Fear God or Love God? or both??

[newgene87]

Hey Fam. Its your little brother NewGene again . i'm doing well, my belief has grown stronger when i FINALLY began to trust Christ in all things . seems simple, but hard to grasp. but now i'm stepping back for a bit and i'm analyzing these two grand things. Fear and Love. Now for the first matter; Love is the biggest of course; the greatest commandment and more.  "He that loves not knows not god; for God is love." (1John4: Got it. and then i read down; "There is no fear in love; but perfect love CASTS out fear: because fear has torment. HE THAT FEARS IS NOT MADE PERFECT IN LOVE" (1John4:18). So now i wonder, does this refer to fearing God or just fear in our life facing situations? Now i get all that; it touches my heart. and THEN i'm brought back to the scripture that i honestly first saw when i came across the website and that's the glorious Philippians 2:12, which tells us, to "work out your own salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING..." Now i know that's a continuing statement in that it's GOD that works in us and all the glitter and stuff; but Paul tells us to perform and work with FEAR and trembling; and i see that greek word for Fear is the same word in 1 John for fear when it's LOVE that CASTS out this fear. ["and He that fears is not made perfect in Love"]. so which is it? wheres the balance? And "fear" gets it's props starting in proverbs where we're taught that the Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge; so is Love and Fear two different things? and how are we to work out salvation with fear and trembling when we are to Love and be made perfect in love? I hope my question is somewhat clear. i'm seeking the balance between fear and love based on the concept of Philippians 2:12. And i've always learned that Fear and Faith dont go together and one way i learn that when Jesus reprimands(??) his disciples asking, "why are you fearful, o ye of little faith" (Mat8:26) and we learn that "faith works by love" (Gal5:6). so how are we to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, when it's faith and love that are fruit of spirit and the way we should walk? thanks

[Deborah-Leigh]

We can not work out our salvation independently of God.

God IS the work and completion of our Salvation.

As for the fear and trembling....it is human to fear and tremble, and that too will be resolved!

[thetruth]

Hello,newgene

work out your own salvation with FEAR and TREMBLING..." Now i know that's a continuing statement in that it's GOD that works in us and all the glitter and stuff.

The Scriptuers say LUKE-16-13.."No servant can serve two masters,God IS love..So if you serve God with all that you are.All your exsperiences wither they are good or bad still can only benfit you as love.Because if its a good exsperience, Then God gives good gifts to his children.If its bad exsperience then All things work together for good for all who love God.So obviously some things we exsperience with fear and trembling, is that we are being conformed to Christ image.So that means dying to self..thats fear and trembling is it not?As long as we serve Love which IS God..and not fear....we cant be touched by fear because Perfect love cast out fear.If YOUR only source is LOVE than fear cany touch you!