Folk are often puzzled by talk which has to do with fearing God. On the one hand, Scripture scolds us to be afraid of the Lord, but at the same time, we are told that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear. So how are we to appreciate this phrase? Fearing God does not mean always looking over your shoulder in stress to see what he’s going to do next. The fear of God is something positive and healthy and is obviously outlined in several different scriptures.

A particularly useful one is Proverbs 8:13, where we are told that “the fear of the Lord is to detest evil.” many folks are worried by the idea of hating anything. Yet God announces we are to hate evil as he Himself hates it in all of its forms.

He detests it as he obviously sees its corrupting and destructive influence. We frequently can’t see any corruption at all. In fact, we occasionally look at what is malicious and think that it is not actually too bad. The Devil’s job is to camouflage wickedness till it seems quite trusting or perhaps enticing. The enemy is such a success in his deception that we frequently fall into his snares with out any compunction.

That is why we must learn how to view things as God sees them. We want to develop such a holy loathing for iniquity that we shun and refuse it at each turn. When we get the Lord’s view of misdemeanor, the Devil will be stymied in his attempts to seduce us. Though it might not be a popular position, we will decide to love God and hate evil.