"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."There are three central commands here: 1. Fear God; 2. Love God; 3. Love others.
Ecclesiastes 12:13
We know this because of Matthew 22:35-40, "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
So, two of our primary duties as a people created by God is to love him and love each other. But what about fearing God? How do we love him and fear him at the same time?
The answer is in what we mean by fear...
There is a type of fear that results in flight. When my son runs up the stairs hyperventilating, he's likely fleeing from the darkness! That's flight. That is one reaction to something terrifying. Is this not what Jonah did when he ran from God? There is foolishness in this: "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139:7).
There is a type of fear that results in fight. Jonah did not only flee from God, he fought him. Instead of obeying the call to go and send a message to the Ninevites, Jonah chose to defy him and go to Tarshish. There are countless example of people defying God in the Bible. And you know what? None of them could put up much of a fight. So, there is foolishness in fighting God as well: "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him" (Isaiah 45:9).
Then there is the type of fear that results in reverence. It says in Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Fear is where proper knowledge begins. But this kind of fear is not of the kind that bids us flee or fight. This is the kind that draws us to him in worship. When something is awesome, we stand in awe of that thing. We bend our knees to magnificence because it is worth magnifying and worth fearing.
This is healthy fear. Fear that is not inconsistent with love.
So, "let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28).
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