EhrFURCHT?

Reading time 4 minutes

Updated - February 9, 2025

The word reverence contains two aspects: honor and fear. How does that fit together?

The dictionary defines reverence as a "deeply felt respect that is associated with awe or veneration".
Philosophy explains awe as a mixture of admiration, humility and amazement.
From a religious point of view, reverence is defined as the appropriate attitude of man towards the sacred, especially towards God.

Reverence has several dimensions that distinguish it from mere respect:

1. Humility: You realize that you yourself are small compared to your counterpart.
2. Admiration: You see a grandeur or sublimity that goes beyond the everyday.
3. Fear and amazement: A mixture of fear and awe that shows that the other person is powerful or sacred.
4. Respect and reverence: One feels obliged to treat the object of reverence with due respect.

The Bible says in Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Fear of God does not mean fear in the sense of terror, but a deep reverence for God's holiness, justice and power.

Hebrews 12:28-29 appeals "Therefore let us be thankful, serving God with reverence and fear, for our God is a consuming fire."
The letter to the Hebrews is addressed to Jewish Christians who were under pressure and in danger of falling back into their old Jewish faith. It shows that Jesus Christ is greater than the Mosaic Law and that believers live in a new, unshakeable kingdom of God.

God's holiness and the responsibility of believers are emphasized and God's revelation on Mount Sinai is recalled, at which the people of Israel were full of fear (Hebrews 12:18-21).
In contrast, Christians have access to the heavenly Jerusalem. However, this access requires an appropriate attitude, namely Gratitude, Reverence and true worship.

The ancient Greeks called Reverence with εὐλάβεια, "eulabeia", which stands for respectful regard, humility and worship. FearGreek φόβος, "phobos" can mean both fear and deep respect and must therefore always be defined in the appropriate context.

In the biblical sense of the word Fear here in the sense of a deep awareness of God's greatness, holiness and authority.

Reverence therefore involves bringing honor and acknowledging God's greatness and omnipotence.

However, a "consuming fire" does not sound at all like a God who is loving, kind and merciful. It sounds more like he is consuming, like a fire - and that, at least in my experience, is not necessarily the most painless option ... So what was verse 29 intended to show the Hebrews?

In the Bible, fire stands for God's holiness, judgment and purifying power. This formulation comes from Deuteronomy 4:24. There it says "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."

In 1 Corinthians 3:13 says, "Each man's work will be made manifest; the day will show it, because it will be revealed by fire. And the work of each one will be tested by fire." In other words: God is not blinded by our often carefully cultivated and constantly whitewashed façade. His "fire" will destroy all this in an instant and what then comes to light, our true, naked self, must be able to stand before Him, because He is a righteous God who purifies His children and judges evil.

The "instruction manual for reverence" could therefore look like this:

• We are saved, so we want to thank Him for it. grateful be.
• We serve God from a reverent, undivided heart.
• We bring God our Reverence not out of fear, but out of deep respect for His holiness.

Excursus - Awe

A successful architect in a big city. He was proud of his skills, loved designing buildings and enjoyed the respect he had gained in his profession. His life was well-structured, he trusted his knowledge and his planning. Uncertainties or things that could not be explained rationally had no place in his life.

One day, he was driving his car through a remote mountain landscape when a heavy storm suddenly hit. Within a few minutes, the sky turned ominously dark, the wind whipped across the road and heavy rain made visibility almost impossible.
He tried to remain calm, but when a bolt of lightning struck nearby and the thunder shook his car, his confidence was shattered. For the first time in a long time, he felt something he didn't know: Awe.

He parked at the side of the road and looked through the windshield at the immense force of nature in front of him. Suddenly he realized how small and vulnerable he was. Here, in the middle of the storm, his intelligence, knowledge or money could not help him. He was completely at their mercy.

At that moment, he remembered a verse from the Psalms that his grandmother had taught him as a child. Psalm 8:45 asks "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared:What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou art mindful of him?".

As the storm slowly subsided and the sky cleared again, he felt a deep sense of humility and gratitude. He realized that he could not control everything in his life himself and that there was a power that was greater than anything he had previously considered authoritative and important.

From that day on, he gradually began to see the world with different eyes. He took more time to contemplate the beauty of nature, began to pray again and think about things beyond his own knowledge. He understood that reverence does not mean feeling small or worthless, but simply recognizing that there is something greater that sustains and guides our lives than we are able to grasp with our minds.

The encounter with awe had changed him, not intimidated him, but given him a new perspective on life.