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 1 Peter 1:17 contains the third imperative in his letter: believers must fear God. It's no accident that Peter first roots this command to fear God in our relationship with Him as a loving Father. Look at verse 17: “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.”

Perhaps that image of God as Father does instill terror in you. If so, you’re not alone. Some of you have had terrifying experiences with overbearing, indifferent, absent, or abusive fathers and to hear God spoken of as Father makes you squirm.

French philosopher Michael Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the twentieth century. Michael Reeves writes, “The bulk of his life’s work was about the evils of authority, and it seems to have all started with the first figure of authority in his life: his father. Fearful of having some namby-pamby for a son, Foucault Senior—who was a surgeon—did what he could to ‘toughen up’ the little mite. That meant, for example ghoulishly forcing him to witness an amputation. . . .  For Foucault, paternal power had not been used to care, to nurture and to bless, and so for him the word father came to be associated with a host of dark images.”[i]

Our hearts should go out to children of such fathers. But we must not allow the reality of bad fathers to warp our view of God as Father. Instead of viewing God through the lens of our earthly fathers, we should view our earthly fathers through the lens of God’s perfect Fatherhood.

So when we fear God because He is our Loving Father, we’re saying something about what it means to fear God. It’s not terror. We’re not afraid of God, the way young Foucault was afraid of his dad. The way some of you may be afraid of your fathers. How then do we fear Him?

Bible teacher Colin Smith (no relation to the PBC member with the same name) defines the fear of God this way: “To fear God is to love Him so that His frown would be your greatest dread and His smile would be your greatest delight.”[ii]

A fifteen-year-old boy named Dustin was hanging out with a new group of friends one evening when they asked him to join them in some illicit behavior. Drugs, alcohol, sex, you name it. Dustin refused. “You’re just afraid that your father is going to hurt you!” one of his friends retorted. “No,” Dustin replied. “I’m afraid that I’m going to hurt my father.”

Christian, do you fear God? Is grieving Him your greatest dread? Is glorifying Him your greatest delight?

 

 

[i] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 25.

  [ii] Colin Smith, “Why Fearing God Is Important in Our ‘OMG Culture,’” Unlocking the Bible, March 8, 2019, https://unlockingthebible.org/2019/03/why-fearing-god-important-omg-culture/.