Questions about the Bible

QUESTION:


I've had alot of questions lately, and I guess I'll start with the one that is most important to me. In the Old Testament Moses says, " And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways, to love Him, and to serve Him with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and to obey His statutes which I command you today for your good. " Deut. 10:12-13

Clearly, according to the law, we must love and fear God. This is even repeated in the New Testament in 1 Peter 2:17, " Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king."

But 1 John 4:8 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Is our relationship with God supposed to be one of fear mingled with love, or is love without fear?"




ANSWER:


That is an excellent question. First, you need to understand that there are two types of "fear" in these passages. Deuteronomy 10 and I Peter 2 use the type of fear has the idea of a reverence or respect. This kind of fear is how someone would revere a king. Because of this person's authority, you wouldn't want to wrong him in any way. The kind of fear in I John 4 is the fear of that would scare someone. This kind of fear is today's definition of fear.

Something that helps in interpreting the Bible is understanding the perspectives of the Old and the New Testaments. The perspective of people in the Old Testament is that they were under the law. The law can be explained like a ruler. It's just a measuring stick. What the law shows us in the Old Testament is that we cannot reach God's standards of holiness. The law then leads us into the New Testament where we find grace. When Jesus offered Himself as a substitution for our sins, He fulfilled what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus made the way where we could stand right with God.

This shows us that the kind of relationship we are to have with God is one of love. When you accept Christ as your Savior, you have nothing to fear before God. Romans 8:3 says that Christ did away with sin in the believer. Romans 8:1 says that those in Christ have no condemnation towards them. So there is nothing to fear. We can experience God's love to the fullest and this is the love that casts away all fear.:

Don't forget, if you have a question you can send it to me at asktheyouthpastor@xtrlive.com plus you can talk to us tonight at www.studenthopeline.com