Fire and Brimstone

Fear is a powerful emotion.  It cuts to the heart of all of our survival instincts.  We want to live.  We want to be safe in an uncertain world.  No one can argue that fear can be a powerful motivator, but is it a good one?
Fear makes us build walls, but love makes us step outside our walls and build bridges.  Fear makes us hoard our resources both physically and emotionally, but love drives us to give freely.  Fear makes us lash out defensively at any challenge, real or imagined, to our faith, but love asks us to have open, honest conversations with those who disagree so that we may learn to understand each other better.  At the end of the day, which is a better reason for having faith, fear or love?
About a hundred of years ago, a preacher decided that people were not concerned enough with the consequences of their choices after death.  He sought to make sure that people were aware that God’s judgment was hanging over them.  The end result was the the Fire and Brimstone sermon, and the revival it sparked.  That revival had a profound impact on Christianity.  While it brought many people into a deeper and more complete relationship with Jesus that was grounded in love, it also created many believers with relationships that were built on fear.  The end result of that relationship grounded in fear was a faith that was limited and defensive.
Why is this important?  Think about how non-Christians, especially those in America today, view Christianity as a whole.  They see Christians who lash out defensively in public at anything that they perceive as a challenge to their faith.  They see churches that are social and emotional fortresses, excluding those who need Jesus most, rather than welcoming them.  In short, they don’t see love.  They only see the fear.  As Christians, we are supposed to have a healthy fear of God and his justice, but when people look at you and how you present your faith, are they seeing the love, or do they see fear?
I say all this, because I grew up only seeing that culture of fear.  I grew up in a church where everyone was expected to have the same beliefs, and asking the wrong questions was frowned upon.  At the age of 18, I was not ready to give up on God, but I was ready to turn my back on churches entirely.  I went to a small bible study hoping to find something else, and I did.  I asked hard questions and in return I got honest answers.  Sometimes those answers were, “I don’t know”, but never once did they get upset when I poked holes in their faith.  In addition, these men were always ready to sacrifice themselves for others, even complete strangers.  In short, I found some Christians who had built their faith on love, and their actions did more to convince me than their words ever could.  In the end, I gave my life to Christ because more than anything else, I wanted to have what they had.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7