The opening words of this chapter bid us seriously take to heart the solemn warning given at the close of 3. God's judgment upon the wicked should make us more watchful that we do not follow their steps. The “us” shows that Paul was preaching to himself as well as to the Hebrews. “Let us therefore fear” has stumbled some, because of the “Fear thou not” of Isaiah 41:10, 43:1, 5, etc. In John 14:27 Christ says to us, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And in 2 Timothy 1:7 we read, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” On the other hand, believers are told to “Fear God” (1Pe 2:17), and to work out their own salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phi 2:12). How are these two different sets of passages to be harmonized?

The Bible is full of paradoxes, which to the natural man, appear to be contradictions. The Word needs “rightly dividing” on the subject of “fear” as upon everything else of which it treats. There is a fear which the Christian is to cultivate, and there is a fear from which he should shrink. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and in Proverbs 14:26, 27 we read, “In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence.…The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life”; so again, “Happy is the man that feareth always” (Pro 23:14). The testimony of the New Testament inculcates the same duty: Christ bade His disciples, “Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Mat 19:28). To the saints at Rome Paul said, “Be not high-minded, but fear” (Rom 11:20). To God's people Peter wrote, “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1Pe 1:17). While in Heaven itself the word will yet be given: “Praise our God all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him both small and great” (Rev 19:5).

Fear may be called one of the disliking affections. It is good or evil according to the object on which it is placed, and according to the ordering of it thereon. In Heb. 4:1 it is placed on the right object—an evil to be shunned. That evil is unbelief, which, if persisted in, ends in apostasy and destruction. About this the Christian needs to be constantly on his guard, having his heart set steadily against it. Our natural proneness to fall, the many temptations to which we are subject, together with the deceitfulness of sin, the subtlety of Satan, and God's justice in leaving men to themselves, are strong enforcements of this duty. Concerning God Himself, we are to fear Him with such a reverent awe of His holy majesty as will make us careful to please Him in all things, and fearful of offending Him. This is ever accompanied by a fearsome distrust of ourselves. The fear of God which is evil in a Christian is that servile bondage which produces a distrustful attitude, kills affection for Him, regards Him as a hateful Tyrant. This is the fear of the demons (Jam 2:19).

“Let us therefore fear.” “It is salutary to remember our tendency to partiality and one-sidedness in our spiritual life, in order that we may be on our guar, that we may carefully and anxiously consider the 'Again, it is written'; that we may be willing to learn from Christians who have received different gifts of grace, and whose experience varies from ours; above all, that we may seek to follow and serve the Lord Himself, to walk with God, to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. Forms of godliness, types of doctrine, are apt to become substitutes instead of channels, weights instead of wings.

“The exhortations of this epistle may appear to some difficult to reconcile with the teachings of Scripture, that the grace of God, once received, through the power of the Holy Spirit by faith, can never be lost, and that they who are born again, who are once in Christ, are in Christ for ever. Let us not blunt the edge of earnest and piercing exhortations. Let us not pass them over, or treat them with inward apathy. 'Again it is written.' We know this does not mean that there is any real contradiction in Scripture, but that various aspects of truth are presented, each with the same fidelity, fulness and emphasis. Hence we must learn to move freely, and not to be cramped and fixed in one position: we must keep our eyes clear and open, and not look at all things through the light of a favourite doctrine. And while we receive fully and joyously the assurance of our perfect acceptance and peace, and of the unchanging love of God in Christ Jesus, let us with the apostle consider also our sins and dangers, from the lower yet most real earthly and time-point of view.

“When Christ is beheld and accepted, there is peace; but is there not also fear? 'With Thee is forgiveness of sin, that Thou mayest be feared' (Psa 130:4). Where do we see God's holiness and the awful majesty of the law as in the cross of Christ? Where our own sin and unworthiness, where the depths of our guilt and misery, as in the atonement of the Lord Jesus? We rejoice with fear and trembling.…It is because we know the Father, it is because we are redeemed by the precious blood of the Saviour, it is as the children of God and as the saints of Christ, that we are to pass our earthly pilgrimage in fear. This is not the fear of bondage, but the fear of adoption; not the fear which dreads condemnation, but the fear of those who are saved, and whom Christ has made free. It is not an imperfect and temporary condition; it refers not merely to those who have begun to walk in the ways of God. Let us not imagine that this fear is to vanish at some subsequent period of our course, that it is to disappear in a so-called 'higher Christian life.' No; we are to pass the time of our sojourn here in fear. To the last moment of our fight of faith, to the very end of our journey, the child of God, while trusting and rejoicing, walks in godly fear” (Saphir).

A.W. Pink: (1889-1952) Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, voluminous author of Studies in the Scriptures, and many books including his well-known The Sovereignty of God. Born in Great Britain, immigrated to the U.S., and later returned to his homeland in 1934.