August 24, 2015

“He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” Mark 7:6-8

“In his explanation of the commandments, Luther begins every one with these words, “We should fear and love G*d and…” It is perhaps well known that there are some Christians today who maintain that Luther made a mistake in this. They strike out the “fear” and say that we should love G*d, nothing more. But when the people of our superficial generation have read the Bible as thoroughly as Luther did, they will see that Luther was right also in this. He has seen that there is something about love which is to be feared. He has seen that there is something about grace which is dangerous. He has seen the risk connected with grace….” “Under His Wings”,  Ole Hallesby (1879 – 1961) “For All The Saints” volume II, (p. 398)

There are denominations that focus on Hell and the fear of G*d, and there are those that focus on Grace and the unlimited love of G*d. And then there are those that are all over the spectrum between love and fear.

Which is better, to build a relationship on love, or to build a relationship on fear? That depends, I guess, on how important the relationship is to the person — and how you choose to define the word “fear”. If fear is defined as “to be afraid of”, then a relationship built on this kind of fear is one sided and controlling. But, if fear is defined as “awe” or “reverence and respect”, then the relationship is one of respect, and obedience that is based on love.

I guess we could have a relationship with G*d where we are always afraid, always concerned with whether we have done enough to earn our righteousness, but to me that relationship is one-sided and manipulative. But, as Martin Luther says, if we “fear and love G*d…” where fear is one of awe and respect, then we are truly building a relationship based on Grace and love, first, followed closely by respect — which leads to a life of obedience which understands that we will not always succeed in doing what we should, or loving like we should, but because of Grace, G*d still loves us unconditionally.

Pastor Dave