Fear of God: Hell
'I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after your body has been killed [lit after he has killed], has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.' (Luk 12:4–5)
In 1985 David Pawson, a Bible teacher from the UK, asked God if there was anything missing from the church in the UK, and God said to him, 'Yes, the fear of me.' So I think it would be good for us to do a biblical study on the fear of God.
Hellfire preaching
The church seems to have moved away from the hellfire preaching of previous centuries as if it's no longer right to speak about such things. This has happened despite the fact that Jesus taught that when he returns to judge the world, those who are unworthy of eternal life will be thrown into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Mat 25:31–46).
Pro 16:11 tells us that honest scales and balances belong to the Lord. That is true spiritually as well as physically. If we only teach about God's love and don't teach about his wrath, his anger and the fear of him, our teaching will be unbalanced.
I have in front of me a copy of one of the most popular evangelical tracts used in this country. What is its theme? God loves you (Joh 3:16).
Nothing is said about his wrath, anger against sinners, hell or eternal punishment—all of which are biblical doctrines; it only speaks about his love. It does say that if a person continues to go their own way it will lead to spiritual death, but that is as far as it goes.
Reality of hell
In our opening text Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid of people, who could only kill their bodies but could do no more. They were to fear God, who had authority (Greek the right of one who rules over another) not only to bring their earthly lives to an end, but also to throw them into hell. 'Yes, I tell you,' said Jesus, 'fear him.'
People often joke about hell, but hell is real. Hell is the place of eternal torment Jesus spoke about and warned about (Mat 5:29–30; 18:8–9; Mar 9:43–8). Hell is so bad that God sent his Son to die a horrific death to save us from it.
Pro 16:6 says:
Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.
Through the love and faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ sin has been atoned for. Because we fear God, who has authority to throw us into hell, we avoid doing evil.
Punishment on earth
That we should avoid doing evil because of fear is also taught in the New Testament. Rom 13:1 tells us that the governing authorities on earth have been established by God and we should submit ourselves to them.
There are good governments and bad governments, but the principle of government has been given by God to keep law and order. Without government there is anarchy, crime abounds and the innocent suffer. That is not God's will.
Governments are God's servants, agents of his wrath, to bring punishment on wrongdoers (Rom 13:4). If we commit a crime and are caught and punished, God is punishing us through his servant, the governing authority, for doing what is wrong. So if we want to be free from fear of governing authorities we must obey the laws of the land in which we live (Rom 13:3).
The only exception to this is when a government forbids us to do what God wants us to do. In that case we must obey God rather than the government (Act 4:18–20).
Complete love drives out fear
Our love relationship with God is two-way: God's love for us, and our love for God. Both are important for our salvation.
Let's look at God's love for us.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect [Greek complete] love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect [Greek complete] in love. (1Jo 4:16–8)
Jesus told his disciples to fear God who had authority to throw them into hell, and yet John tells us that those who fear are not made complete in love. How can that be? The fear John is referring to is the fear of judgement. A few verses earlier he wrote:
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1Jo 4:12)
That is a conditional statement. The love God has for us, which we know and rely on (v16), is only made complete in us if we love one another. If we don't love one another, it is not made complete in us, and we are not made complete in love (v18).
James tells us that our faith in God is made complete by what we do (Jam 2:22), and John tells us that God's love for us is made complete in us by what we do (loving one another). And it's that complete love that drives out the fear of judgement from us (v17–8).
Now let us look at our love for God.
…this is love for God: to keep his commands. (1Jo 5:3a)
If we love God, we will keep his commands and have no fear of him on the day of judgement, because he only punishes those who do wrong. However, the fear of God, which Jesus said we should have, should also stop us from doing wrong:
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire [hell] that will consume the enemies of God. It is a dreadful [Greek fearful] thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb 10:26–7,31)
Rom 13:3 says that if we want to be free from fear of the governing authorities we must do what is right. Similarly, if we want to be free from the fear of God we must do what is right.
Redressing the balance
In 1985 God told David Pawson that what was lacking in the church (in the UK at least) was the fear of him. Perhaps we've emphasized the love of God too much in recent years and now need to teach the fear of God to redress the balance.
Both the love of God and the fear of God are biblical doctrines. The church needs to teach the whole of the Word of God (Act 20:26–7) and not just its favourite truths, or the doctrines it thinks the world will find attractive.
Michael Graham
January 2005
Revised December 2023
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised edition). Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved.