The Right Fear that Produces the Right Humility

Philippians 2:1-4
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.


Philippians 2 is brutal. I don't know how else to summit up except it is brutal.  Here is what I mean when I say brutal: Philippians chapter 2 goes after for the heart.  In Philippians chapter 1 Paul sort of tugs at your heart, but in Philippians chapter 2 Paul goes right after the main artery  of your faith.

In these verses, The Holy Spirit is assaulting our pride and self-sufficient attitude.

Have you ever heard that the preaching of the gospel afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted?  That is what this passage does for sure!

The motivation of this brutality of course is not anger or malice but rather driven from a compelling desire for the reader to exalt Almighty God.  Paul is writing in humility about humility and shares with us in the opening lines of this chapter the desire to create a passionate worshiper of God.

Look again at verse 3.

All through the  Bible, God is a consuming fire who wants all of us, not just some of us!    Here is a question we must consider: If we have only given Him a portion of our lives are we really His at all?

When you think about the conversions in the Philippian church you begin to recall the sort of fear that drives sinners into God's loving arms.  Fear?  Are we supposed to fear God?  I am asked this question often and the answer is YES!   A right fear of God keeps us from developing sinful pride.  A right fear of God awakens us to the mind of Christ!

I think most people who come to Christ do so from a fear of hell and punishment for their sins.  While that may be a valid type of fear, it is not the best fear to have in the moment of conversion, why?  In my opinion, it has to do with the fact the a dreadful fear of hell cannot sustain the Christian life.

Here is the truth from God's word:  We are not called by the spirit of fear into the spirit of fear but by a spirit of grace into a spirit of love and power.

The kind of fear of the early Philippi believers and converts knew was the biblical fear of God. This was the kind of fear that typifies the work of salvation. {See verse 12}

It is the reverent humble kind of fear.  Don't you think the slave girl and the jailer especially knew this kind of fear? Their conversion experiences presented clear evidence of God's power over the forces of nature and the Satanic realm.   If the ground shook under my feet God would have my attention.  

This powerful demonstration would have developed within them a reverent fear.

Paul’s own conversion experience was one of vivid Christological manifestation, and would have clearly got his attention humbled his pride and caused him to reflect on the purpose that God had created him for. 

Keep an eye out for more thoughts on this subject...