Luke 12:4-7 - Fear

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.

Just understanding these short verses is life changing. We so fear death, yet as Jesus points out, once someone has killed us, there is “nothing more that they can do.” As believers in Jesus Christ, death is no longer an enemy. It has been conquered and overcome.

Rather, Jesus says, we ought to fear the one who can cast us into hell after we are killed. That is not Satan. That is God. Only God has that authority. Yet after saying that we should fear God, Jesus tells us not to fear. There seems to be a contradiction here. Fear God but fear not because we are of more value to God that many sparrows. We are of such value to him that “even the hairs of our head are all numbered.” How do we put this together?

We are to fear God and we are not to fear. We must remember that this was spoken immediately following his warning of hypocrisy against the Pharisees. That leads us to three take-aways from this passage. First, don’t fear what people can do to us and don’t fear death. It is no longer an enemy. Second, if your faith is that of external show only, then fear God. Your relationship to him goes beyond death and there are consequences to the hypocrisy of external religion only. Third, if you are trusting God from the heart, then have no fear for you are precious in his sight. God doesn’t even forget sparrows, how could he ever forget or abandon you? Rest in that truth! Trust him and live with no fear.