Luke 12:4-7 :
“I tell you, my friends, don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
It is amazing that when we fear God, it doesn’t leave room for fearing anyone or anything else. In a sense, God is jealous of our fear just like He is jealous of our love. He doesn’t want us to fear anything else by Him and He doesn’t want us to love anyone more than Him. We read here that the death of the body is not nearly as bad as being “cast into Gehenna.” Gehenna was a well know garbage dump outside of town that was so filled with garbage that it had fires going day and night in it. To be cast into this dump alive would be a horrible experience. If you were forced to live there, death might seem preferrable. Jesus was using a metaphor for what we would call “Hell.” Jesus was convincing the people by threatening them with the possibility of going to Hell. As our example, this shows us that we may also do the same. What some preachers are saying today is wrong. We are not to avoid topics like Hell because that would be to disobey God’s desire that we listen to and pattern our lives after Jesus example. The threat of burning forever in Hell is very real and every person should consider this issue and be settled with how to avoid it.
The neat thing about fearing only God is that He loves us and we are important to Him. Not only that, God values every little creature on this planet! This is where evolution fails to help mankind understand his true worth and the worth of the creatures. God loves every bit of life on this planet that He made. He made it all for his pleasure. It is evil that tries to destroy and kill life. Isn’t it amazing that we naturally know that our lives and the lives of other creatures should be preserved? This is one of the many places in the Bible where read that God is very mindful of the animals.
The point Jesus is making is that if He is very mindful of the animals, He is extremely mindful of us! God keeps track of every detail of our lives including the exact number of hairs on our heads. God is the mastermind of the universe and He loves everything that He has made, especially us. The Bible says that God made us in His own image. That does not mean that we are a part of God! It means that we were made to be like Him and to demonstrate what He is like. We are not Him, He is Holy (separated.) It is Satan who wanted to be like God himself and anyone who repeats this idea is following his ways. Christianity uses the power of the Holy Spirit, the one who hovered over the waters at creation, but we are not that power, even though God has decided to stay within us, and that is an amazing thing! Since this is true, what do we have to fear?