emotional happiness, which changes day by day.

As a parent I love my children, and there are times my child desires strongly things that is not good for them, things that can hurt them, and when I deny them it they cry and become upset, because they think I am being mean or harsh; but it is because I care I protect them from things that can hurt them, even to the point of them being upset with me, this is a clear picture of what love truly is.

Love cares more for the well-being of another, to the point of being willing to die for them at its highest level. Love is intense, burning, affectionate, cares deeply, sees the best in what could be, but love does not allow one to injure themselves in self gratification and pleasure, because it cares too much too allow that.

I was recently watching a TurningPoint USA debate featuring the late Charlie Kirk, and he was talking with twins born of IFV about his stance on it, during the video I had this reflection.

I have often in my personal life looked at 1 Samuel 15:23 which states that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. The short explanation behind this is as follows

Witchcraft is not about rituals and magic, witchcraft seeks the power of God, apart, seperate and without God. Witchcraft is the desire to have God’s power for yourself, which brings us to rebellion as we become at enmity with God.

You see, humanity often desires to have the power of God, but we want things our way, we want our will and our desire, even when we see the examples of witchcraft throughout the scripture it is those who want godly supernatural power without having to rely on the one true God.

It’s not unlike those who worship other gods, we want things our way and the way we want them, regardless of God’s plan for our lives. But what does this have to do with IVF? In the video, the point is made that IVF seeks to usurp the natural order of sex leads to children, by having children without sex, the 180 of abortion, but both are in opposition to the natural order.

Now, before i continue I will say, I understand that infertility, sterilization, and struggling to conceive are extremely mentally hard on those who suffer from them, and I do not want to seem calloused and uncaring, that is not the case.

Infertility, even in today’s society can be extremely difficult for people to cope with, and this post is not to shame, hurt or attack anyone who struggles to conceive, it is simply to look more into the topic of IFV, and truly this same line of thinking can expand to other topics as well.

When we take matters into our own hands, and remove God, we become dangerously close to walking in rebellion, and when we remove God but seek to gain the results we desire without God, but need godlike power to receive that which we desire, we tread the line of witchcraft and rebellion, and which by there definition are acting in rebellion to God but still desiring that power for ourselves.

Has IVF lead to beautiful things by giving families that couldn’t conceive children? Yes, is that beautiful and life? Yes. Are we walking a thin line of what is right and what is witchcraft? I believe so.

I believe in a God who is still working miracles today like He has throughout human history, I believe that those who struggle to conceive can find hope in a God who heals, restores, blesses, opens closed wombs, and works mighty miracles, even more important, when we are in those deep struggles, and we open our hearts to Him, He can draw us nearer to Him in that time, but when we take it upon ourselves to seek that power and not need God, we walk a dangerous line of denying Him.

Why do we see less miracles in the west than over seas? I believe the answer lies in the following, we have a weakened sense of faith when it comes to miracles, we don’t believe in them as strong as those over seas, and we have denied the need for miracles by taking power into our own hands.

Why do we need a God to heal the lame, give sight to the blind, open wombs, hearing to the deaf, cleanse lepers and so on, when we have the power to do it ourselves without God?

Is suffering the Will of God for our lives? No, I do not believe that God desires our suffering in this life, but desires to give us good, and I know many struggle to find healing despite many hours of prayer, and that this topic is highly sensitive and controversial, but I also believe healing comes in at God’s timing and will and not our own.

I will close with two biblical miracles and what I believe a part of those are, and that they show why sometimes a miracle can be delayed from our perspective. Keep in mind, everything we see in this life we see with much of our attention being focused on ourselves, not on God’s larger plan most of which we will never see or understand this side of heaven, hence why faith and trust in God are far above our own plans and understanding.

And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over. And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. 2 kings 2:14-15.

Now when God performed this miracle for Elisha, it served two functions, it marked to the observer that as God was with Elijah so would he be with Elisha, and it also served to enforce the faith of Elisha and to show him that God was with him as well.

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. Acts 3: 1-11

Now it is extremely unlikely that Jesus never walked by the crippled man, I can almost guarantee He did, so why did He never heal the man? Well, much like the miracle of Elisha, when Peter and John called for healing the miracle marked several things, it increased the faith of Peter and John I am sure, it also confirmed the words spoken of by Jesus, and marked the passing of the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit to the believers.

It honored and glorified God, and while it would have honored or glorified God either way, had Jesus healed the man, or Peter, though truly it isn’t Peter that healed the man but God using Peter, God’s timing allowed it to confirm the words of Jesus, and the passing of the ministry to the apostles.

How often do we expect miracles in our timing? Had Jesus healed the man he would have been walking and working weeks ahead of what happened, but then the miracle of Peter and John would never have been. The miracle wasn’t just for the lame man, it was for those who saw, and it was for Peter and John as well, so it is today, miracles that happen for the benefit of one are rarely for the benefit of one, but of many, and if you’re not receiving your miracle, don’t lose faith but trust in God’s timing and will.

Think of the testimonies we can be taking away when we decide to take matters into our own hands and instead of giving God room to work a miracle, we seek after the power to make our own, and therefore remove the testimony of God in that circumstance. Think of the testimony we take away when we choose to make our own way instead of choosing to love God and walk in faith regardless of circumstance.

When we choose the way of godlike power without God, we make our God look weak to the world, but when we suffer for His sake, we gather for ourselves treasures we cannot fathom. When we make a way for God to work miracles, He still can even in this day; but it comes down to His will and His time, and never our own.