The Fear of Man

February, 2007

by: Brock Bolde

Let me begin by asking you a question – Who do you fear more, God or man? Now before you answer too quickly, take some time to evaluate the actions of your life. Who do you spend more time trying to please, God or man (your spouse, your children, your boss, your friends, etc.)? If we were to be honest, many of us would have to admit that we have a major fear of man problem. It is this fear of man that stops us from being as bold with the Gospel as we should. It is our fear of man that drives us to pursue the things of this world “where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). Edward T. Welch in his book entitled When People Are Big and God Is Small writes this – “Fear of man is such a part of our human fabric that we should check for a pulse if someone denies it” (p. 17). The fear of man, if left unchecked, can lead many of us down the path of hypocrisy.

The fear of man is nothing new to our day and age – it has been around for a long time. In Deuteronomy 1:17, Moses warned the judges and leaders of Israel not to fall prey to this natural human tendency:

You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

In 1 Samuel 15:24, King Saul confessed that it was his fear of man that prompted him to disobey the command of the Lord, a sin that would cost him his kingdom:

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice.”

In Galatians 2:12-13, we hear of Paul’s confrontation with Peter because of some changed eating habits:

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.

The fear of man has the power to turn even the noblest of Christians into a hypocrite. It is something that each of us must be on guard against and something that each of us must help our children to be on guard against. Since most of us have seen this tendency within our own lives, we can be quick to excuse it in our children – after all, we all “struggle” with it! But we are not the standard by which our children are to live by – Jesus is. And Jesus was by no means a man pleaser. He stood in direct opposition to anyone who lived contrary to the Word of God. He didn’t care if a person was male or female, rich or poor. He taught them the truth, whether they liked it or not; whether they patted Him on the back for it or not! He never once took a poll to see what His audience wanted to hear; He simply spoke what was true. If we are not careful, each of us, through our man pleasing tendencies, may teach our children to worship the thoughts and opinions of others above God. And while none of us would blatantly teach our children to bow down to the love, admiration and acceptance of others, our actions might betray our intentions.

So what must we do if we are to instruct our children properly? We must begin by teaching them who they are to fear. In the words of Jesus, we must teach them to “not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do” but instead to “fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him” (Luke 12:4-5)! Our children need to learn to fear God above man! They must learn to care more about what God thinks of their actions than what other people think of their actions. Next month, we will go into greater detail as to what it means to “fear God.”