Fear

Matthew 10:26, 28, 31

So have no fear of them . . . And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. . . . Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

A. Orendorff

Fear, as one source says, “is an evil, corroding thread; the fabric of our lives is shout through with it.” Yet for all of its negative features, fear is not in and of itself an inherently evil thing. Many of our fears—at a practical level—are in fact healthy, natural responses to a world that is full of danger and deception. Without the tool of fear, we would lose one of the most vital resources for curbing and restraining destructive and negative patterns of behavior. As an instrument of “common grace,” fear is invaluable.

Still, this is not altogether what Jesus has in mind in Matthew 10:26-31. Rather than encouraging us to simply eliminate our fears; Jesus first challenges them, then redirects their source. “What” (or perhaps better, “Who”) we fear is a much more important and practical question then whether we fear in the first place. After all, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Interestingly, Jesus does not seek to quell our fears by merely assuring us that God is big and loving (although this is part of what he says). His first tact is rather to press upon us the awful power of God. “Why fear people,” Jesus asks, “when all they can do is hurt you physically? You would be wiser to fear God instead, because He alone has the ability to not only destroy you physically, but spiritually as well.”