There is a healthy fear in the Christian life, and we all of us need some fear. This is not fear of rejection. If we are truly the Lord's, we are not going to lose our salvation, we are not going to be banished from heaven, but we need some fear, and it is helpful to us, works for good. They had to fear of evil surroundings, and it helped them. We have to fear coldness of heart, worldly distractions, giving too much time and energy to things that are important, but which should not be all absorbing and encroaching on our Christian service and worship and commitment. Some Christians tend to give far too much time to home and possessions and family. You know, if we feared that more – what this would do to us, how it will take away our communion with God, ruin our instrumentality, make our hearts cold, make our worship shallow, and may be ultimately hypocritical – if we only feared what our surroundings would do to us! You hear of Christians watching movies that are highly dangerous in their contaminating power, and their foul images that they're showing. They think, well we are tough enough to just look past that. We are not, and all these things have an effect, and pull us down. If only we had more fear of the influences around us, it would be extremely helpful.
We have just been through the pandemic and quite a lot of people have got accustomed to attending services from their armchairs when it may not be altogether necessary, and not coming out and hearing the word of God in person and fellowshipping and making their contribution. There was a pastor speaking to me about how he had inaugurated several years ago evening gospel services, but he couldn't get the church members to turn out for them. So there would be a pitiful little group and if he had strangers and people who had been visited who came into the church there was no great witness because most the congregation didn't turn up. As far as they were concerned, Sunday morning was for them: the exposition of the word. They didn’t need the gospel; they were saved years ago. So there's hardly a testimony in a church that suffers from that, where the people don't come and pray through the gospel, and learn some gospel arguments for their own witness along the way, and join in the highest point of worship, the gospel service, the most moving for true believers. We have got to have some fear of this kind of thing: non-attendance, skipping services, skipping devotion times, shortening prayer because we tired or busy. Fear the effect it may have on our spiritual lives: the hardening of conscience, because we’re no longer challenged, the rise of self-confidence within us. All these things take us from the position we should be in, and increase our pursuit of self-gratification. So we commend some degree of fear of the effects of our surroundings and our various distractions.