‘God is Watching’
By Dr. Glenn Cope, Tonkawa Church of Christ
You may have heard the story of some children at a Church school who were lined up for lunch at the cafeteria. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. A supervisor had made a note: “Take only one, God is watching.” At the other end of the table was a large plate of chocolate chip cookies. So, apparently one of the kids had taped a note to the plate of cookies that said: “Take all you want, God is watching the apples.”
That’s an important thought. Is God watching?
Notice in 1 Peter 1:16, Peter says that God is saying, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” He is saying that we should be different from the world around us. But what is it that should MOTIVATE us to be holy and be different from the world? We should seek to be holy because we LOVE GOD!!!
That is why I John 4:18 says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Our motivation comes by our love of God — we want to please Him in all we do.
However, in the passage in 1 Peter, he says in verse 17 that we should “…conduct yourselves with fear….” We are told in other passages that we should “fear God” (Rev. 14:7, 2 Cor. 7:1 and in 1 Pet. 2:17 to name a few).
Some people have trouble with this word “fear.” So they change it to reverence, or respect, or to awe. That seems to soften the idea of fear.
Ideally, we should be holy because we love God. But we should always remember God and His nature. So, sometimes we need to fear as part of our motivation. As our motivation both love and fear operate together for us to honor God and to live as He has instructed us in His Word.
Fear is not a bad thing. Sometimes it keeps me from doing something stupid or wrong. Just as we admonish and correct our children there is both love and fear. Hebrews 12:5-7 says “have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one ...
