You Hate What You Fear. But What About God?
Read: Proverbs 9:10–12
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.
“In time we hate that which we often fear.” This famous line from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra has become proverbial wisdom, the subject of much psychological research, and the theme of many famous stories and novels. The fear of the unknown and the fear of rejection or even of death fuels hatred. Think of the town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird where the fear of social change engenders racist hatred towards Tom Robinson. Think of Vernon Dursley who fears the disruption of his normal life and family so much that he hates his wizarding nephew Harry Potter. Think of political advertisements in your mailbox that rouse fear of social decline, insecurity, and loss of identity, thus fueling hatred towards the other candidate, party or a social subgroup. Maybe you can even think of particular people in your life that you hate because you are afraid of them? Or perhaps you can remember an instance where you or someone close to you was filled with hatred for God because they were scared at the thought of what he could do?
If it is true that fear fuels hatred, how do we make sense of the grand theme of Proverbs that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”? Over 500 years ago, Martin Luther already saw clearly that there is a real danger of us hating God. He wanted to make sure that we understand that this is not what Proverbs is about. He said: “Being afraid of God is different from fearing God. The fear of God is a fruit of love, but being afraid of Him is the seed of hatred. Therefore we should not be afraid of God but should fear Him so that we do not hate Him whom we should love.”
Luther says that we hate what we are afraid of, but we love what we fear. If you are scared of God, if he remains unknown to you, or if you are afraid of him rejecting, abandoning, or condemning you, you will ultimately hate him. But if you see God’s love for you in Christ, if you know him as the God who died on the cross, if you hear his promise to never forsake you and to cleanse you from all of unrighteousness, you will adore and revere him, you will rightly “fear” him, and you will love him.
As we prepare for Sunday, I invite you to reflect some more on this theme: Where does fear lead you to stay away from God and his people? Where does it lead you to silently resent or hate God or his church? And where does your reverence, your awe, and your “fear” of God lead you to love and adore him and be drawn towards his people? If you need fresh encouragement to enter into God’s presence and to join the gathering of the saints, I invite you to open your Bible and meditate on 1 John 4:16–21, a great complementary text to Proverbs 9.
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 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. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
