"Perfect love casteth out fear...We love him, because he first loved us."–I JOHN 4:18-19

There are 2 kinds of fear mentioned in the Bible; one of Heaven and one of Hell. That fear which comes from Heaven is the fear of the Lord. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' This is a Holy reverence for the God of Heaven. That is a reverence for Who He is, and a reverence for What He requires of us. That fear which comes from Hell is a terror of God's righteous punishment against sin. 'The devils believe and tremble." They know who God is. They know what He requires of us, and cannot stand before Him. This is that fear that caused Adam to flee from the voice of the Lord. This is that fear that caused the Philippian Jailer to come in 'Fear and trembling," falling down and crying out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

We live in a day when people stay busy with all kinds of activity because they do not want to stop and think about God. We do all that is necessary to remove from our minds any thoughts of death. But, one day we will awake and find ourselves standing before the Lord God of Heaven, naked, clothed in our own righteousness. We will see that we are at "enmity against God,' we will see that in His sight all we thought was good is as 'filthy rags."

This fear is filled with torment. Now we see sin, not as something done against our neighbor, not what kind of clothes we wear, but as treason against a Holy God, spitting in the face of God, and nailing Christ to the Cross. This is what causes us to cry out to God, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?' Hell does not have a quality to it that will purge us from our sins, and make us fit to enter heaven at a future date. If it could, God would never have sent His Son to suffer that awful, agonizing death of the Cross.

Fear is the only way to the 'Peace that passeth all understanding?" This is the way God has chosen to bring us to feel our deep need of Christ before we will ever come to Him. If we do not know we have a need, we will never come. Any peace we find while we are without Christ is just a dream. There is a day coming when we must be awakened. If we are not awakened out of our sin-sleep in this life, we will be awakened out of it in Hell. It would be so much better for us to be awakened now and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no fear in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 'Perfect love casteth out fear.' This 'Perfect love' is not our love for God, but His love for us. It is only this perfect love of God for us that will cast out our fear.