The Cost of Fear

As I checked my answering machine for messages some years ago, a great wailing sound issued from the telephone. It was the representative of a well-known fire security company, who had long been fleecing my church by lying that appliances needed to be replaced when they didn't. But I had finally grown wise to this and ended the contract with the company. By the howl of anguish I perceived that the wretched man was on commission. His firm trained him to see customers like our church as his bread and butter. Replacement appliances meant money for the firm – and money for him. Now the company was telling him bluntly that he'd better get my church back on side or else he could wave goodbye to a significant chunk of his income.

Of course I felt desperately sorry for the man and for those who might have depended on him for their welfare. But nonetheless I felt sick and angry that he had to make his living by lying on behalf of this company. They were making the client pay the price of fear – fear that if the client did not have the required appliances the property would burn down. If and when we claimed on the insurance in such an event, the insurance company would ask us pointed questions about why we had no adequate fire precautions in place. Insurance companies trade on our fear too. I have likewise discovered the same appetite for trading on fear in those security companies who provide alarm systems. The fear industry, I reasoned, must be worth quite a lot of money.

It sadly cheapens the great Referendum debate of our day that both sides are trading on the fear of the unknown – whether people vote to remain in the European Union or whether they vote to leave. They both produce experts who maintain that there could be catastrophic consequences to the “wrong” decision: a halt to economic progress, a descent into uncontrolled immigration. They do not point out that nobody can really predict with certainty what will occur in the future. They have simply cottoned onto the fact that there are votes in people’s fears.

Sadly, world faiths have traded on fear too. Primitive religions portrayed angry gods who had to be placated all the time to stop bad things happening like a loss of crops or other catastrophe. Even the Christian religion has been tainted with this attitude in the past. The one abuse above all that made Martin Luther so angry, that caused him to take the first steps towards the Protestant Reformation, was the sale of indulgences. People were persuaded to part with great fortunes in order to buy their way out of torment in purgatory. Many went to their graves never being completely sure whether they were right with God or not – the church had endless ways of leaving them in suspense.

The beauty of the gospel is that it is a free and effective remedy against these terrible, demeaning and crippling fears. The Lord Jesus died on the cross to bring us full forgiveness from our sins and an assurance that we are in the right with God and able to enter His presence without fear.

This is no light matter. The Bible describes God as

“You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13 ESV).

Perfect in power, perfect in purity, if He did look at us it should guarantee our instant destruction. But He goes to great lengths to give believers freedom in His presence – a freedom we should treasure and not pass up.
 
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).