Good Fear, Bad Fear

A global pandemic is a good time for a refresher on fear.  During the Great Depression, the newly elected Franklin D. Roosevelt said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  That makes for good speech writing, but not good biblical thinking. As a Christian, your impulse might be to blurt out God’s command to not fear.  Yes, God commands this, but that is not all there is on this issue. Like most things in life, fear is not a simple issue. If you don’t have some nuanced thinking about fear fixed in your mind, you will probably fall hard into fear when the pressure is on.  The goal is to make complex issues simple, but not simplistic. So let’s think through when fear is good and when fear is bad. 

Good Fear

Fear of God – This is by far the most important word we can speak about fear.  The Bible is full of commands to fear the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10) and a fountain of life (Prov. 14:27).  At the heart of this fear is reverence. There is a holy awe that captivates and compels a person. There is a kind of fear in this reverence, but it is not the typical kind of fear.  This is a fear that causes us to run to God, not run away from him. Every sane person fears the deadly potential of the ocean, yet those same people pay top dollar to live on the beach or take a cruise.  We are helped by C.S. Lewis’ Lion, of whom it was said, “Safe…? Said Mr. Beaver… Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” 

Fear of Danger – There are two primary types of danger that we need to explore: Physical danger and spiritual danger.

In a cursed world there is physical danger.  And God has equipped us to deal with this danger.  It begins with our intellect. We first believe that something can harm us.  When we believe that a harmful thing is an imminent threat to us, our body responds.  Even if we are wrong about this belief, our bodies will still respond because our bodies are made to respond to what our souls believe.  What does your body do? Your heart rate and blood pressure rises. Your skin gets pale because blood is being redirected to vital systems.  Your breathing increases to quickly get oxygen to your systems. Blunt pain response is suspended so you don’t feel injury. Your pupils dilate to let more light in.   Adrenaline and other hormones are dumped into your blood stream so that strength and senses are heightened. Why is all of this happening? Because God built you this way.  You need to respond to danger and all of your facilities for fight or flight are brought to their peak performance.  

All of this is good because you are made in the image of God, and you need to be protected from harm.  When a snake unexpectedly slithers up to you, you are not in sin if you yelp and run away. That is a good fear of danger.  Your life is not your own, and therefore as a steward you need to protect the life God has given. That is why most extreme sports are exercises in foolishness.  People put themselves in great risk for the sake of a rush or the praise of man. We will come back to this issue of risk, because there are times when risk is right and physical danger should be embraced.  

In a cursed world, there is also spiritual danger.  This reality is in our souls as much as it is in the world.  When you truly believe that sin is out to destroy you, in the fear of that destruction you will engage in fight or flight.  Regarding sexual sin, we are told to “flee sexual immorality,” (1 Cor. 6:18) and we have a model of this in Joseph when he fled Potiphar’s wife.  Proverbs tells us in two different places that “The prudent man sees evil and hides himself, but the naïve go on and are punished for it.” (Prov. 22:3; 27:12)  We are to fight the fight of faith; the word picture of struggling and striving against sin are a common biblical theme.   

When it comes to the Coronavirus, we should have a degree of the fear of danger.  Our bodies are not our own, and we must care for them as a steward would. Additionally, we must love our neighbor.  We must not trifle with real dangers! It is a reproach upon the image of God to do such a thing. You need to do the best you can to assess the amount of danger that this virus poses to you and others in whatever situation you are in.  You are not sinning if you assess a real danger and take precautions.  

Bad Fear

Things start to get challenging when we try to distinguish bad fear from good fear.  But it can be done, and it must be done to walk rightly in this dangerous world.  

Anxious Fear – How do you know when your good fear of snakes turns into a bad fear of snakes?  As we said above, it is a good fear that causes us to jump and run when a snake gets too close.  But that good fear becomes a bad fear when it morphs into anxiety about snakes. If a snake comes into your tent God wants you to get out of there, and he has equipped your body to do it quickly.  But God does not want you constantly worrying about snakes, remaining tense, edgy, and sweaty. Now, if you know your campsite is infested with snakes that is a different story. That is a good fear of high threat.  But your fear of snakes has become bad if you cannot receive a reliable word that snakes are rare and then rest your head in sleep. It also becomes bad if you are called by God to serve his purposes in a place where there are snakes.  

We see a biblical example of something like this in Matthew chapter 8.  The disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and a bad storm came upon them.  Jesus was asleep through it all, until they roused him with cries that they were going to perish.  While the storm raged on, Jesus asked them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith.” Clearly this was bad fear.  But why? As experienced sailors, they knew they were in real danger; certainly, their bodies were rightly responding with adrenaline to meet the challenge.  Yet, this storm persisted, and they had the chance to understand what was really happening. They should have remembered that Jesus had instructed them to go to the other side in verse 18.  Additionally, they knew that the Son of God was in the boat and he would not perish like this. They had his word and his presence to trust in. They needed to see the danger in this light. Since they didn’t, their good fear of danger became a bad fear coming from anxiety.  They thought their danger would end in ruin, and not the glory of God.  

Disobedient, Debilitating fear –  Obedience is another way to understand whether your fear has changed from good to bad.  If you are not willing to obey God, your fear has become bad. In this dangerous world, there will be times when we are called to walk into danger.  Love for neighbor will not always demand that you go against the call to socially distance yourself, but instead serve them and put yourself at risk: to reputation; to health; and/or to finances.  If you do not obey God and serve in love for the name of Christ, then your fear has gone bad. There are more important things than living a long life, a healthy life, a respected like, and a comfortable life.  When it comes to obedience, eternity is on the line. Obey God and leave the details to him. It will not lead to ruin, but to a glory you cannot even fathom.   

Fear of Man – This last type of bad fear is really just a specific example of the previous two bad fears at work.  When you are anxious of the ruin that man can bring upon you, that means you have an awe and reverence of man that is greater than what you have toward God.  Additionally, when what man says has a greater weight than what God says, you will obey man and not God.  

God tells us over and over again to not fear.  All of those calls to not fear are always referring to the anxious, disobedient, man-centered fear that is so common to people.  Fight this with the sword of the Spirit and be bold, even though you will still jump at the occasional snake and you will still wisely take precautions.