FEAR (DREAD, TERROR AND FRIGHT) MOTIVATES PROPER ETHICAL CONDUCT [Second in a Series of Four]

Matthew 10:28 and Luke 12:4,5 are two of many verses which make clear that a dreadful fear is used by the Lord to motivate man to proper ethical conduct. “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more they can do. But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:4,5). This passage presents a decision to be made between yielding to the pressure of men who want you to do their evil will (and thus, transgress God’s Will and reap the subsequent wrath of God), or, cleaving to God’s Will (and thus, shun the will of man and reap their persecution). This verse teaches that we must weigh the consequences of the wrath of both parties, and having done so, and thereby having considered the terrors of hell (Matt. 25:41,46; Rev. 20:10; 21:8; et al.), one is motivated to live in accordance to the ethics of the Bible.
In the Old Testament, God used the fear of terror as a means of motivating the people to both, obey Him and shun evil. In a crucial time in Israel’s history, as they were about to cross the Jordan River to obtain the land in which they were to live, God sternly charged them to “observe to do all the words of his law that are written in this book” or else “he will bring upon thee again all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of; and they shall cleave unto thee” (Deut. 28:58-60). Thus, the fear of terror was a constant means of motivation to move all the Israelites to obey all the laws for all time (i.e., until the old law was done away, Gal. 3:24; Col. 2:14).
From these considerations, then, the fear (dread, terror, fright) of God is a scriptural and an expected means of producing proper ethical conduct in obedience to God’s Word. Gospel preachers and teachers need to preach this fear of God. Joe Gilmore is correct in stating, “Preachers who ignore the fear of the Lord in the pulpit ignore the greatest means to persuade and or arouse the conscience to consider the works of God and flee from the wrath to come.” We need to persuade people (whether in or out of the church) to obedience to God’s Will by preaching the terror of God and the fear of being lost and going to hell as was preached by Jesus (Matt. 11:20-24; 13:37-43; 25:1-46), John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2,7-12), Peter (Acts 2:36; 3:13-15; 8:20-23), Stephen (Acts 7:51-53), Paul (Acts 13:40; 17:30,31; Gal. 2:11) and all the prophets. Man is to feel terror when he beholds the severity of God (Rom. 11:22), considers the examples of those who were destroyed (1 Cor. 1:11), understands that he can be spewed out of Christ (Rev. 3:16), knows that his name can be blotted out of the book of life (Rev. 3:5) and hears that Jesus will come “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess. 1:8,9).
May we today pursue the ethics as taught in the Bible due to a fear of the wrath of God.
Gary Henson