Do Not Fear Man

Luke 12:4, “But I say to you, My friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.
5 “But I will show you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

The fear of man is one of the greatest obstacles which stand between the soul and heaven. “What will others say of me? What will they think of me? What will others do to me?” How often these little questions have turned the balance against the soul and kept men bound hand and foot by sin and the devil! Thousands would never hesitate a moment to storm a breach or face a lion who dare not face the laughter of relatives, neighbors, and friends.

Now if the fear of man has such influence in these times, then how much greater must its influence have been in the days when our Lord was upon earth! If it is hard to follow Christ through ridicule and ill-natured words, then how much harder must it have been to follow Him through prisons, beatings, scourgings, and violent deaths! All these things our Lord Jesus knew well. No wonder that He says, “Do not be afraid.”

What is the best remedy against the fear of man? How are we to overcome this powerful feeling and break the chains which it throws around us? There is no remedy like that which our Lord recommends. We must supplant the fear of man by a higher and more powerful principle – the fear of God. We must look away from those who can only hurt the body and look to Him who has all dominion over the soul. We must turn our eyes from those who can only injure us in the present life to Him who can condemn us to eternal misery in the life to come. Armed with this mighty principle, we shall not play the coward. Seeing Him who is invisible, we shall find the lesser fear melting away before the greater, and the weaker fear disappearing before the stronger.

“I fear God,” said Colonel Gardiner, “and therefore there is no one else that I need fear!”

—J.C. Ryle, ‘Expository Thoughts on Luke’