Trying to understand
- Thread starter Tolle
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Renovating
Well-Known Member
This article describes it perfectly. It is not a literal term.
To me it means respect/ revere. ( I tend to give concise answers, so I've copied an article for more detail)
http://www.seiyaku.com/reference/godfearing.html
Here are a few different definitions of 'God-fearing' that people might come up with:
1.'Fear', when talking about God, is synonymous with 'respect', 'reverence', 'piety', 'awe toward a supreme power', etc
Well, that may be so. But there's probably more to it than that.
2.'God-fearing' is an archaic term that's been bouncing around for so many years that we're not too sure of the original meaning. Similar to terms like 'God-parents' and 'God speed' (or is it 'God's speed'? See related page Godspeed.)
Lots of words have changed their meaning over the years. Passion, for example, now means extreme pleasure, whereas it used to mean extreme pain, as in the time Jesus was executed. And the word 'executed' has become an auto-antonym: To execute a program on your computer is to start it running; to execute a person is to end their life. Has the English language always been so cute? No it hasn't. Cute originally meant 'bow-legged'.
In English we might say; "Sorry, I'm afraid I forgotten your name." Hmmm... Afraid? Under what circumstances should that instill any fear? Of course, if you forget your own name then you really should be afraid. (See also "I'm afraid not!")
Sorry. I'm afraid it's not as simple as that either.
A clue to the meaning of 'God-fearing' is to consider that we never say 'Christ fearing'. And this is because, whilst we regard Christ as the Saviour of mankind, through His sacrifice, we regard God the Father as the almighty, all powerful God. And it is irrational not to fear the wrath of anyone as powerful as that.
3.There are several Proverbs that instruct us specifically to fear God, but it's not so obvious what God fearing actually means.
But Exodus 20:20 points out that fearing God keeps us from sinning. Logic tells us that God cannot love evil, because evil is the opposite of love. God loves, but He doesn't love everything. God loves the sinner, but not the sin, and He gets pretty peeved when we sin. If we die as a sinner, we go to Hell, and I reckon that's where most souls go. Hell, whatever that is, and God's anger, sound like things to REALLY fear!
Fortunately there’s a simple way out of this.
Because God is love, He's a forgiving God. It's like if you cheat on your partner, you say you're sorry and you really mean it, and you promise never to do it again. Then, if you're lucky, your partner will forgive you.
It's like that with God, but you're always lucky in that if you ask, with sincerity from your heart, He always forgives and then you are safe.
All pretty simple really.
Paradoxically, if you truly fear God then you have nothing to fear.
To me it means respect/ revere. ( I tend to give concise answers, so I've copied an article for more detail)
http://www.seiyaku.com/reference/godfearing.html
Here are a few different definitions of 'God-fearing' that people might come up with:
1.'Fear', when talking about God, is synonymous with 'respect', 'reverence', 'piety', 'awe toward a supreme power', etc
Well, that may be so. But there's probably more to it than that.
2.'God-fearing' is an archaic term that's been bouncing around for so many years that we're not too sure of the original meaning. Similar to terms like 'God-parents' and 'God speed' (or is it 'God's speed'? See related page Godspeed.)
Lots of words have changed their meaning over the years. Passion, for example, now means extreme pleasure, whereas it used to mean extreme pain, as in the time Jesus was executed. And the word 'executed' has become an auto-antonym: To execute a program on your computer is to start it running; to execute a person is to end their life. Has the English language always been so cute? No it hasn't. Cute originally meant 'bow-legged'.
In English we might say; "Sorry, I'm afraid I forgotten your name." Hmmm... Afraid? Under what circumstances should that instill any fear? Of course, if you forget your own name then you really should be afraid. (See also "I'm afraid not!")
Sorry. I'm afraid it's not as simple as that either.
A clue to the meaning of 'God-fearing' is to consider that we never say 'Christ fearing'. And this is because, whilst we regard Christ as the Saviour of mankind, through His sacrifice, we regard God the Father as the almighty, all powerful God. And it is irrational not to fear the wrath of anyone as powerful as that.
3.There are several Proverbs that instruct us specifically to fear God, but it's not so obvious what God fearing actually means.
But Exodus 20:20 points out that fearing God keeps us from sinning. Logic tells us that God cannot love evil, because evil is the opposite of love. God loves, but He doesn't love everything. God loves the sinner, but not the sin, and He gets pretty peeved when we sin. If we die as a sinner, we go to Hell, and I reckon that's where most souls go. Hell, whatever that is, and God's anger, sound like things to REALLY fear!
Fortunately there’s a simple way out of this.
Because God is love, He's a forgiving God. It's like if you cheat on your partner, you say you're sorry and you really mean it, and you promise never to do it again. Then, if you're lucky, your partner will forgive you.
It's like that with God, but you're always lucky in that if you ask, with sincerity from your heart, He always forgives and then you are safe.
All pretty simple really.
Paradoxically, if you truly fear God then you have nothing to fear.
CoilyFields
Well-Known Member
Yes...the term fear doesnt mean what we think of as fear...just like in psalms when it says the Lord is terrible...its not the meaning we usually assign to it these days.
To me, fearing the Lord is reverance of Him.
Usually as we get to know someone better and for longer we are no longer impressed with their attributes, they become normal to us...on our level. I should not get so comfortable with God that I lose the respect of Him as supremely Holy. He reminds us that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours.
To me, fearing the Lord is reverance of Him.
Usually as we get to know someone better and for longer we are no longer impressed with their attributes, they become normal to us...on our level. I should not get so comfortable with God that I lose the respect of Him as supremely Holy. He reminds us that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours.
