Lesson #5 Fear God, Not People
The fifth installment in a seven part series that Kevin DeYoung posted regarding a Dutch Reformed minister Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747).
5. Fear God, not people. Many of his contemporaries deeply despised Frelinghuysen. “I am the man everyone talks about,” he wrote about himself, “beloved by many, hated by many more.” Despite the onslaught of criticism and opposition, he pressed on with courage. His motto: “I seek not praise. I fear not blame.”
This quote from Curtis C. Thomas’ book Practical Wisdom for Pastors (Crossway, 2001) provides some practical insight about the fear of man in the pulpit.
If we ever get to the point where our message is rounded off so that we avoid a particular passage, a needed subject, a pointed rebuke or biblical command for fear that we are going to offend and thereby run off a member, then we have begun to fear men rather than striving to please our Master. That’s a temptation into which Satan wants us to fall. He wants people leaving after our messages very comfortable, soothed, and feeling good about us. But sometimes, in order for us to be faithful, some people will leave the message not feeling very good about us. The truth should comfort the hurting but also unsettle the comfortable.
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