“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 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. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:24-39, NRSV)
Fear is sometimes a good motivator…
We will do things out of fear of being punished.
We follow the rules so we do not have to face a penalty of breaking them.
We stay inline and do what is expected even when it is not what we want to do.
Fear is a great motivator…
We can see this in the “turn or burn” evangelism some denominations talk about. As if we are ever completely right with God. We are only brought into the space of relationship with God through the faith and grace of Jesus Christ. It is not because of anything we have done, but our relationship with Jesus. So our turning, only helps to get us the relationship. Only through Jesus do we get the out on the burn part…
You see though Fear will only motivate so far. We will be dutiful followers for a while if it is about fear, but we will not last. Our own nature will take over and we will fall back to our old ways. Fear is not the answer.
But we fear every day.
And fear is the thing that leads us to do things that are sometimes pure evil… (as the famous Yoda quote goes, “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering…”)
We fear what is different. We fear what we do not know.
But as the quote of Yoda here says, “we must let go of everything we fear to lose.” If we let go of all things except Jesus, there is nothing to fear. Even what we do not know will not hurt us, because Jesus will always be with us.
That is why in the above verses where Jesus discusses the cost of being a disciple, He says do not fear twice in the 16 verses. Actually it has been said that the Bible has the phrase do not fear 365 times. Once for every day of the year. Coincidence? I think that is a God-incidence!
We are not to fear anything but let go of everything and follow after Him, the one thing we should never let go of.
aSacredRebel 