“Fear of the Lord: With this gift....”
Fear is not a good choice of words. Reverence would be a better choice as the Holy Spirit casts out “fear.” Fear and God’s Love cannot exist in the same space.
“Fear of the Lord: With this gift....”
Fear is not a good choice of words. Reverence would be a better choice as the Holy Spirit casts out “fear.” Fear and God’s Love cannot exist in the same space.
It is only when you understand that your life is on the balance, and you are not in control that you can understand a small part of Gods love and mercy.
You do not live in the fear but it is WISE to visit it on occasion.
Your words:
“Fear and God’s Love cannot exist in the same space.”
What does God say on the matter?
The traditional Gifts of the Holy Spirit are taken from Isaiah 11:3. Isaiah uses the Hebrew word, yirah, which can mean a loving and filial reverence, but it also means "dreadful, exceedingly, fearfulness". This is it's most common usage in the Old Testament. So it means both.
When you say "the Spirit casts out fear," you may be thinking of 1 John 4:18 where the Apostle writes "perfect love casts out fear." The Greek word he uses there for "fear is phobos, which always means a dreadful fear. Interestingly, in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), the 2nd century BC translators use phobos for "fear" in Isaiah 11:3.
So I think the traditional use of the word "fear" as one of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit is perfectly fine--properly taught and understood. I think our culture's diminished understanding of language (especially religious language) has led many to associate the word "fear" in the Bible with our modern weak understanding of it. To me, the solution is to not dumb down the traditional meaning of words, but to explain and educate others so that their understanding may be enriched.