"Dear friends, don't be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But I'll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell." Luke 12:4,5.

I read this passage and the first thing I wonder is what it is to fear God. Jesus who spoke these words as God incarnate didn't seem to be going about trying to get people to fear him as he ministered. In fact the things he was doing, healing, teaching, forgiving, showing compassion, seemed to do the opposite of awakening fear in people. But, Jesus did call people to discipleship and discipleship is obedience. Who we obey in a way is who we fear. Now it might not be a cowering in the corner "please don't hit me" kind of fear. But, maybe it is "I love you so much that I fear disappointing you" or "I respect you so much that I fear letting you down" or "I care so much what you think of me that I fear letting you see who I really am." This last one maybe is what Jesus is warning us against seeing as he just got finished lambasting the Pharisees in chapter 11 for putting on a good front, but not having anything to back it up on the inside. If we fear what other people think of us and we fear looking bad in their eyes to the extent that we will make decisions based on what others think about us rather than on what God wants us to do then we are fearing (obeying) people and not fearing (obeying/worshiping)God. If we want to know who we fear, we only have to look at who we obey.