Last weekend as I sought the Lord, an unusual verse came to mind:

Revelation 2:20-22 (NIV) Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.

As I read, something equally unusual came over me: a holy fear. Not as in “I am afraid of God” but a recognition that he cares about how we conduct our lives and that the Christian life, though profoundly beautiful, is also high-stakes. There are things God has a strong opinion about. I found myself taking inventory of my life and reconsecrating myself to his plans and purposes.

As a general rule, we (that is, most of the believers I interact with) are afraid of God’s holiness. We fear a God who may have a strong opinion about anything. At the same time, however, most of the believers I run with take the Christian life very seriously. It is almost as if it is okay for us to have strong opinions about the Christian life but not God, which really does not make sense. A servant cannot be greater than his Master; if we have strong opinions about any aspect of the Christian life, whether his nature or our role in it, it is likely because he has strong opinions about it.

The question then is not whether God is allowed to have strong opinions but how that translates to our interaction with him. As far as I can tell, the modern fear about God’s holiness stems from the belief that it will result in a relationship with him where God may be angry with us at any moment, and therefore we will constantly live in fear of him. But this is not so. It certainly is not so about any other relationship we have. Does the fact your husband or wife or close friend have strong opinions about things mean you live in constant fear of them? You do if you do not know them. But as you come to know them, what they care about most becomes an opportunity to love them well. And if you treat lightly what they care about most deeply, things do not go well.

So it is really not the fact God cares about things deeply that is really the issue. We do not need a God who cares about very little to feel safe with him. We simply need a God who reveals to us what he cares most about as we draw more deeply in intimate love with him. Understanding the extravagant goodness of God, I feel, is vital to the Christian life. But let’s not use it as a shield to protect us from God, but rather as an invitation to love him well.