Don't Fear Man, Fear God

From John Piper..

The third reason Jesus gives for why we need not fear what man can do to us is found in verse 28: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." This is an amazing verse. Who today would say things like this? In the midst of trying to encourage fearlessness and comfort, Jesus throws this sentence: "Fear God because he can destroy soul and body in hell." Fear doing anything that would cause you to be cast away by God. How does that help us become fearless toward man? It's quite simple. The fear of man is the motive behind many sins. And Jesus wants to tell us that the penalty of those sins is much more to be feared than anything man might do to us.

Verse 33 says, "Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." And why do many people deny Jesus before men? Fear. But fear of the wrong thing. What ought to be feared is denying Jesus because if we do that, Jesus will deny us, and God will destroy soul and body in hell. Therefore, Jesus is indeed trying to embolden his disciples and take away their fear of men. A proper fear of God liberates us from the bondage of fearing men.

But there is another reason why verse 28 is amazing. It shows how radically other-worldly are the values Jesus lives by. We say, "O no, we could even be killed." Jesus says, "Fear not, you can only be killed!" Do you hear the way our Lord Jesus talks? Do you hear how strange and out of step with humanity he is? I get so excited when words like this begin to sink into my heart, when I begin to feel how free and how authentically different followers of Jesus can be if we share his radical values. "Don't fear! You can only be killed!"

The only way to find comfort in a sentence like that is to experience an utter revolution of what you count as most valuable. Fear is what you feel when your greatest values are threatened. So when Jesus said, "Don't be afraid; they can only kill your body," he meant, "Don't count this life with all its attachments as most valuable. Confessing my name before men is more valuable than life. Choose death before you choose to deny me." "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). When you set out to follow Jesus you surrender earthly life as an ultimate value. And in its place you put the life of the soul in God. Eternity is far more important than time on earth. Hell is more fearful than suffering for Christ on earth. Union with God is more desirable than all the pleasures of earth. If this revolution of values has taken place in your heart by the new birth, then you will understand fully and be encouraged by the words of Jesus, "Don't fear. You can only be killed."