He Feared
Why men grow unfaithful varies from
man to man. The faith of Demas
failed because he loved the world; the faith of Diotrephes failed because he
loved the preeminence; the faith of the man I am about to talk about failed
because of fear.
Of course, there is a sense in which
faith never fails. It is the man
who fails, fails to have faith in sufficient strength to remain faithful. It is a challenge to all men to develop
a strong faith.
Paul, in writing to the Christians
in
In ancient times in battle as long
as a man had a shield and could keep it placed between his body and the swords,
spears, and other weapons of the enemy his safety was assured. Take the shield away from the soldier
and his prospects for survival were greatly diminished. Paul, is telling us all that if we will
build our faith strong enough we cannot be defeated in the battle for our
spiritual life.
The Bible teaches us clearly that
faithfulness is directly associated with obedience and vice versa. In Hebrews chapter 3 toward the end of
the chapter the writer is discussing the children of
When we become strong enough in our
faith that we are convinced that hell is just around the corner and that the
only thing keeping us from going there is faithful obedience we will be
faithful. Sin is a direct result of
a weak faith. We some how convince
ourselves that we can disobey God and yet be saved which is another way of
saying we do not believe what God has said. To quote the Hebrew writer speaking of
Jesus, Hebrews 5:9 (NKJV), “he became the author of eternal salvation to all who
obey him.” We either believe that
or we do not.
But, who was the man whose fear led
him to sin and unfaithfulness? The
apostle Peter’s faith failed him 3 times out of fear. He walked on the water believing Jesus
would make this possible for him until his faith failed. He denied Jesus 3 times after Jesus was
arrested. Finally, in Galatians the
2nd chapter Paul tells us Peter withdrew from eating with the
Gentiles sinning and that out of fear.
The account of Peter walking on the
water is found in Matt. 14:25-31.
Jesus had just fed the 5,000 and then immediately had sent the disciples
in a boat across the
The disciples saw what they took to
be a ghost walking across the water causing them great fear as it would any
human being. The Bible says (Matt.
The text says that Peter answered,
“Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (Matt. 14:28,
NAS) While Peter uses the word “if”
it seems almost certain that he recognized the voice of Jesus. Why else would he dare take that first
step out of the boat. We often use
the word “if” not to express doubt but just as a manner of speech. We sometimes tell a person to do this or
that if they can while knowing full well they can.
Peter did walk on the water for
awhile, until his faith failed him.
The Bible says “seeing the wind, he became afraid” (Matt.
We learn from this passage that
there is power in faith, power to protect.
As long as faith had the ascendancy Peter was protected from
drowning. We also learn that one
needs to build his faith beyond that which is described by Jesus himself as
“little faith”. Little faith is not
a shield for us nor was it for Peter.
Great faith is.
And, finally, we learn fear was the
cause of faith failing. Fear is the
opposite of faith. What faith will
allow you to do fear will keep you from doing. Fear will keep you from obedience. Remember the children of
Rev. 21:8 reads as follows in the
NKJV, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” The old KJV and the ASV use the word
“fearful” rather than the word cowardly.
If fear is a sin then surely there is a way to overcome it lest we all be
condemned. More about that
later.
The second instance of Peter’s faith
failing him because of fear was when the Lord was arrested and Peter followed
after him into the courtyard of the high priest. We all remember how confident Peter was
in his faith. He tells the Lord
that even if he has to die he will not deny him. We know the rest of the
story.
We ought not to be over
confident. Until our faith is
tested we can talk all we want. The
proof is in the testing. Many
people fail at this point. You and
I perhaps have also. We are
okay when there are no problems but when things turn against us we begin to
doubt God’s love and care for us.
That leads to disobedience and doing our own thing apart from God. Our thinking is if God cared he would
not have allowed this to happen.
Since it happened he does not care.
If he does not care for me then what is the use? We drift away. Our fail has
failed.
Peter was under great stress. These people who have arrested Jesus
mean business. Death is a real
possibility. With the threat of
death it has become dangerous to be a disciple. His faith is tested. He is afraid and his faith fails. He is no longer loyal to the
Lord.
Peter feared for his physical
safety. We are critical and discuss
his failure as though we have had none of our own. The threat to Peter was much greater
than the threats we face. It is
easy to see how he became fearful.
We talk about him
Yet, in our own life we refuse to
take a stand on issues, refuse to talk to people about Christ and the faith,
hide our own faith and religion, will not say anything that would bring upon us
the disfavor of brethren or of our peers, because we are afraid of what that
would lead to, and then lay claim that Peter was fearful and we would not be
like him. No we would not
be. We would not even enter the
courtyard.
The challenge is to get an honest
picture of our own faith and strength.
The final account we have of Peter’s
faith failing him because of fear is found in Galatians chapter two where Paul
tells us about it. Paul says
of Peter (Gal.
Paul says “he began to withdraw and
hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.” (Gal. 2:12,
NAS) Here we have the case of an
apostle sinning because of the fear of men, the fear of brethren in Christ, the
fear of what they would think, say, and possibly do (cause him trouble). If an apostle can be afraid of men
certainly it is very possible for you and I to be.
Jesus said, (Matt.
Fear seems to come to us all
naturally in one form or another.
There are all kinds of phobias that people have as I am sure you are well
aware. Fear is not always a bad
thing to have. For their personal
safety there are many things we would like our children to be afraid of.
The Bible teaches us we are to fear
God. Remember the words of Jesus
already referenced in this article when he says, “fear Him who is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell.”
(Matt. 10:28, NKJV) Solomon
tells us, “Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” (Prov. 3:7, NKJV) and again he says, “The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. (Prov. 1:7, NKJV) We are to work out our own salvation
with fear and trembling as Paul tells us in Phillipians
2:12.
We need to have such respect for God
and his word that we are afraid to disobey him. Strange as it may seem this kind of fear
of God ultimately leads us to the point in our Christian life where there is no
fear.
John says, in 1 John 4:18, NKJV,
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”. A few verses later he will say (1 John
5:3, NKJV), “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” When we fear to disobey God, which leads
us to live a faithful Christian life, fear is dispelled for we have no reason
for fear. We are walking with God,
doing his will, and we know he will not cast us out. We do not fear God’s condemnation any
longer. We can confidently say
along with Paul that there is a crown of righteousness laid up for us (2 Tim.
4:8, NKJV). This freedom from fear
is available to the young Christian, not just the old, for as we walk with the
Lord keeping his commandments there is no cause for fear. By being afraid to disobey we are freed
from fear.
But how do we obey when we are
afraid to obey as Peter was? Many
people take it for granted that fear is an emotion over which we have no
control. They would say that if we
are afraid we are afraid and there is nothing that we can do about it. Is that correct? How can the Lord condemn us for being
fearful or cowardly, as we are told will be the case in Rev. 21:8, if such fear
is beyond our control? If fear is
so strong it just totally overwhelms us to the point where we cannot control
ourselves and are forced by it to disobey God then how can a righteous judge
condemn us?
The truth is self evident. If we had no control over fear then God
would not be just in condemning us.
Since we will be condemned if we are fearful or cowardly it means
necessarily that we have some control, some ability, to manage fear. I think we all understand that what God
condemns is not fear itself but the fear that holds us back from obedience. He is not condemning a little faster
heart rate or an adrenaline rush or shaking knees and sweating palms.
To a degree fear is a matter of
choice. I do not have to be
afraid. It is my choice. It becomes a matter of mind over
matter. What is the worse that can
happen to a faithful Christian? Is
it that by obeying God’s command he would die, or be killed, and go to
heaven? Is that the worse that can
happen? That is what we are living
the Christian life for. That is our
goal.
The Hebrew writer tells us that God
has said, “’I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not
fear. What can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5-6, NKJV) A passage that has given strength to
many is Philipians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.” We need to concentrate on
building our faith.
Paul wrote in 1 Cor.