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There are phrases in Scripture that make modern readers uneasy.
The fear of the Lord is one of them.

We are far more comfortable speaking about love, grace, mercy, and belonging. Those words feel warm. They feel safe. Fear, by contrast, feels harsh—out of step with the gospel, even threatening to it.

And yet Scripture places fear not on the fringe of faith, but at its foundation:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10)

Not maturity.
Not perfection.
Not love.

Beginning.

Which means that if we misunderstand or discard the fear of the Lord, we do not merely lose a doctrine—we lose our orientation. We lose the posture from which wisdom, obedience, and faithful living grow.

What the Fear of the Lord Is Not

The Bible does not call us to live in terror of God.

There is a kind of fear that Scripture rejects outright—a fear rooted in anxiety, punishment, and insecurity. This is the fear of someone constantly bracing for rejection, wondering if one mistake will undo them. That fear shrinks the soul and distorts God’s character.

The apostle John names this clearly:

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.” (1 John 4:18)

The fear that torments, controls, or paralyzes is not the fear God desires. When fear is used to coerce obedience or maintain control, it ceases to be biblical fear altogether.

What the Fear of the Lord Is

Biblically, fear has far less to do with panic and far more to do with weight.

To fear the Lord is to recognize:

• That God is holy
• That God is not casual
• That God defines reality, not us

Fear is not shrinking away from God.
It is refusing to shrink God down.

This kind of fear is reverence—a settled awareness that we are standing before someone infinitely greater than ourselves. It is the posture of a creature before the Creator, of a child before a good and powerful Father.

Scripture often pairs fear with trust, joy, and obedience—not because fear contradicts these things, but because it makes them possible. When God is taken seriously, life begins to make sense.

Where We Have Drifted

Many modern expressions of faith have quietly edited fear out of the vocabulary of discipleship.

Sometimes this is done with good intentions. We want people to feel welcome. We want faith to feel accessible. We want to emphasize God’s nearness and compassion.

But in the process, we have often confused approachability with irreverence.

God becomes familiar—but no longer holy.
Intimate—but no longer weighty.

When that happens, obedience starts to feel optional. Scripture feels suggestive rather than authoritative. Worship becomes thin. And faith slowly turns inward, revolving around experience rather than reverence.

This is not the result of bad motives. It is the result of losing awe.

Recovering the Weight of God

The fear of the Lord is not something we manufacture emotionally. It is something we recover through truth.

It grows when we:

• Let Scripture speak without softening its edges
• Resist the urge to make God manageable
• Relearn how to stand before holiness without defensiveness

Fear does not push us away from God.
It places us rightly before Him.

And only from that posture can wisdom begin.

In the days ahead, we will explore what happens when the fear of the Lord is distorted, neglected, or restored—and how it quietly shapes everything from obedience to worship to the rhythms of our lives.

But it must begin here:
with the recovery of God’s weight.

Without it, nothing else stands.