"What Ever Happened to "Fear and Love God?"

What motivates us to do the right thing? In his explanations to the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism Martin Luther over and over again emphasizes that "we are to fear and love God" so that...we do the right thing. In the all important explantion to the first commandment "you shall have no other gods" Luther adds "trust." "We are to fear, love, and trust God above anything else." Certainly if we are to lead a good life as Christians we are to be God-fearing, God-loving, and God-trusting.

One of the first things I try to communicate when I teach the Ten Commandments is that "fear" does not mean "be afraid of" but it means "respect, awe, consider holy." But in our society there seems to be a real lack of respect and awe for anything. People don't respect God-- God's word, God's name God's day, God's building-- everything the first three commandments say that we are to respect. Should it be any wonder that most churches that look like traditonal churches are getting smaller? At the same time holy things-- the Sabbath, books, sacraments-- are watered down. In today's secularized world nothing seems to be held sacred.

Since respect is lacking, maybe the motivation for leading the good life has to be based more on loving God. Most people do have a sense for what love is. For example, some understand that the kind of love they have for a partner is connected to God. Perhaps if we consider all that we do is related to "loving God" we will restore a sense of honor and respect for holy things. There is a sense of hope in realizing that we have a God who first loved us.

Lest we be too hopeful, though, love always needs to have respect in it. And ultimately the problem is that first commandment of "fearing, loving, and trusting God above anything else." Above me? Yes. Above my partner? Yes. Above my children? Yes. So our real problem may be restoring God to "being on first" in our lives.

Of course what follows a lack of "respect and love and trust" in God is a lack of those same characteristics being extended to other human beings. We certainly see this today in the lack of respect toward people in public offices, like government officials, law officers, and judges. That same lack of respect seems to be present in how we take care of our property, whether it be ours or another's. We blame all kinds of factors, such as the fast pace of life or "we don't get any respect from others" (the Rodney Dangerfield response). But if all respect is to begin with respecting God are we not to try and find something good to say about our neighbor, our fellow church member, our relative, and even that person at work who just rubs us the wrong way?

Our motivation for living the good life is well-based if it is on the Ten Commandments-- "fearing, loving, and trusting God above anything else." Maybe respect for God and care for others will continue to descend in our society in the years ahead. But if we "God-fearing" people practice our faith, we know that we are doing the right thing.