Bible Study series. Luke 12:4-7. Have no fear of humans, but fear God. Good news! He knows you but loves you anyway.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 12:4-7
4 “I tell you, my friends: don’t fear those who kill the body and afterwards have nothing more to do. 5 I’ll show you whom you are to fear. Fear the one who, after killing, has authority to throw you in Gehenna. Yes, I tell you: fear this one.
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And one of them is not overlooked before God 7 Rather, even all the hairs of your head are numbered. Don’t fear. You are worth more than sparrows!” (Luke 12:4-7)
Comments:
4:
I like how Jesus calls his disciples his “friends.” He is not just the boss over nameless employees, but his followers are called by their names. He knows them personally. It is a good thing that he calls them friends, because he is about to teach a heavy subject. With the crowds gathering (v. 1), he needed to find out who his true followers were.
“fear”: BDAG, a thick lexicon, defines the verb, depending on the context, as follows: (1) “to be in an apprehensive state, be afraid”; people can become “frightened.” “Fear something or someone.” (2) “to have a profound measure of respect for, (have) reverence, respect”; a person like God or a leader can command respect.
The Shorter Lexicon says adds nuances (1) “be afraid … become frightened … “fear something or someone” (2) “fear in the sense of reverence, respect.”
So what is the definition here? The second ones fit better.
Men and women—dictators or nations that have the death penalty—all of them have authority to kill the body. But afterwards literally “they don’t have more to do anything.” So we learn in the next verse that they cannot throw people into Gehenna.
5:
“fear”: it is used three times here. See v. 4 for more comments.
“killing”: it is the same verb for kill in v. 3. (The Shorter Lexicon also defines it as “deprive of life.”) So God has the authority to kill the body. This may not sit well with modern happy theology, but God does have this legal authority to give and take life. I know someone who died young-ish. He should not have died at the age he did, but he could not seem to figure out how to live within the parameters of moral law. He made a mess of everyone’s life around him and of his own life. As I prayed about his life and what I would say in my eulogy, I believe that God allowed his health to deteriorate down to zero, so the physical life was taken from him, with the purpose that his soul would be saved. He is now in heaven because two people closest to him brought him to salvation. Eternity lasts longer than seventy-five years. Eternity is endless. Don’t hold so tightly to this life that you lose your eternal perspective. We did not lose this person, because we know where he is. You lose something like keys when you don’t know where they are. But by God’s grace he is in heaven with his relieved mother and stepfather and numerous others. We know where he is.
So did God actually kill his body? Not directly. He let nature take its course, which is a form of killing.
But has God directly killed people in the past or in the NT?
Direct and deadly and final judgment on living people sometimes happened in the Sinai Covenant. Please see my posts:
Does God Cause Natural Disasters to Punish People Today?
Why Did Ananias and Sapphira Drop Dead?
Hint about the latter couple in the Book of Acts: they were still part of the Sinai Covenant. Don’t believe it? Click on the link and read the whole post.
So does this mean that God does not throw people into hell because of the New Covenant? He does put people in hell at final judgment. Judgment is part of the New Covenant too. But the point is that with the coming of the New Covenant God’s judgment now and here on earth is done temporarily through law enforcement (Rom. 13:1-6). Direct and final judgment will be done after Christ’s second coming.
Matt. 10:28 says that God can destroy both the body and soul in hell. Luke omits the word soul. Destroying the soul in hell sounds like the soul evaporates or comes to nothing, so say the Evangelical, Bible-believing interpreters who believe in the annihilation theory. That is, after everyone is punished in hell, God eliminates them or makes them disappear or vaporizes them (so to speak).
“authority”: it is the noun exousia (pronounced ex-oo-see-ah), and it means, depending on the context: “right to act,” “freedom of choice,” “power, capability, might, power, authority, absolute power”; “power or authority exercised by rulers by virtue of their offices; official power; domain or jurisdiction, spiritual powers.”
Let’s explore this term more deeply.
The difference between authority and power is parallel to a policeman’s badge and his gun. The badge symbolizes his right to exercise his power through his gun, if necessary. The gun backs up his authority with power. But the distinction should not be pressed too hard, because in some contexts exousia can also mean “power.” In any case, God through Jesus can distribute authority to his followers (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:19; John 1:12). Jesus will give us authority even over the nations, if we overcome trials and persecution (Rev. 2:26). And he is about to distribute his power in Acts 2.
Never forget that you have his authority and power to live a victorious life over your personal flaws and sins and Satan. They no longer have power and authority over you; you have power and authority over them.
Now back to this verse. God has ultimate exousia, so much so that he can throw people into Gehenna.
“Gehenna”: Luke uses it only here. The term comes from the Valley of Sons of Hinnom (= Gehenna), a ravine south and west of Jerusalem that was a trash heap where refuse and dead criminals were discarded and burned. At this dump wicked kings of Israel / Judea worshipped Baal-Molech, including offering children in fiery sacrifices—they put children to the flames (2 Kings 16:3; 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Is. 66:24; Jer. 7:31-32; 19:4-6; 32:34-35). So it is apt to say that Gehenna is the place where people go who have done wicked deeds and are not saved, after final judgment.
6:
Now Jesus shifts gear. He told us to fear God because he has authority to throw us into Gehenna, but now we are worth much more than sparrows who live and die in a short lifespan. Jesus affirms our infinite value before God. Sparrows were sold for two assarias, which is one-sixteenth of a denarius, and a denarius was typically a day’s wage for an agricultural worker. So each sparrow was valued at a few Roman pennies, and five sparrows, of course, more so.
Yet when one of them dies, this happens under the watchful eye of God. God did not cause their deaths, but he allowed nature to take her course. Birds don’t live forever. There’s a lesson in their for us humans. That’s the point of the short illustration.
7:
Now Jesus employs the image of numbering hairs. This “hairs” image gets repeated in Acts. Paul speaking to everyone on board the ship taking him to Rome, but was tossed by a ferocious storm:
“Therefore I urge you to take food, for this is for your survival! Not even one hair of your head shall perish!” (Acts 27:34). Today we might say God has every cell in your body numbered under his watchful gaze. In other words, he knows all about you. He has not forgotten you. He knows the life you lead right now, all the trials and good times. We are much more valuable than sparrows.
The argument goes from the lesser (sparrows) to the greater (humans). If God watches the lesser creatures, how much more does he watch the greater ones, us humans (Liefeld and Pao, comments on vv. 6-7)?
Then once again Jesus ends with fear or reverential awe of God. This time he uses the present tense of the verb “fear.” So we should be in a continuous state or sense of reverential awe towards God or fear of him. Yes, have laughter in your life, but be mindful that God both loves you and is bigger than you are. He deserves respect, even fear.
Even Americans who go to Buckingham Palace should reverence the King and nod their heads (men) or do a quick curtsey (women) when she appears before them. You should follow their protocol. Wear the required clothes. Speak only when spoken to. Say “your majesty” at first and then “ma’am” afterwards. Carry a respectful air about you.
God is much more important than any earthly monarch. He is the biggest and most majestic of all beings inside or outside the universe. That’s the reason why Scripture encourages us to fear God or simply describes people who fear God. They tremble when they catch a glimpse of him in his partial glory, as Peter, James, and John did on the mount of transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36). The shepherds feared when the glorious light shone around them (Luke 2:8-10). People today who claim to see the glory of the Lord manifest before them and do not have the initial response of fear and awe are missing something in their stories.
Do I Really Know God? He Is Majestic
Do I Really Know God? He Is Holy
“The point here, however, is not that God will rescue them from danger (see the death of Stephen in Acts 7:54-60), but that they should fear only the one who is able to know the number of their hairs and who has the power to cast them into Gehenna after death” (Garland, comment on 12:6-7).
GrowApp for Luke 12:4-7
1. What does fearing God mean to you? How do you have this emotion or mental state and keep it in balance with loving God?
2. What does God’s watchful care over you mean in your life?
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1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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