For the New Covenant believer the fear of the Lord is all about being like Christ in my relationship to the Father and my relationship to others. If I walk in the fear of the Lord I am aware of the importance of the relationships I have been given. Primarily the one I am privileged to enjoy with God at the expense of Christ! This leads me into genuine transformation!
If we stop short on our understanding the fear of the Lord we relate it only to sin. Remember it is to hate evil. The evil spoken of targets others. Our understanding the fear of the Lord should include the why we should hate evil. That involves relationships.
I've many Christians over time speak of not grieving the Holy Spirit and they are usually applying it to moral behaviors based on Law keeping.
The Scripture in Ephesians regarding grieving the Holy Ghost has to do with how we treat each other. He is grieved when we fail to walk in the fear of the Lord. A fear of the Lord which is aware and concerned for the good of others around us.
In 1 Corinthians Paul had written regarding a situation where a person was engaging in immoral behavior and nothing was being done about it. In fact the Corinthians instead were boasting of how merciful they were for not taking a grossly immoral man to task, and this was beginning to have a negative impact on the church. Paul wrote to help the Corinthians see how this man was bringing harm to others because of his practice of evil and how they as well were hurting others by ignoring it. Paul spoke sternly to them about this and it made them upset with Paul as a result. But they changed their minds about it and embraced Paul’s instructions. In turning their hearts to God in the fear of the Lord that considers others they were empowered to handle the situation and they opened their hearts again to Paul.
2Corinthians 7:10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. 11 Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.
Godly sorrow brings about change. It brings repentance! New Covenant grace has not taken away this work of repentance in the lives of those who put their trust in Jesus.
True repentance alters the way in which I live based on the life of Christ now in me. My repentance is not based on an emotion. It is not saying I am sorry just to silence the other party because they bother me. It goes much deeper than that. I am repentant because my heart is softened once again to care.
It is the ability to recognize how my actions or decisions have affected those I claim to care about. When God is at work bringing me to repentance it involves the impact my actions have had on my relationship to Him and with those around me. Only then can I be aware of a genuine sorrow because it is godly in that it is others aware.
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
