What is Fear? Fear is what defines a person’s outlook to life. There are essentially two types of fear, Holy Fear and Unholy Fear. Unholy fear is what drives those outside Christ, to either live in anxiety or by being instruments of anxiety, who Lord It Over their peers (Mat 20:25-28). These fools look up to the works of the wicked with an awe that almost equals worship and it is from this disposition that these usurp the respect of people fallen in Adam, and in this manner Satan’s minions devour these unbelieving fools (Gen 3:14-19).
Mat 24
28″Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
Holy Fear on the other hand is one given an individual who is born from above (Jn 3:3/Mat 10:28/Heb 10:31). Who believes in his heart of hearts that God exists and so is called to live a life of righteousness as described by God and not of self (Prov 3:5). From the fear of God, this individual musters the strength of Christ (Phil 4:13), to influence his neighbours unto the righteousness of God like a little salt that flavours a whole lot of food. People are not the standard his/her life adheres to but God is. Hence even when no one is looking, he/she is given to love the Lord with all His/Her strength and treat their neighbour (Mk 12:29-31) with the same love and respect as they would expect for themselves in all truth.
Psalms 111
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.
As much as it is Christ who saves, and faith is merely the means by which we trust in Him, so too what we fear, is not the commandment but God. For the commandment merely sets healthy moral boundaries as given by God, which the people who transgress them do not recognize nor respect only because they live their lives as though being indifferent to God. Just as in Gen 3:2, 3, 6; Eve kept God’s commandments knowing the fear of God but when she lost her Reverence for God (Holy Fear) she died spiritually from having believed Satan’s lies that the fruit was good to eat and ate of it in disobedience.
John 14:15 (Jesus says)
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
So to conclude, Holy Fear finds its strength in God to exercise the righteousness which is of Christ in the midst of an unbelieving society and this is what defines a God Fearing person. For e.g. an unbelieving person may yield to piracy and abortion only because everybody is doing it but even if the whole world robs and murders, a robbery is still a robbery and murder is still murder; so the God-Fearing man yields before God in the righteousness God Himself has defined in His Moral Law. Unholy Fear on the other hand is what drives a person to either exercise their fallen authority or be consumed by anxiety, as being deceived or shall I say in being consumed by Satan. Fear therefore is what distinguishes the people who truly worship God (Ps 128:1) from those who are under the sway of Satan (1Jn 5:19).
Making known the Defeated Dragon 