A Most Unholy Fear
June 12th, 2009 by SteveMossWhat are you afraid of?
I’m not asking a rhetorical question; please take a moment and consider your heart. What, deep down, are you afraid of?
I asked myself this question and made a list of the things that , right now, are causing me fear. In something like three minutes my list totaled up to 14 different things, fifteen if you count the final one (“the fact that I can write down so many fears so quickly”).
Several years ago, one of our pastors preached a sermon about “The Fear of Man”. It was a moving message, and it pierced me to the heart to realize that I give a lot of lip service to trusting God when the reality is that I usually fear man more than I trust God.
Fear of man leads to passivity. When God directs us to do something, we stand back and quiver on the sidelines, hoping God will call someone else into the game. Our disobedience may originate from a prideful root; perhaps we don’t want to be seen failing, or maybe it is because we think others will think we are foolish for following God. Regardless, we fail to act, and we are unable to learn whatever lesson God wanted to teach us through the experience.
Fear of man leads to self exaltation. That sounds contradictory, but consider the difference between fearing God and fearing man. A person that fears God knows that God sees past our works and words; God knows the inclinations of our hearts. We fear God because we know that He has every right to damn us to hell for eternity.
On the other hand, a man-fearer knows that others cannot peer into his heart. Consequently, he projects an image of himself to the world that is nearly impossible to assail. This image, being merely an image and not reality, is an extended expression of dishonesty. A very nice kind of dishonesty, but dishonest just the same.
Consider for a moment the extreme situation of a high-ranking general in the military. If the president were to ask for his opinion and the general was more interested in receiving the praise of man, he might be tempted to say to the president only what he believes the president wants to hear. The president might praise him, but would the president be well-served?
In Proverbs 11:14 we read, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” It seems to me that this rings true because several advisors are not as apt to simply agree with each other. Perhaps there is at least one who speaks the truth among the many. Later we read in chapter 24 that, “…in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
Paul certainly was not a manpleaser, and he lays it right out there for us to see: “If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Gal 1:10b)
May we all seek to please our Lord, Master, and Savior, and by comparison give no heed to man.
February 4th, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Yes, I have an undermining fear of man that I wish was not there. I think you said it well that we fear man in part because he doesn’t necessarily know our flaws. There is hope that we can maintain an appearance of perfection in the eyes of man – and somehow convince ourselves that we’re not as bad off as we thought.