Luke 12:4-7 (ESV)

[4] “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. [5] But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! [6] Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. [7] Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

We live in a time characterized by fear. Our current political debates are characterized by fear. The leading presidential candidates on both sides are using fear to press their agenda. Businesses have been built on a foundation of fear. Churches have allowed fear to be their driving motivation. We are afraid of the world, and we are afraid that God will be unhappy with us unless we perform rightly. That is not what the Bible means by fear of the Lord, but it is how we have often defined it.

Once fear is our motivation, it is a short step from acting because we are afraid that God will be unhappy with us, to acting because we are afraid of the world. It develops like this: We are afraid that God will be unhappy with us if we fail to perform rightly. We are afraid that a world that is not performing rightly will influence us to not perform rightly. We separate from the world and build tight, inwardly focused groups that are safe. Our groups become smaller and smaller because any difference is a possible threat. We know that performing rightly includes evangelism, but we don’t know any unbelievers to evangelize because they are not safe to know. We pray that God will somehow bring them into our closed little group so they can hear the truth. We preach loudly against those ungodly outsiders, making it all the more likely that they will never come in. The fact that they don’t come is further proof that we are right; the world is evil and to be feared. Our evangelism looks more like hate than love, but we call it love because we are speaking the truth. We have become Westboro Baptist Church carrying angry signs, and writing incredibly unbiblical things like, “"GOD HATES FAGS" -- though elliptical -- is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread” (a quote taken from their website). The Good News has become Bad News because the people of God are driven by fear rather than faith.

Of course, Westboro Baptist Church is an extreme example that we all love to hate, but the truth is that when fear is what motivates us as Christians we are not far from them. When fear drives all our decisions and policies we have moved away from faith. Imagine Jesus saying to Peter, “Jump out of the boat and walk on water, but before you leave the boat I need you sign this waver in case your faith fails and you start to sink. I wouldn’t want you to sue me over your new sandals getting ruined by seawater.” Imagine Jesus saying to the woman at the well, or to the woman washing his feet with her tears, “God hates you because of your immorality! You need to repent!” I find it incredible that the only people Jesus was harsh with were the religious elite that thought they were better than everyone else. Jesus was called a friend of sinners because he wasn’t afraid to hang out with them. He was not driven by fear.

We live in a time characterized by fear. We are afraid of the politics of the opposing party. We are afraid of aliens coming across our borders. We are afraid of losing our rights. We are afraid of economic downturns. Fear mongering books sell because we buy them. It is time we stop living in fear and start trusting God. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do” (Luke 12:4). It is only when we learn to live by faith that church can begin to be described like Jesus as a friend of sinners. Then we have a platform for the Good News.