No fear.

Children are really the most innocent.

As I was teaching my 6 year old niece and 8 year old nephew, their conversation left a deep impression on me.

B: Mei, are you very honest? (while doing his maths homework)
G: What does honest mean? (colouring her rabbits)
B: Honest means like you like to tell the truth la…
G: (Silence and still colouring attentively)
B: Why are you so honest ah… Why you so honest…
G: I don’t know… (still colouring her rabbits)
M: So, are you honest?
B: No, I am not. I always lie.
M: (Silence)
B: Ya, I always tell lies so I’m not honest. (doing his work)
M: Then why do you always tell lies?
B: Because I fear punishment.
M: (Silence)

His response stunned me.
I knew I couldn’t reply then, taken aback at the innocent forthrightness.

Fear is a human condition.

Punishment is a human response to the human condition of fear. Punishment can only give birth to fear.

Fear eats away our ability to Love, to Embrace, to Encourage.

Our world is crazy-filled with fear of all sorts and sizes. The concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, basically hinges on the opponent’s fear. See what it spells?

Yep, MAD.

That is how perverse our minds can get when we grow up under the atmosphere of fear; when fear surpasses love, we are under pressure to stick to the rules or be ready to receive punishment. So, when fear loses its grip, hell breaks loose. This is when we do not fear the punishment anymore.

We see it in anarchy, where there is no government rule; no laws to control, people just do whatever they want because their actions are unpunished.

So, can you imagine living under a fear of something tangible or intangible, every minute of your life?

If you list down all your fears and compare it, we are all the same actually.

Death
Failure
Acceptance
Rejection
Forgiveness
Loss
Judgment
Life, after death.

“God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is also are we in this world. 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. We love because he first loved us. “ -1John 4: 16-19(ESV)

How revolutionary this message is to our fear-filled world!

Thanks and glory be to God, our dear Father, thanks be to Jesus Christ, our messiah and embodiment of love, our atonement. Thus we no longer live under the rule of fear if we abide in God. What else do you fear that Christ has not bore for you?

Love for Him ought to motivate our every breathing, every living, and every dying.

So, no(t) fear.

Ah, I love those little children.