As followers of Christ we are told on several occasions to “fear not.” Unfortunately, people being people, read that in a way that supports their particular way of looking at things. Jesus warns his followers that they are in for a tough time and that they should be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16b KJV).
Fear and wisdom are different but complimentary things. Fear is used to control people, to get them to do what someone else wants. Sometimes it’s fear of other people, sometimes it’s fear of personal loss. Whatever it is, when fear is promoted outside of wisdom, it is evil. One problem is that we make fear seem perfectly reasonable.
Fear is so powerful because it reaches us at the level of survival. If there had been no fear, the human race couldn’t have survived. Even today, fear is what keeps us safe when we look before stepping out in the street. Fear is what drives us to check that the stove has been turned off when we are done cooking.
However, fear can be used in ways that aren’t in the service of wisdom. We often hear political ads, from both sides, that appeal to our fear. Whenever you hear one of those ads, you need to ask yourself if it’s really about trying to manipulate you by making you afraid. If so, it’s a tool of evil.
The tendency is to see an ad from someone you agree with as being wise, and from someone you disagree with as manipulative. That puts extra responsibility on you to think through what’s being said or portrayed lest you think you are supporting wisdom when in actuality you are supporting evil.
The scripture tells us that the “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10a KJV). I always had trouble with the idea of “fearing God.” When you understand fear as meaning respect and trust it’s easier to understand how the fear of the Lord would lead to wisdom. We have to respect God and what God’s word actually says if we are going to be wise.
Another thing that is important, if wisdom is to guide us, is to hold onto humility. I don’t care how sure I am that I have made the correct interpretation of the scripture and in doing that think that my fear is a fear of God, I realize I can be wrong. The temptation that Eve faced in the Garden of Eden was that she could have all knowledge that God had. When I start thinking I have fully understood everything there is about what God is saying, I’m giving into that temptation.
Ross T Lucas 