Is It Fear or Cowardice?

Note: My fearful photo isn’t serious; I’m not actually afraid of Dracula’s Castle. But we’re all afraid of something! Does this make us cowards or unfaithful? How about neither?

This morning, the Holy Spirit suggested that I explore the difference between fear and cowardice in the perspective of the Christian life.

Fear and cowardice are not at all the same things. Fear is a neutral emotional response to stimuli that we perceive as dangerous.

• For example, fear of tumbling to my death keeps me from taking a selfie on the edge of a crumbling cliff.
• Fear of being roundly squished encourages me to have an earthquake plan.
• Fear keeps me from giving in to base actions when angry, as that might lead to a jail term.

OK, that was not a completely serious list. But you get the point! Fear is a perfectly good thing to feel, so we can act to protect ourselves and others from bad consequences.

But fear may also lead to cowardice if I do not do the right thing because I’m afraid to do it. Fear, which is a warning of something dangerous or unpleasant, is not the sin. Cowardice, an action based on fear, is.

The reason that this applies to the Christian life is because some Christians teach that there is no fear in the Christian life. That the more highly developed you are and mature in faith, the less you will be fearful about doing what God wants you to do.

To a point, sure, I guess.

But we must always start with what the Bible actually says before we start to develop a belief out of it.

Consider Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He was not waving about a divine sword, happy to get to the great spiritual battle of the Passion and Crucifixion and knock some heads together.

He was afraid. We know that because the Bible tells us. In His torment, in His agony, he sweated drops like blood. Which in fact, is a biological response of the human body to extreme stress and fear: blood capillaries burst underneath the skin and indeed, you are sweating blood.

Does anyone want to try telling us that Jesus was in fact sinning because he was in terror?
I don’t think so!

We live in a fallen world full of real dangers. At the same time, we may react with fear not only to real dangers, but to perceived dangers. But our Lord, frankly, doesn’t coddle us. He loves us, He gives us strength and peace and joy and power to act and to be. But He does not automatically protect us from dangerous situations or death. (If He did, then no Christian would ever die from accident, violence, or old age. Clearly that is not the case.)

And He often tells us to do something that we’re scared of. Public speaking for some. Putting yourself out there and risking rejection. Quitting a job to work on your own. Loving difficult people.
In both situations, whether we are in a dangerous situation through no fault of her own, or we are at fault for being there, or God told us to do something scary: feeling fearful is not wrong. It is what it is in a fallen world containing both real and feels-real threats.

It is our response, not our fear, which determines our choices and decisions in these situations. Maybe you will be afraid. But if you act anyway and do the best you can, if you trust in God and try to obey Him, then you are doing the right thing. You are brave.

Because by trusting and depending on God for what you need to do right then and there, even if the only thing you can do is stand, that is true courage. And the Lord is proud of you.