Fear God More Than Man

The Lord rebuked the prophet Joseph after the affair of the 116 pages with these words, “For, behold, you should not have feared man more than God” (D&C 3:7).  He said something similar to David Whitmer, “Behold, I say unto you, David, that you have feared man and have not relied on me for strength as you ought….  You shall ever open your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you” (D&C 30:1, 11).  Peter and John were two who showed that indeed they feared God more than man.  When they were taken before the rulers of the Jews when they were preaching about Jesus to the people of Jerusalem after His ascension, the Jewish leaders commanded them to make no more mention of Jesus.  “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).  They didn’t fear the threatening of men but were concerned only with doing what God wanted them to do.  To fear God more than man, to be more concerned with what God thinks of us more than what our peers think of us, is I believe a continual test for each of us in mortality.

               I realized yesterday that this principle also has implications for how we should teach the gospel, especially to children.  I listened to a book about a boy who grew up in a religious culture that used fear of physical punishment as its primary motivation.  Whenever he did something incorrectly or which was deemed inappropriate according to the religious expectations, he was simply beaten, usually by his father.  He realized when he was older that most of his religious actions were motivated by fear.  This was not a fear of God but a fear of man, and in the gospel of Jesus Christ there is no place to motivate by the fear of man.  If we are so strict in our devotion to the laws of God that we try to enforce them by instilling a fear of punishment from us in our children or others, then surely we are trying to “exercise control of dominion or compulsion upon the souls of men” and the Lord is displeased (D&C 121:37).  In the gospel of Christ we teach others to love and fear God, and there is no place for harsh treatment in order to control.  

               An interesting example of this principle in the scriptures is what the prophets in the days of Jarom did when the Nephites were wicked: “And it came to pass that the prophets of the Lord did threaten the people of Nephi, according to the word of God, that if they did not keep the commandments, but should fall into transgression, they should be destroyed from off the face of the land.”  The “threat” was not that they personally would cause any physical harm to the people, but that God would give them serious consequences to their choices if they did not repent.  The words describing how they did this are surely meant to be instructive to us in our own teaching: “The prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was” (Jarom 1:10-11).  They labored diligently, exhorted with long-suffering, taught, and persuaded; they did not resort to compulsion or manipulation or violence; they simply pled with the people to repent so that God’s judgments would come against them.  We should likewise focus our teaching on helping others to see the divine consequences that will come for choosing wickedness as we plead and persuade in patience.