Fear is the weakest motive for action that can be employed. It dethrones reason and makes cowards of all whom it controls. Many professed Christians spend their days in anticipation of evil to come. They are afraid of the seven last plagues, afraid they will be lost, afraid of the judgments of God. They fear that their salvation will somehow not be provided by Christ. This is one of the saddest things with which a minister has to contend.
Fear is contagious. There is scarcely any emotion in the whole animal creation that is more transmissible than fear. It runs from heart to heart with almost lightning rapidity. It is a strange thing when fear takes hold of an individual or of a people. It excites; it stimulates and arouses; it seems to act like a deadly poison, increasing by contact.
There is no satisfaction in fear. Take the whole heathen world for example. Almost universally they are afraid of the elements; they fear disease in every form; they fear death; they fear wicked men; they live in terror of demons and spirits; their lives are spent in fear, and end without hope.
It was never planned by the Lord that His children, accepted through faith in Christ, the Son of God, should live in fear after they are converted. Sometimes professed Christians continue to live in fear, but this is not in accordance with the divine plan. When the heart is filled with doubts and unbelief concerning the goodness of God and His mercy toward us, there is fear; and as John truly wrote, "Fear bath torment."
But when Christ enters into a man's life, that man's life relation to the world and to earthly things is transformed. His outlook is changed. Once he may have been governed by fears,—fears unaccountable, possibly inherited, —but now they exist for him no longer. He is free from that bondage. He has come into possession of a faith that brings his soul into communion with God. He recognizes that God is the Creator of all things, the sole Author of all natural laws. Believing that God is with him, he no longer fears what may befall, but trusts all to the almighty power of the divine Presence within.
Love in the believer's heart toward God leads him to accept the promises of God and confess his faith in them. He waits on God, to see His will and purpose in all the affairs of life. In sickness he trusts God to work out His will as to Him seems wise; in death he bows to the divine will in complete resignation. When misfortunes come and life seems hard, he still trusts God. The Christian minister ever sees the bow of promise amid the storms and vicissitudes of life.
The beloved disciple understood the law of love and of fear. He wrote: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment." "Perfect love" is God's remedy for His children's fears of loss and misfortune and death—fears that bring only torment. If we have no fear of the final judgment and the punishment that awaits sin, if our sins are all washed in the fountain prepared for uncleanness; then why should we fear what man may do unto us? The fear of man controls many who never have peace or hope or rest. "Fear bath torment," is the divine law that cannot be escaped. The only deliverance from this torment is the gospel.
"Perfect love casteth out fear." The love we have for Christ, our belief in His love for us, casts fear out of our hearts. We claim the promises of God in our behalf. We take these promises at their full value, and plant our feet on them. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Why should one fear when the hand of God is at the helm, guiding our ways and protecting our lives? This love in our hearts is our assurance that we may trust God and do for Him what love prompts. Love is a great doer. It is not dormant, but active. It prompts to acts of sacrifice and patience toward those whom we love. When we love most, we trust most. Faith is kindled on the fires of love. And it is because of this that "perfect love casteth out fear."
The coming judgment does not beget fear in the heart of the Christian. His sins are confessed, and his "life is hid with Christ in God."
Daily he lives in a state of preparedness for life or for death. His fear of death is gone, for to the true child of God it is his pleasure to meet the mind of God in all things. Like the apostle Paul, he can say:
"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." 2 Cor. 5:1-4.
One who could write after this manner knew that his sins had gone before to judgment. So with the believer today. Because of this consecration the true servant of God can say: "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Rom. 14:8. "The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?" Ps. 118:6. The man of God knows no fear, save the fear of God. To him to be the Lord's is more than life; his faith triumphs over death.
In every minister's heart there must come an experience which places him above fear. This experience enables the one who receives it to comfort and bring peace to the hearts of those who are tempted with doubt and unbelief. One cannot preach trust and confidence in God in the crises that come to every human life while his own heart is filled with doubts and fears. Each must taste and see the goodness of God for himself, if he would know the power of God to save and to keep from fear and unbelief.
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Ps. 46:2.
I.H.E.
