86:11,12: “To fear Your name” means to give reverence to God; wholehearted reverence means appreciating God and honouring him in all areas of life. We need to show our loyalty to him in every part of our lives, not just in going to church. If we reverence God with our whole heart, then our work, relationships, use of money and desires will be in keeping with his will.
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate,” (Prov 8:13).
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” (Phil 2:12).
“Work out your own salvation.” As believers saved by grace, we must work out our salvation to the end. If we fail to do this, we will lose the salvation given us.
1• We do net work out our salvation by mere human effort, but by means of God’s grace and the Spirit’s power given to us.
2• In order to work out our salvation, we must resist sin and follow the desires of the Holy Spirit in us. This involves a sustained effort to use every God-appointed means for defeating evil and revealing Christ’s life. Thus, working out our salvation focuses on the importance of sanctification.
3• We work out our salvation by ever drawing near to Christ (see. Heb 7:25) and receiving His power to will and to act according to the good pleasure of God (see Phil 2:13).
4• Working out our salvation is so vital that it must be done “with fear and trembling.”
“Fear and trembling.” In the salvation accomplished through Christ, Paul finds room for “fear and trembling.” All of God’s children should possess a holy fear that trembles at the word of God (Is 66:2) and causes them to turn away from all evil (Prov 3:7; 8:13).
The fear (Gk phobos) of the Lord is not, as is often defined, merely “reverential trust,” but includes an awe of the power, holiness and righteous retribution of God, and a dread of sinning against Him and facing the consequences (cf. Ex 3:6; Ps 119:120; Luke 12:4-5). It is not a destructive fear, but a wholesome and redeeming fear that leads to God’s nearness and blessing, to moral purity, and to full life and final salvation (cf. Ps 5:7;85:9; Prov 14:27;16:6).
The Fear Of The Lord: An Overview
In the Bible, there are four general categories of fear: (a) slavish or demonic fear (1Jn 4:18); (b) the “fear of man” (Prov 29:25); (c) normal fear of danger in the physical realm; and (d) holy fear in the spiritual realm. The fear of the Lord is the latter.
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