Agape Fear

(Proverbs 9:10 KJV)  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

“Fear” (3374) as it is used here has something in common with agape love in the New Testament.  We make the common mistake of understanding it as our common culture understandings it instead of in the Biblical sense.  Common culture waters down and perverts the concepts of God.  Fear, like love, is more than an emotional response.  It is an intellectual response.  It is a choice, not just a reaction.

Yes, there is a time for the emotional.  What would marriage be without the romantic, emotional response of popular “love.”  And how futile marriage would be if that were the total of love.  I Corinthians 13 love is not an emotional response, it is a conscious decision to live in a covenant relationship based on patience, kindness and so forth. 

Walking with the Living God also has the emotional sense of fear when we drift into sin.  There is a reason to tremble in our boots.  It also would be futile if that were all fear meant.  The Proverbs 9:10 meaning of fear is a conscious decision to live in a covenant based on awe, humility and obedience.  Like agape love, it transforms a relationship.

So?  Learn to live in a healthy fear.  Give God His due.  The reason He inspires fear is tied to the reason He can be trusted.