Fear and Comfort

Acts 9:31 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.

A church after edification, gives the first signs of walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Since the term walking is used here, we should understand that it progressed or lived with these characteristics. But here, “walking” is attributed to the Church and so, we have to understand that the Church, the whole body was walking. It should be understood that even if one person is not walking or progressing, the whole body is stuck and the Church is not edified properly. We should all remember that the whole body is progressing together. When we speak about walking, it means about following Jesus Christ as in Mathew 4:19. But we have to be in pace with Jesus or otherwise the distance between Him and us will be very far away.

The fear of the Lord is very much necessary as a person grows. This should be seen in families where children may not fear when they are very young but as they grow, the respect grows. If there is no fear or respect, the children are obviously spoilt. As in Psalms 111:10, wisdom starts with fear and a good understanding shows obedience very clearly. If we still are disobedient in any way, the Bible clearly says that we are fools as in Proverbs 1:7. When a person understands God or is edified or has grown well, clearly he would never show off or hurt others. Humbleness is a clear sign of grown up person. As in Proverbs 14:26, confidence on God increases and the Children are in a safe refuge when the leader or pastor fears God. The verse says that fear brings forth life as a fountain. We read a similar verse in Job 4:6.

The magnificence of God has to be understood clearly by the Church and it should understand how glorious its position with God is. As per Psalms 33:8, the world should stand in awe looking at the Lord. Psalms 47:2 says that the Lord is a great king over all the earth and is to be feared. Is 12:6 wants us to shout with joy because of the Lord who is with us.

As in Col 3:22, we should express our fear of the Lord in every work that we do and not just in ministry. The verse says that true fear of the Lord will remove iniquity from the heart and not just from our actions. When we fear the Lord more and as we mature, iniquity from our heart would disappear like a servant who obeys his master wholeheartedly.

Comfort from the Holy Spirit is mostly understood that He comforts us because of our sin and guilt. But the verses John 14:15,16 and 26 if we read slowly, the comforted leads us into obedience. Looking at the radiance of His Glory (Jesus Christ), we should have feared the Lord and understood that we cannot attain righteousness without strength from the Lord. The comforter would come and guide us slowly and steadily into righteousness and not just a comforter who consoles us. We cannot understand comfort from the Lord unless we fear Him. Even in 2 Corinthians 1:3,4,5 we read that the comfort is given to us as we share in Christ’s sufferings.

In John 16:7,8 the Holy Spirit is a comforter who disciplines us. Verses 12 and 13 give us more clarity that we cannot handle the word of the Lord, but the Holy Spirit would guide and reveal them to us. This is the comfort God gives us. That is why in John 14:27, Jesus says that Peace I leave with you and not as the world gives. This peace comes from disciplining. The church was more disciplined and was sharing in the sufferings of the Lord and so was comforted by the Lord.

In John 14 and 16, we read clearly that Jesus expects us to love Him and if we love Him, we shall not be in fear.  This is the balance we need in Christian walking. Satan would try to make us think ourselves either as very holy and perfect or very unworthy. The Church needs to be clearly in this balance. In Ephesians 5:2,8,15 when we walk we walk in love, light and wisdom.

Amen.