City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe.

The Word

Have No Fear

⁴ “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! ⁶ Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. ⁷ Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

-Luke 12:4-7 ESV

³ Blessed and worthy of praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ, ⁴ just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love ⁵ He predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as [His own] children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will— ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace and favor, which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [His Son, Jesus Christ].

-Ephesians 1:3-6 AMP

Reflection

The Lord Jesus has never commanded anything of us that He hasn’t modeled for us. As He warned His disciples against fearing men, He is very aware that His confrontation with the Pharisees will cause them to kill Him (Luke 10:53-54; Luke 12:1). His message is very direct: men will reject you and even seek to kill you as my disciples, but don’t fear them because that’s all they can do.

But which of us isn’t afraid to die?

Yet, Jesus reorients even our fear of death towards God, the Father who has absolute authority over our whole existence as the Righteous Judge and our Loving Father.

God is only Father to those who have clung to His Son. Saying otherwise would be a lie and the ultimate devaluing of God’s love for us.

As the Righteous Judge, God would be just to give all of us what we deserve for rejecting Him – eternal separation from Him in hell, yet He intervened. In love, He laid all our transgressions and our punishment on the body of His crucified Son and Jesus warns that rejecting God’s deep love out of our fear of death at the hands of men would be the greatest tragedy of any life.

Application

For us following Jesus in places where we have great freedom (unlike many of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world), we may fear rejection more than we fear death, but Jesus’ warning is still true for us. But how does the love of God lead us to fear Him?

The Apostle Paul in his doxology in the opening of his letter to the Ephesians wrote that God chose us to be holy and blameless before Him in Jesus; and for adoption as His children before the foundation of the world! (Ephesians 1:4-5).

Think about it. Before God created anything and before He spoke “Let there be light,” He already chose you and I to be eternally His, in Jesus! Long before we could call His name or reach for Him. All because of the “kind intention and good pleasure of His will.” Why? “to the praise of His glorious grace and favor.” (Ephesians 1:5-6 AMP).

This should lead us to humbly fear God for His kindness in rescuing us because the temporary (and yes, painful) bodily harm or rejection from people in this life doesn’t register on the scale of God’s eternal love for us, the undeserving.

Prayer

Most Holy Father, please help me to fear You rightly and please deliver me from the fear of people. Please help me by Your Spirit to know You and to experience Your love for me in Jesus, till everything else rightly dims in comparison, in Jesus’ name, amen.