I’ve read recently, “Fear is not a virtue.” A company called, American Virtue Clothing prints “Fear Is Not a Virtue” on its clothing. Heather Delapi argues that “fear” isn’t found in the lists of virtues of scripture, hence is not a virtue. The English word “fear” is found 385 times in the King James Version of the Bible. I have read all of those verses, but I haven’t sorted through everyone of them to find how many times fear is rebuked or admonished and how many times it is extolled or commended. There are both.Fear is a virtue. No godly person lives without fear. It is a necessity for pleasing God. Just because it isn’t listed as fruit of the Spirit doesn’t mean that it isn’t a virtue. It is dangerous and wrong to say it isn’t a virtue. Why would I even write this? I’ve taught through Acts all the way through once, and in great detail about halfway through the whole book about five times. I’m teaching and preaching through it again right now as we evangelize and plant a church in Southern Oregon. When Luke writes under the inspiration of God to describe the basics of the church of Jerusalem in that classic passage in Acts 2:41-47, he writes in Acts 2:43 an attitude of that first church:
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
“Fear came upon every soul.” This verse got my attention again on this subject, so I’m writing on it. This same morning as I was preaching the end of the book of Acts, in Sunday School I started a short series on “The Detection and Correction of Doctrinal and Practical Error.” In my introduction I quoted what Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 and elaborated about its part in that subject.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
The word fear used by Jesus in the second half of the verse is an imperative. Jesus commands us to “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” At the same time, Jesus says “not to fear.” The most important problem about “fear” is what you fear. Everyone should fear, and not just God. Some of the same people who say “fear is not a virtue” ironically “fear them which kill the body.” Actually less than that, they fear the “influencers” in the world and then they don’t fear who they should fear, who the Bible says to fear. They don’t want to fear them even though they fear the world in many obvious ways by how they act. They fear the opinion of Black Lives Matter, fear the woke crowd, fear the absence of an apparent worldly style, or fear irrelevance according to the spirit of the age.The cure for a sinful fear is a righteous fear. Many passages prove fear a virtue. It’s a terrible hermeneutic and contradiction to biblical teaching to say and teach that fear is not a virtue.In Acts 2:43, fear characterized the Jerusalem church. So also did love, but fear is the first listed. Love isn’t mentioned at all in verses 41-47, but it’s described in the next three verses (vv. 44-46) in their communal living. Fear comes first though. It is the Greek word phobia.Acts 2:41-47 provide the basics of the first church. Success of that first church, and as a template for all other churches since, depends upon fear. In the Old Testament, a crucial theme of the Old Covenant was fear, especially represented by the three words: Hear and Fear. God expected His people to hear what He said and to fear Him. Sure, God wants other responses, but fear is non-negotiable.There is a trickle down from there. People who do not fear God will not fear their parents, will not fear their husband, and will not fear their employer. Now, you read that, and you think, fear shouldn’t be a part of leadership anywhere in the world.The chastening of the Lord in Hebrews 12 is for the purpose of what? Man doesn’t want to be chastened, he fears it, so he changes in his behavior. That’s why in Proverbs the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. On Mt. Sinai, when God gave the law, He showed Himself in a fearsome way with lightning and thunder. When Ananias and Sapphira were killed by God, great fear fell upon people. This was what God wanted.When Paul told Timothy that God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, He meant like Jesus, fearing he who is able to destroy body. Like Proverbs 29:25 says, the fear of man bringeth a snare. “Be not afraid,” which is said so many times in the Bible, means “be not afraid of people, the enemies of God, those who criticize you to get you to stop believing and practicing the truth.”Anyone who tries to conflate fear of man with the fear of God and say that fear shouldn’t be a virtue is either very deceived or lying. He shouldn’t be a teacher. Ephesians 5:33 says to the wife that she should see that she reverences her husband. That word “reverence” is the same word phobeia in Acts 2:43. That word is found 93 times in the New Testament, so it is very common. When Romans 13:3 says that ‘rulers are a terror to evil,’ that again is phobeia. I’ve found that very often today professing Christians don’t respond to the terror to evil except with rejection, but they respond to the terror of being canceled by worldly or liberal friends.Ephesians 6:4 reads: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.” That’s right. The boss needs to be feared too and trembling. That seems even more extreme. This is a fear that is a virtue, because it is a virtue again and again in scripture and there are many more places that teach this.Fundamental to acceptable worship is that it is reverent, which always relates to fear. The creatures in the throne room of God are reverent. There is always an atmosphere in the presence of the Holy God, even though it is more than that. Psalm 40:3 says, “And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” The saving response of an unbeliever to the true and sincere worship of God’s people is fear. Unbelievers see true biblical worship and they fear. Fear goes along with keeping a place or an attitude of reverence to God.
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