We have all seen the ‘No Fear’ logo on clothing and
beverages. As a society we would like to
believe that we are fearless. The reason
this logo is so popular is because we feel we are faced with so many fearful
things. We love to hear psychologists
tell us that most of things we say we fear never actually happen. Of course, there are some scary things out
there might really happen—even in your home town! And if it is bad enough and likely enough
hopefully you will take the right action in advance.
There are some deservedly fearful things that we might fall
into if we allow other more trivial fears to paralyze us. ‘Fear’ is a God-given emotion designed to
propel us into action. In the human
body, fear can generate adrenaline which if combined with careful judgment can
result in safety. But sometimes our
judgment is clouded with conflicting reaction scenarios and may result in
paralysis instead of action. Don’t you just hate those scary movies where (usually)
a girl sees the monster 100 yards away and instead of quietly hiding or
running, she screams and falls into hysterics alerting the beast to her
location.
Think of some things that people you know are fearful
of? It’s not that none of these things
are scary but most of them are either temporary, we can take action to deal
with them, or they are trivial compared with really fearful things. How should we draw the line?
Divine Perspective
on Fear
In our study in Matthew,
Jesus has been instructing his newly-minted apostles and in verses 26 through 39 of chapter 10 He gives us a badly needed divine perspective
on fear. Have you ever been to a corn maze? When you are in the intricate maze that
contains miles and miles of paths, it is so easy to lose your sense of
direction. But at one maze we tried there
is a raised iron bridge in the middle and if you can get up on it you suddenly
have a whole new perspective on where you are and which way you ought to go.
Jesus’ divine perspective is useful not only to the twelve apostles but also to
us.
In these verses Jesus points out that there are some things
that are far more fearful (and rightly so—because once we are facing them it
will be too late) and other things that only seem fearful when we lack divine
perspective.
Here Jesus tell us not to fear these things: 1) persecutors, 2) those who malign you, and
3) those who have the power to take your life. He goes on to tell us some
things we should really be afraid of: 1)
the One Who can destroy you in hell. Only
God has this power!
Notes on Hell: Some people have come to the conclusion that
God’s love preempts the notion of a place of eternal torment. Most of us had a
Mom or Dad who loved us. He or she would
do anything they could for us. But there
were some things they just wouldn’t tolerate at all! If someone was coming after her children, she
would go to the mat for them.
The kingdom of heaven
that Jesus preached helps us to understand the kind of people Jesus was looking
for to become citizens. Such people
don’t come naturally. Citizenship requires
a radical transformation—a transformation to follow God’s will on earth as it
is in heaven; to do unto others as they would have them do unto them.
Such a transformation
is the result of a process that begins by choosing to believe Jesus’ promise to
receive those who choose to
trust in Him. Those who choose to resist
Him, to fail to trust in Him alone, have no hope of living the kind of life
that citizens of His kingdom live. God
cannot tolerate anything entering His kingdom that is contrary to His
perfection. And He plans to enthrone
Jesus over the entire universe so that at His name every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord.
Those who die still
resisting Him, will not be forced
to join these others in His kingdom.
Remember that His kingdom will come—just like His will—on earth as it is
in heaven. Psalm 2 gives a fearful
picture of such folly. A place was prepared for all who choose to
rebel against Him—a place away from His presence and His citizens and His
kingdom which will fill the earth.
Rightly then, Jesus warns us about this place and the One Who has the
power to cast people in there away from all good things.
Rightly Responding
to Fear
There are two good responses to this fear of God, then: 1) Don’t resist God—trust in Him and follow
Him. 2) Warn others about this coming
disaster. If we are afraid of what
people will say or do to us, remember that there truly is a fate worse than
death. And furthermore, God actually
cares about us. We are valuable to
Him. He notices us. The apostles did not yet know that this love
for us would compel Him to allow His Son to die in our place so that we might
not experience this coming cosmic disaster.
But refusing the free gift of eternal life paid for by the blood of His
Son is a blasphemy for which there is no forgiveness. The apostles, of course, did not yet
understand these things which had not yet been fulfilled—but we do now—somewhat.
We all have certain allegiances in our life but we must not
allow any of them to take precedence over God.
Anything that is more important to us than God is idolatry. In verse 32 Jesus talks about how crucial to
our eternal fate is our ultimate allegiance to Him. We are to “acknowledge” Him “before men” (some
versions say “confess”—literally the original Greek means to “agree with”). People will start to notice us as we begin to
live life as a resident alien whose citizenship is in heaven. They will want to know where our allegiance
is. In return, Jesus will pledge His
allegiance to us especially at this upcoming event where the citizens are given
entrance into the kingdom.
So, isn’t Jesus all about bringing ‘peace on earth?’ He says ‘No.’
Doesn’t that contradict the message of the angels when He was born? I believe that what He is doing is to address
those immediate expectations. Yes, the ‘shalom’
(peace) prophesied by the Old Testament prophets where harmony reigns and everything
in the world is right will come as the ultimate result of Jesus’ mission on
earth but not yet. In fact, this very
message will be threatening to the world system (as it was in Jesus’ day). Once again, He reiterates the anguish of
families torn apart by conflicting allegiances in this matter of eternal
destiny. But once again, our ultimate
allegiance must be to God first even if it costs us our life. There are far worse things.
It was the missionary martyr Jim Elliot who famously wrote
in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he
cannot lose.”
© 2018 Eric Thimell
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