In the Old Testament of the Bible fear is translated from ten Hebrew nouns and eight verbs [1]. The New Testament uses four Greek words. Generally when we think of fear we might equate it to anxiety, dismay, despair, horror, and worry. Fear is that feeling in the pit of our stomach which can be little, such as “butterflies” or it could be great terror, such that prevents us from interacting with others and sometimes even keeps us shut up inside of our house. The Bible calls this kind of fear “the spirit of fear”.
Did you know that the Bible actually talks of two different kinds of fear? While “the spirit of fear” may be harmful to us; “the fear of God” is nothing but beneficial. This type of fear is best explained by the word reverence. Next time you are fearful, remember that it could be a good thing! Choose the fear of the Lord. Here are some Bible verses about fear for you to study.
Psalms 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Spirit of Fear
Genesis 3:8-10 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.
Matthew 28:4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
Luke 2:8-9 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Revelation 11:11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
Fear of God
Genesis 22:11-13 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Exodus 1:16-18 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Ephesians 5:18-21 (KJV) And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
1 Peter 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Blessings of the Right Fear
Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
1 Samuel 12:14 If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well.
2 Kings 17:37-39 “ … And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”
Psalms 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalms 56:3-4 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
Psalms 61:5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
Acts 10:1-2 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
Sources:
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Youtube.com “We Choose the Fear of the Lord” by Maranatha Music
Tagged as: Anxiety, Bible Verses by Topic, Fear
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Well balanced choice Pam of Scriptures. I believe reading these will increase my faith and trust in God because my flesh tends to look at things rather than look at the All-Powerful and All-Mighty Invisible God.
Thank you Jack, As the Lord would have it, this is the subject that came up on my list of things to write about on the day that my hubby had a little surgery. The surgery went well and I praise God for keeping me from the “spirit of fear” as I looked to our Great Physician for comfort and peace. All glory to God for that!
I claimed this Scripture on that day: Psalms 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
I often cannot understand why I must fear God. I dont want to be afraid of Him. He has blessed us all with His son, our Saviour and our only hope of redemption and salvation. I tell myself that as a christian, I need to fear Him, but im not sure exactly why or how.
Hi Susie,
You are not the only one who might be confused about what does it mean to fear God. Truly the Bible explains itself but sometimes it is helpful to have tools for study as well. Let’s study out one of the small verses I used above:
1 Peter 2:17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Peter is using “Fear God” along with the words “love” and “honor”. So first of all you should ask yourself the question “what does fear have to do with love and honor”, else this verse makes no sense whatsoever. This is a good example from the Bible of where the English translation from the Greek needs a little more explanation.
You might recall in my opening paragraph I said that the Bible uses 4 different Greek words in the New Testament for fear, so to understand the true meaning of “fear God”, as used by Peter here we need to look at the original word in the Greek, which was “fobevw”, translated to “Phobeo”, translated to “fear”. In this case the word is best defined as “to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience”.
So to “fear God” means to “reverence God”. Now when you look at that verse again, it makes sense! Please know that you do not need to know Greek to understand the Bible. I used tools for my response to you today. I suggest you use some tools too when you are studying the Bible. The first tool you should have is a concordance. Many Bibles have a small concordance in the back — it is much like a dictionary. A larger concordance associates a number for each word in its original language (Hebrew for Old Testament and Greek for New Testament). So in this case I looked in my concordance and found that the word “fear” as used by Peter is “5401″, then I was able to look up the original Greek word and see the definition.
I like the Strong’s concordance the best, and I found this one built into an online tool called an Interlinear Bible. I put a link on our Resources Page here: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/resources/ I just plugged in the verse and it gave me information about the original words, then I clicked on the words to see the meanings.
I hope this is helpful to you Susie. Long story — short — Simply love, honor and obey God and you will be living in the Fear of God. Thanks for visiting and leaving your comment here at WCWTK. Come back soon!