Scared Into Obedience
Should we live with a fear of hell? Lately I’ve come across
a few Facebook posts and comments intimating that the fear of hell is quite
unnecessary. No, it is even bad to fear hell and quite contrary to the Christian faith.
Why? Perhaps because one does not even believe that hell exists. But a more faithful reason is that the fear of hell has been used to “scare” people
into obedience. And scaring people into obeying God is not what God himself
wants. God wants our obedience to be free and born out of love, not forced and
motivated by fright. (For the record, I agree. However, some people fear hell
for a much deeper and better reason than being “scared of punishment.” More on
that below.)
There is certainly legitimacy to this idea. 1st
John 4:18 in particular seems to support it: “There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment,
and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” In other words, when one
actually becomes perfected in love – sanctified by God and molded into the
image of Christ – any fear of being punished by God will diminish and
eventually vanish.
A Better Reason to Fear
But even so, there is a type of fear that
isn’t related to punishment. The distinction between servile fear and filial
fear is helpful here. Servile fear (i.e. “I fear hell because I want to avoid
punishment”) is due to selfishness and does not please God. But filial
fear (“I fear hell because I love God and want to be with Him”) is motivated by
love for God, which is what God himself commands.
A filial fear of hell is inherent to the
Christian life. It is, in fact, a good and salutary thing to fear hell because
of love for God. In order to understand this, it is important to note that hell
is not merely a place of eternal pain, but a state of irrevocable separation from
God. Given that definition of hell, those who love God would also fear
hell. That is to say, they would fear missing out on life with their Lord.
The Lord himself, not just some blissful
place called “heaven,” is the true inheritance of the saints. To miss out on
God and be separated from Him is misery indeed, and that misery is what the
Church calls “hell.” That means that hell most certainly should be feared – not
because punishment is so “scary,” but because God is so loved. One who walks in
this kind of fear walks with his heart fixed on Christ, resolved to die to sin
so that he might live to God.
