This week we have been examining the importance and value of having godly or reverent fear toward God. Godly fear simply has to do with giving God the respect and reverence that He de-serves. We have looked at three Bible characters, all of whom taught us something important about having the proper reverence toward God. Noah taught us that godly fear causes us to obey God no matter how hard it is, and even if the world ridicules us. Abraham taught us that fearing God leads to obeying Him even at great cost and sacrifice, and Job taught us that godly fear will cause us to live upright, refrain from all evil, and never, ever disrespect God.

Giving God proper respect and allowing that respect to guide us in life is not something meant for only a few famous Bible characters. Every Christian must possess it. It is not surprising, then, to read that the early church feared God.

Acts 9:31 (ESV)
³¹ So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Walking in the New Testament usually referred to daily living. The daily life of the average saint in the early church consisted of demonstrations of godly fear. There was good reason for this. Early Christians witnessed the power of God firsthand.

Acts 2:43 (KJV)
⁴³ And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

The apostles performed many miracles, including speaking in tongues, healing the sick, and transferring miraculous powers to others, resulting in the early church being filled with the fear of God. Should we not also be filled with godly fear? No, we do not see the miraculous workings of God firsthand, but we do have record of them in the Bible. Biblical miracles show us that God has power over nature (Matthew 8:26), sickness (Matthew 9:35), death (John 11:20-45), material things (Matthew 14:15-21), etc. If we believe the Bible is God’s Word, we know how powerful our God is; thus, we will always be filled with godly fear.

The early church feared God because they knew that He punishes sin. In Acts five God gave a demonstration of this by punishing Ananias and Sapphira with death because they lied to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). It was important for God to teach the church a lesson while it was in its infancy stage.

What do we learn from Ananias and Sapphira? We learn that unrepentant sin will never go unpunished. Ananias and Sapphira had an opportunity to repent, but they refused to do so; thus, they were punished. The church was filled with fear because they realized that God is not only a loving God, but also a God who is severe when it comes to unrepentant sin.

Even though God will not punish us physically, the way He did Ananias and Sapphira, we know that we will face something worse—we will spend eternity in a devil’s hell (Matthew 25:41). This should fill us with fear. We should fear God, not only for what we know He can do, but because we know what He will do if we fall outside of His favor. In the end, though, our godly fear should be rooted in our knowledge of the indescribable greatness of God. He is the supreme being in exist-ence, and He deserves our daily respect and reverence.

As you wind down for the night, think on these things.