Luke 12:4-7 - Fear God Not Man

Fear God not man! First, we need understand thatGod created us as emotional creatures which is an aspect of being created inthe image of God. God has emotions! One of the most powerful and motivatingemotions we have is fear. There is a good benefit about fear, and there is abad aspect about fear. The good thing about fear is that it warns us of impendingdanger so we can prepare for it. I should fear getting to close to the edge ofthe cliff, getting in deep water if I can’t swim, jumping out of a plane with afaulty parachute, or someone threatening to kill me with a gun. I get verymotivated to response in a proper way. But there is a fear that is not good.That is why the phrase, “Do not fear” or “do not be afraid” appears several hundredtimes in the Bible. There is a fear that paralyzes us or keeps us from doingthe right thing. There is a fear that indicates that we are not trusting Godfor His presence, protection, or His provision. In this passage in Luke 12, it first appears that the Lordmight be teaching us and addressing fear as one of the basic causes of hypocrisy.You might notice that Jesus mentioned "fear" five times in theseverses. When we are afraid of what others may think or say about us, then wetry to impress them in order to gain their approval. If necessary, we will even lie to accomplish our purposes,and this is hypocrisy. We often get caught up in the moment and follow a crowdto do evil, so we don’t get ridiculed for being different or being a religiousnut. We also might fear what the crowd or our enemies could do tous physically, to our body, if we don’t compromise our faith and say what theywant to hear or do what they are demanding. It is very possible that this iswhat the Lord is referring to in these verses. For sure the Pharisees weremotivated to be hypocrites because they were more concerned about theirreputation rather than their character, what people thought about them ratherthan what God knew about them. If we are not careful, we easily fall into thesame trap. A good verse to remember when we face this temptation is Proverbs29:25: “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shallbe safe.” The remedy for hypocrisy is to forget about what people maysay or do and fear God alone. The fear of God is the fear that conquers allother fears, for the person who truly fears God need fear nothing else. Allthat men can do is kill the body, but God can condemn the soul! Since He is thefinal Judge, and He judges for eternity, it is logical that we put the fear ofGod ahead of everything else. We also need to remember that the body is only temporary,but the soul is eternal. And that eternity is more important than time. In verses 6-7, Jesus also gives us the answer to what mightbe our greatest fear, and that is, that God really doesn’t care about us. Jesusassures us God's amazing love and care. “Are not five sparrows sold for twocopper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God (v. 6). Godsees a sparrow fall from the sky and attends it in its hour of death. Mosestells us that God actually counts how many eggs a bird has in its nest (Deut.22:6-7). Coming closer to home, God “numbers the hairs on our head”. Goddoes not merely count them; He numbers them. The Greek word for “number” isarithmeo (from whence comes our word arithmetic). The word means that God notonly counts our hairs (a virtually impossible task) but He also labels them.  Think of it! God actually knows each separate individualhair on our head as separate and distinct from every other hair. That's ourGod! If He is that concerned about us, we must trust Him even when persecution orthe temptation to compromise comes. We have a God who loves us with aneverlasting love.  Jesus by His own life, death and resurrection teaches usthat we can always trust God  God bless!