While warrior cultures like that of the Vikings sought a heroic death, today death is feared or ignored. Western medicine is given over to the pursuit of protracting life, even at the expense of its quality. For humankind, however, death was not and is not God’s intention but is the result of men and women’s rebellion.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5:1)
The last post concerned why any Christian should be God-fearing…this then is why, because through revelation, s/he realises the danger of being an ‘object of wrath’.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. (John 3:36)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… (Proverbs 9:10)
Often in the modern church, ‘fear’ is said to be ‘respect’, ‘awe’ or ‘reverence’. Indeed, fear is thought to be incompatible with love. How could any fear a god which, through grace, offers salvation and eternal life? How could anyone keep the first commandment to love God, and yet fear Him at the same time? The answer lies in the rest of the verse from Proverbs:
….and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
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In this post on my blog ‘God-breathed Words’, I take a look at temptation and find that both the original Greek and Hebrew words in the Bible have a range of meaning that includes ‘test’, ‘assay’, ‘prove’ and ‘trail’.
When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15)
God Breathed Words 