Understanding the Fear of God

What, then, should a Christian be afraid of regarding God? Think of it like this. Imagine that you suddenly are introduced to some person you have always admired enormously—perhaps someone you have hero-worshipped. You reach out to shake her hand and suddenly it hits you. You can’t believe you are actually meeting her. 

You discover to your embarrassment that you are trembling and sweating, and when you try to speak, you are out of breath. What is going on? You are not afraid of being hurt, or punished. Rather, you are genuinely afraid of doing something stupid or saying something that is inappropriate to the person and the occasion. Your joyful admiration has a fearful aspect to it. You are in awe, and therefore you don’t want to mess up. That is something we experience even in the presence of an admirable human being. How much more is this a proper response to God. 

In Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind in the Willows, there is a chapter, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” in which the characters Mole and Rat meet the animals’ deity, the god Pan, and hear him playing his pipes. They are stunned: 

“Rat,” he found breath to whisper, shaking. “Are you afraid?” 

“Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. 

“Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! 

And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I am afraid!”

That captures the concept of the “fear of God” as well as anything I know.