Fear of God

Fear of God is a phrase which refers to the of living in respect, awe, and submission to a deity.

Great and wonderful are your works, Jehovah God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of eternity. Who will not really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal? For all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous decrees have been made manifest.
~ John the Evangelist
Revelation 15: 3-4

The medieval philosophers … while agreeing that the fear of God is central importance, are at pains to stress that it should not be founded on fear of punishment. They distinguish two kinds of fear, a lower type which is fear of pain, and a higher type which is what we would call reverence or awe: the feeling one has about someone who is incomparably more elevated than oneself. ~ Louis Jacobs

Quotes

Many a man eating meat, but observing the cardinal virtues of compassion and truth, and living in the fear of God, is a better Hindu than a hypocrite who abstains from meat. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Sorted alphabetically by author or source

• Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God.
  • Anonymous Hasidic proverb, quoted in Raising Cain: How the Bible Shapes the Things You Say, B&H Publishing Group, 2013, p. 143.

• Are you a God-fearing man, Senator? It's such a strange phrase. I've always thought of God as a teacher. As a bringer of light, wisdom and understanding.
  • Magneto in the film X-Men (2000), written by David Hayter, Tom DeSanto and Bryan Singer; as qtd. in "The best Ian McKellen scene: X-Men", The Guardian, (28 August 2000).

• The only God-ordained fear is the fear of God, and if we fear Him, we don't have to fear anyone or anything else.
  • Mark Batterson, in In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Random House LLC, (19 August 2008), p. 38.

• Henceforth the majesty of God revere;
  Fear Him, and you have nothing else to fear.
  • James Fordyce Answer to a Gentleman who apologized to the Author for Swearing. Compare: "Je crains Dieu, cher Abner, et n'ai point d'autre crainte" (translated: "I fear God, dear Abner, and I have no other fear"), Jean Racine, Athalie, act i. sc. 1 (1639–1699); "From Piety, whose soul sincere/ Fears God, and knows no other fear", W. Smyth, Ode for the Installation of the Duke of Gloucester as Chancellor of Cambridge.

• Many a man eating meat, but observing the cardinal virtues of compassion and truth, and living in the fear of God, is a better Hindu than a hypocrite who abstains from meat.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, in Hinduism According to Gandhi : Thoughts, Writings and Critical Interpretation (2013), p. 22

• The medieval philosophers, however, while agreeing that the fear of God is central importance, are at pains to stress that it should not be founded on fear of punishment. They distinguish two kinds of fear, a lower type which is fear of pain, and a higher type which is what we would call reverence or awe: the feeling one has about someone who is incomparably more elevated than oneself.
  • Louis Jacobs, in “Jewish Theology” quoted in “Introduction to Judaism”.

• Since the world does not really believe in God, in the long run the God-fearing person must really love himself. The God-fearing person does not love what the world loves, but then what is left—God and himself. The world takes God away, and therefore the God-fearing person loves himself. The world regards the fear of God as self-love.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers, II 1613 (Pap. VIII.1 A283) n. d., 1847, as cited in Works of Love (Kierkegaard)|Works of Love, note on pp. 468-469

• The Fear of God is healthful; it is an awe and a profound reverence for the Creator and a wholesome dread of displeasing him.
  • Insight, Volume 1, it-1 pp. 818-819, at Watchtower online library

• Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.
  • Wilhelm Reich, in James Lee Christian Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering, (2005), p. 556.

• One should preach not from one's rational mind but rather from the heart. Only that which is from the heart can touch another heart. One must never attack or oppose anyone. If he who preaches must tell people to keep away from a certain kind of evil, he must do so meekly and humbly, with fear of God.
  • Thaddeus of Vitovnica, in The Church Fathers (and others) On Preaching, 16 September 2013.

• Fear of god creates good fortune.
  • Sumerian proverb, Collection XXVI at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

Bible

The Bible at Wikisource

• Abraham said, "Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. "Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife; and it came about, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is the kindness which you will show to me: everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother."
  • Abraham, Genesis 20:11-13

• The fear of God is described as the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs (1:7)). Finally, when everything has been heard, fear God and keep His commands for this is the whole of human condition: God judges every deed, even secret ones, to see if it is good or bad.
  • Ecclesiastes (12:13-14), in An Introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 197.

• Who will not really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal?
  • John the Evangelist, Revelation 15:4

• In every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
  • Luke the Evangelist, Acts 10:35 (King James Version).

• The fear of Jehovah is pure, lasting forever.
  The judgments of Jehovah are true, altogether righteous.
  • Psalms 19: 9, New World Translation.

• The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.
  ש [Sin]
  All those observing his orders show good insight.
  ת [Taw]
  • Psalms 111: 10, NWT

• Fear God. Honour the King.
  • I Peter, II. 17

• Fear of God before their eyes.
  • Romans 3:18

Quran

The Quran at Wikisource

• Allah is to be feared by the true Believers for: There is none in the heavens and the earth but cometh unto the Beneficent as a slave; whoever fears God, everything fears him, but whoever fears other than God, God makes him fear everything.
  • In Moshe Piamenta Islam in Everyday Arabic Speech, 1979, p. 22]

• O Believers, do not be hasty and forward in Allah and His Messenger’s presence but instead fear Allah; for verily, Allah is Hearer and Knower.
  • As quoted in How Islam Plans to Change the World (2012), by William Wagner

• God is the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful and the Most Just. Therefore, fear of God implies showing respect to Him, the All-Compassionate, the Most Merciful, and the Most Just, and avoiding exceeding His limits, rebelling Him and being of those who deserve His punishment.
  • As quoted in Islam, the Religion of Ease (2004) by Harun Yahya

See also

• Love of God