Fear of Man or Fear of God?

“[People]…want or need love from other people - or at least they need something from other people. As a result, they are in bondage, controlled by others and feeling empty. They are controlled by whoever or whatever they believe can give them what they think they need. It is true: what or who you need will control you”

- Ed Welch: When People are Big and God is Small - Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency, and the Fear of Man

I. The Pharisees Who Feared Man

John 5:41–44 NKJV

41 “I do not receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

The Pharisees’ entire lives revolved around getting praise from other people..each other and the crowds.

They did not consider what God thought of them…they had outgrown God’s Law by adding hundreds of their own commands.

They lived by the Fear of Man ethic - “Make sure everyone praises me!”

They were living a life of self-righteousness so that they didn’t have to answer to God…they made themselves the standard.

“One way to avoid God’s eyes is to live as if fear of other people is our deepest problem - they are big, not God.” - E.W.

II. The Pharisee Who Feared the Lord

The apostle Paul encouraged his churches to imitate his life and his teachings which certainly included seeking God’s praise, not man’s:

1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV

1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

Paul was all about pleasing God, not men:

1 Thessalonians 2:4 NKJV

4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

Paul loved people too much to try and please them!

“Only people-lovers are able to confront. Only people-lovers are not controlled by other people.” - E.W.

Galatians 1:10 NKJV

10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

The fear of man cannot coexist with the command to love others.

“Regarding other people, our problem is that we need them (for ourselves) more than we love them (for the glory of God). the task God sets for us is to need them less and love them more.” -E.W.

Welch also discusses the concept of our needs. What do we TRULY need in this life?

At times, our FELT needs are not the same as what God SAYS we need.

Sometimes we use the word “needs” in an ambiguous way…we say we need certain things from certain people, but who has the right to define our needs?

Since we are created beings, only our Creator has the intrinsic right to define our needs.

“…we should be careful about saying, ‘Jesus meets all our needs.’ At first, this has a plausible biblical ring to it…then there may be some situations where we should say that Jesus does not intend to meet our needs, but that he intends to change our needs.” - E.W.

“The most radical treatment for the fear of man is the fear of the Lord. God must be bigger to you than people are.” - Ed Welch