love and fear

[Godhead]

If God is perfect love then why should I fear him? I thought perfect love casted out fear.

 

[LilyM]

Perfect love of God doesn’t cast out respect for His almighty power and authority, nor does it do away with the need to do His will and follow His commands.

This is what we tend to mean when we say ‘fear of the Lord’.

 

[Genesis315]

As has been pointed out, the “fear” means more like respect and awe.

In St. Catherine of Siena’s *Dialogue *there’s a good discussion concerning the difference between this gift of the Spirit and the slavish fear which is not part of love.

 

[Godhead]

Perfect love of God doesn’t cast out respect for His almighty power and authority, nor does it do away with the need to do His will and follow His commands.

This is what we tend to mean when we say ‘fear of the Lord’.

Give me a break. You just made that up. Where does it say that in the bible? Or is that what you merely just deduct from the phrase, “fear the lord”? You’re just a parrot, someone else said that and you reasoned it to be true.

Tell me what is the will of God because you better fear him. Sell all that you have, forsake your family and follow him. You better do it out your so called respect for his will and his commands.

O but that fear does really become fear when God casts souls into hell, now doesn’t it?

 

[LilyM]

O but that fear does really become fear when God casts souls into hell, now doesn’t it?

If you’ve done something that deserves punishment - be it from your parents or the criminal law or God - you know that you’ve done wrong, and it is then that you fear punishment, and you’re right to fear it in that sort of situation.

I don’t fear the police because I haven’t broken the laws of the state. If I don’t break God’s law I have no reason to fear hell either.

 

[FCEGM]

Give me a break. You just made that up. Where does it say that in the bible? Or is that what you merely just deduct from the phrase, “fear the lord”? You’re just a parrot, someone else said that and you reasoned it to be true.

Tell me what is the will of God because you better fear him. Sell all that you have, forsake your family and follow him. You better do it out your so called respect for his will and his commands.

O but that fear does really become fear when God casts souls into hell, now doesn’t it?

I’m sorry you have not yet found the key to true wisdom.

As Scripture states, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Prov. 1:7 and Psalm 111:10), and it proves true that the truly wise (those with a deep love of God and all that pertains to Him) are those whose lives are ruled by a holy fear of God, not a fear that paralyzes the soul or makes it sad or brings it disquiet, but one which produces in the soul a sense of the seriousness of life, an interior alacrity and a need for and a stimulus to generosity.

One of the most precious fruits of the holy fear of God is that it makes the soul respectful, cautious, full of reverence before God, conscious of its own unworthiness, of the immense distance between it and the Lord, penetrated with a sense of the majesty of God, so that its spontaneous attitude before Him is humble and reverent adoration.

These sentiments go deep into the soul so as eventually to make it free from rudeness, presumption and banality in its dealings with God. Through the infusion of the Gift of Fear, the soul learns to relate with God as He deserves, with senses and spirit purified, with a purity of sentiment and intention that transfigures its dealings with Him. God is God. From this the soul draws its interior disposition. The Theological Virtues and the Spiritual Life, Fr. Anastasius of the Holy Rosary.