A Testimony from My Youth
As I was running through my neighborhood the other day, I was thinking about how fearing man more than God in a situation can appear shrewd in the moment, but it causes a lot of hurt… to God, to others, to ourselves.
He brought me back to a night when I was fourteen. I was wearing a soft new sweater in some of my favorite colors—royal blue, purple, green, and black. It was December, and we went to a special evening service at my church—maybe Christmas Eve.
I attended a Baptist church as a child, and they always had an altar call. That night, I felt the Holy Spirit urge me to go up. But why? He didn’t say.
My cheeks probably flushed as I considered my options. (Why are we people foolish enough to think when God speaks, it’s up for negotiation?) What am I going to say when I get there and they ask why I came? “I don’t know. I felt God was telling me to. I’m already saved and I’ve already been baptized.” I was a socially anxious teenager, and I felt foolish thinking about not having a concrete answer, and how to cope with the ensuing awkwardness. People will see me coming down and assume I’m not a Christian yet or I haven’t been baptized. The threat of being misjudged in other people’s minds (which I couldn’t even read!) seemed like too much to ask. I stayed put.
Several years later, the Spirit brought to mind this earlier sin as something that stood between us. I repented from fearing man more than God.
I have wondered, what did I miss that day, because of my disobedience? A word of instruction? Encouragement? Correction? A prophecy over me which would have helped me in days of hardship? Only God knows.
Every time I see or wear this beautiful sweater, which I still own, I remember that day and I’m encouraged to fear God more than man.
I was born again at five, so I don’t have a big conversion testimony comparing my life before becoming a Christian and my life after. But one of the ways God has really changed me is helping me fear man less and Him more.
Whenever our actions (or, as in my case, non-actions) betray that we fear man more than God, it’s sin. It affects our relationship with God. We miss out on the blessings that come with obedience. The Holy Spirit is grieved. But it can go beyond us and God in ways we cannot comprehend.
There are people hurting because they dared to speak up about something uncomfortable and their church leadership silenced, persecuted or ignored them rather than shine the light of God’s Word on the issue. For example, almost every day on social media, I notice posts by or about people left reeling because leaders in their churches have not properly handled sexual abuse violations.
Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Lk 9:26). My first thought reading this is usually the idea of a person who is ashamed to say they are a Christian under threat of death. I think His statement is broader. He says, “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words.” What are His words? They are the Scriptures, which are God breathed (2 Tim 3:16), and one of Jesus’ names is the Word of the God (Rv 19:13). What if we withhold the parts of His Word that are less pleasant, for example, the parts that demand our repentance, promise persecution, or warn against apostasy? That’s not a complete picture, and it could look like being ashamed of His words. Our actions reflect our hearts, and I don’t want to be judged anywhere near the line of ashamed. Paul proclaimed to the Ephesian elders that he was innocent of the blood of all men, “for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Ac 20:27). The whole… not just part. What an awesome responsibility, especially to those who teach.
Revelation 21 largely speaks of the eternal state, where the Lord dwells with His people forever and there’s no more sin, death, crying, or pain. But there’s one verse of contrasts (verse 8)—describing those who go into the Lake of Fire. The usual suspects are mentioned—murderers, idolaters, sorcerers, unbelievers, the sexually immoral—but do you know what? The first mentioned group of sinners are the cowardly. The cowardly. Wow. It just demonstrates how important it is to God that we fear Him above any other.
Speaking to men who did not believe Him, Jesus asked, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44).
Perhaps you—like me—can remember plenty of examples of how you feared man more than God. Repent if you haven’t, but when you have done so, take courage! God is merciful to the sinner who repents. I love the apostle Paul’s perspective about the past (whether good or bad): “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Pp 3:13-14).
We might not gain many friends in the world or in the church world, but God didn’t leave us here to please men. Paul told the Galatians, “For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Ga 1:10). “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you,” Jesus says (Jn 15:14). He’s the one we should fear and strive to please. Amen.
As I was running through my neighborhood the other day, I was thinking about how fearing man more than God in a situation can appear shrewd in the moment, but it causes a lot of hurt… to God, to others, to ourselves.
He brought me back to a night when I was fourteen. I was wearing a soft new sweater in some of my favorite colors—royal blue, purple, green, and black. It was December, and we went to a special evening service at my church—maybe Christmas Eve.
I attended a Baptist church as a child, and they always had an altar call. That night, I felt the Holy Spirit urge me to go up. But why? He didn’t say.
My cheeks probably flushed as I considered my options. (Why are we people foolish enough to think when God speaks, it’s up for negotiation?) What am I going to say when I get there and they ask why I came? “I don’t know. I felt God was telling me to. I’m already saved and I’ve already been baptized.” I was a socially anxious teenager, and I felt foolish thinking about not having a concrete answer, and how to cope with the ensuing awkwardness. People will see me coming down and assume I’m not a Christian yet or I haven’t been baptized. The threat of being misjudged in other people’s minds (which I couldn’t even read!) seemed like too much to ask. I stayed put.
Several years later, the Spirit brought to mind this earlier sin as something that stood between us. I repented from fearing man more than God.
I have wondered, what did I miss that day, because of my disobedience? A word of instruction? Encouragement? Correction? A prophecy over me which would have helped me in days of hardship? Only God knows.
Every time I see or wear this beautiful sweater, which I still own, I remember that day and I’m encouraged to fear God more than man.
I was born again at five, so I don’t have a big conversion testimony comparing my life before becoming a Christian and my life after. But one of the ways God has really changed me is helping me fear man less and Him more.
Whenever our actions (or, as in my case, non-actions) betray that we fear man more than God, it’s sin. It affects our relationship with God. We miss out on the blessings that come with obedience. The Holy Spirit is grieved. But it can go beyond us and God in ways we cannot comprehend.
There are people hurting because they dared to speak up about something uncomfortable and their church leadership silenced, persecuted or ignored them rather than shine the light of God’s Word on the issue. For example, almost every day on social media, I notice posts by or about people left reeling because leaders in their churches have not properly handled sexual abuse violations.
Jesus said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels” (Lk 9:26). My first thought reading this is usually the idea of a person who is ashamed to say they are a Christian under threat of death. I think His statement is broader. He says, “Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words.” What are His words? They are the Scriptures, which are God breathed (2 Tim 3:16), and one of Jesus’ names is the Word of the God (Rv 19:13). What if we withhold the parts of His Word that are less pleasant, for example, the parts that demand our repentance, promise persecution, or warn against apostasy? That’s not a complete picture, and it could look like being ashamed of His words. Our actions reflect our hearts, and I don’t want to be judged anywhere near the line of ashamed. Paul proclaimed to the Ephesian elders that he was innocent of the blood of all men, “for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Ac 20:27). The whole… not just part. What an awesome responsibility, especially to those who teach.
Revelation 21 largely speaks of the eternal state, where the Lord dwells with His people forever and there’s no more sin, death, crying, or pain. But there’s one verse of contrasts (verse 8)—describing those who go into the Lake of Fire. The usual suspects are mentioned—murderers, idolaters, sorcerers, unbelievers, the sexually immoral—but do you know what? The first mentioned group of sinners are the cowardly. The cowardly. Wow. It just demonstrates how important it is to God that we fear Him above any other.
Speaking to men who did not believe Him, Jesus asked, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44).
Perhaps you—like me—can remember plenty of examples of how you feared man more than God. Repent if you haven’t, but when you have done so, take courage! God is merciful to the sinner who repents. I love the apostle Paul’s perspective about the past (whether good or bad): “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Pp 3:13-14).
We might not gain many friends in the world or in the church world, but God didn’t leave us here to please men. Paul told the Galatians, “For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Ga 1:10). “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you,” Jesus says (Jn 15:14). He’s the one we should fear and strive to please. Amen.
