Monday, March 20, 2006

Love and Fear

Last night Les and I caught most of the movie First Knight which was on TV. In one of the scenes King Arthur says to Lancelot, "A man who fears nothing is a man who loves nothing, and if that is so, then what joy is there in your life?"

I agree that without love in our lives there would be no joy, but I'm not so sure what I think about the link between fear and love?

The Bible says that "Perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18) And yet it also says that we are not only to love God, but to fear him... ("The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Ps 111:10) Possibly it's a matter of symantics and usage of words. What do you think?

2 comments:

Christy said...

Maybe the quote is saying that someone who doesn't feel deeply (ie acknowledging fear and other intense emotions) can't love. We can't be numb and have to be willing to face fear, anger, sadness etc in order to love fully.

Anonymous said...

**In Acts Chptr 5, Ananias and his wife kept back a portion of what was meant to be given for the common good. They had lost their fear of the Lord, they had lost their reverence for God....He is not to be treated "commonly".** There should be a fear, a reverence given to the Creator of the Universe. In my mind, the proper balance between the understanding of fear and His love is what we should all be striving for. The pathway we are on has a ditch on each side, we must be wise to keep our stride straight and true,one side holds legalism the other lascivitious behavior. Wisdom is about balance for me, the knowledge of that road I walk upon,daily. The awareness of those ditches. The knowledge of the love of God as well as acknowledging the fear is another balance I must have in my walk.
"The fear of man will lead you to hypocrisy. The fear of God will keep you away from it"

my Thoughts...thanks for asking for them!