“What does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12). God requires all mankind to fear Him. Having no fear of God is why most people in the world turn their backs to Him. On the other hand, if “knowing the terror of the Lord” is the only motivation to walk in His ways, that terror just serves to enslave, creating robots to serve Him. That robotic kind of service offers a worship that is cold and ritualistic and only very minimum amounts will be offered to Him. In this verse, God is requiring a sincere reverence for Him to coexist with love. As Christians, our love must be coupled together with fear to keep us from relaxing and becoming lazy in serving Him. The book of Malachi was written in order to address such slothfulness in God’s people. But in another verse, John tells us that love casts out fear. Is this a contradiction? “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, …There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:17-19). To get the full context go up to verse 7 and read through verse 19. John says that those who do not love God, do not know Him. They do not have an intimate knowledge of Him to warm their hearts. If the only feeling we have for God is a fear of punishment, that in itself is punishment. Anyone who habitually fears death and judgment needs to carefully examine John’s words. The dread of punishment may prevent us from sinning and push us to obey the gospel, but that fear doesn’t create love for Him. Fear only creates dread and anxiety about dying and facing God in judgment. John wants us to realize that God’s love for us and our love for Him can become a perfect union that removes every spiritual fear and anxiety.
How do we come to love Him? By getting to know Him. It is impossible to fall in love with anyone without first getting to know them. These are just a few things we know about God that cause us to love Him. * God’s love is so vast— it has saved more souls than can be numbered (Revelation 7:9). * God’s love is so meticulous— that it yearns for one sinner to repent (Luke 15:10). * God’s love is so active— that it sends forth all Christians of all ages to save the lost (Matthew 28:19-20). * God’s love is so tender— that it wants no one to perish (2 Peter 2:9; Matt 18:14). * God’s love is so evident— that it was displayed on a bloody cross (John 3:16). God’s love, when excepted, transforms the lives of those it touches and gives hope of life beyond the grave. If we draw even closer and acquire a deeper knowledge of the love that put Him on the cross, it will melt away the greatest fear—death and judgement. As humans, we can never attain perfection in our love or anything else. But when God’s love is joined together with our love for Him, that bond of love is perfected in us. The uniting of our love to His gives birth to confidence. That’s when our fear is “cast out” and “we have confidence for the day of judgment”. John says even more about it. “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28). That confidence enables us to get through the hard things that we all face in life for we know that a better life awaits us on the other side. Paul said, “to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). We’ll gain release from all the troubles, distresses, and heartbreaks of this life whether it’s from diseases of the body or losses and disappointments in worldly relationships or things. The secret is to remain joined together with Him in love.