Fear

To the world, fear is associated with the desire to avoid something.  The Bible uses the word in this sense when speaking of worldlings, as John writes, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1John 4:18)  Love, pure and divine love, casts out all worldly fear.  Yet the Bible also uses the word, when speaking of saints, of a different kind of fear than that which is cast out by true love.

In fact, to have both love and godly fear are a requirement for the service of Heaven.  We read, all in one verse, “And now, Israel, what doth Yahweh thy God require of thee? But to fear Yahweh thy Almighty, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Yahweh thy Almighty with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” (Deu 10:12)  This is the verse partially quoted by Yahshua in Matthew in response to the question, “Which is the first [i.e., greatest] commandment of all?” (Mat 12:28-30)

We are told to both love and fear Yah, and when used of the Redeemed, it does not have to do with “torment” as John describes of those not yet made perfect in love, but with worship.

The words awful, terror, terrible – these also might have had entries here, except that they are associated directly with fear, so they appear all together here.  Awful originally meant, as you can still understand from its spelling, “full of awe,” or capable of inducing overwhelming feelings.  It now has a strictly negative connotation in modern English.  Terror, caused by something terrible, was likewise a word used to describe great feeling towards either something extremely good or extremely bad.  This is why the translators could rightly describe Yahweh as a “terrible” God. (Deu 7:21)