The Fear of the Lord

     It occurred to me that most of the methods of evangelism which are taught in churches, such as the "Romans Road" are based on instilling fear in the person. Fear of punishment and fear of God. Also, really, most of the verses which are used are ripped from their wider contexts.
     Thing of it is, trying to scare people into conversion isn't love. It was the love of God radiating from Jesus Christ which drew people to Him. It is love which comprises the most important commandments according to Jesus Christ. It is love which must be present above all other things according to Paul. And according to John, love brought to completion tosses fear outside. Love (agape) and fear cannot coexist in the same space. It's one or the other. By encouraging people to be afraid of God, we hamstring their conversion and discipleship from the start.
     Bible verses are not magic spells, and neither is the Bible a spell book. You can't just rip sentences or fragments of a sentence out of the context of the passage where it is found, quote it, and expect it to magically transform a person into a Christian, or win an argument, or do whatever you're using it for. Know the passages and apply them to yourself first. Manifest Jesus Christ first. Then let Him bring the Scriptures to your mind as He sees fit.

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     “The fear of the Lord is wisdom.”
      A friend of mine recently quoted this to me using Job 28:28 in response to my post about different evangelism methods taking Scriptures out of context to instill fear of God and fear of punishment into people in order to encourage conversion. It’s not just found in Job. It’s also found in the Psalms, Proverbs, and even The Wisdom of Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). It would certainly seem, from this text that fearing God is to be encouraged.
     Except that’s not what the original Hebrew text says. Like with many English translations, most of which were based on Tyndale’s work, this reading follows the Latin Vulgate (“timor”)instead of the Hebrew original, or even the Greek Septuagint translation (LXX) made in the second century B.C.E. or so.
     The word here translated as "fear," “yirah” actually means "awe, reverence, or piety." A quick Google search on the meaning of “yirah” (as my Hebrew pales woefully in comparison to my Greek) brought this up, "Rabbi Lew describes yirah as 'the fear that overcomes us when we suddenly find ourselves in possession of considerably more energy than we are used to, inhabiting a larger space than we are used to inhabiting.' It is also the feeling we feel when we are on sacred ground." The word which the LXX translators used is telling in this regard as well. Rather than "phobos," which means “fear, panic,” they used "theosebeia," which means "piety or service to God."
     So, with this understanding of the original language, and what those translators in the second century B.C.E. understood the original language to mean, let’s look at this sentence again. “The reverent awe of the Lord is wisdom.” Not panic. Not fear as we understand the word in modern English. Not as an abusive father ready to strike for the least infraction, and not as a sky-god Zeus figure ready to throw a thunderbolt if we step a toe out of line.
     Wisdom is recognizing and experiencing the reality of God around you. Wisdom is being overwhelmed by how infinitesimally small and frail we are as mortals in comparison to the infinite power and presence of Yahweh. Wisdom is taking Yahweh seriously just as a child takes his or her parent seriously even as that child loves their parent and trusts in the love of that parent. In the context of the passage in Job, much of Job talks about the power and majesty of God, His role as creator, and His mastery over all of creation. Standing in the midst of all this, and contemplating the sheer awesome infinite majesty of Yahweh is what surrounds this saying “The reverent awe of the Lord is wisdom.”