Fear not!

Fear not! That two-word phrase appears as a divine command more times in the Bible than any other directive from God’s angels or Jesus. According to one source, the divine command to “Fear not!” or “Fear ye not!” — sometimes translated as “Do not be afraid!” — appears as many as 92 times in the King James Version of the Bible. A few examples:

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 28-30, tells the story of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to tell her that she would conceive and bear the Son of the Lord God, Jesus. The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Naturally, Mary appeared startled and perplexed, and so the angel continued, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

And again in Luke, chapter 2, verses 1-10, when Jesus was born, an angel appeared radiantly to shepherds living in their fields, and the shepherds were terrified. This angel used the same divine command, “Do not be afraid, for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people … to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah.” And the angel directed them where to find the infant Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 14, verses 22-27, we read that in the evening after a day of preaching to crowds, Jesus told his disciples to go on ahead of Him to cross the sea by boat while he went up the mountain to pray alone. And in the early morning, He came walking toward them in the boat across the sea. They thought it was a ghost and cried out in fear. Jesus said to them, “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.”

Now many interpretations logically suggest that this divine command to “Fear not!” simply is a reassurance in response to the startle or confusion of a sudden supernatural vision or spiritual visitation. But a command that appears 92 times is not to highlight the divine need to calm the reactions of mere mortals in the face of a spiritual experience. That actually would not make sense, right? Like many scriptural passages — across many different religions — this phrase actually provides us with a spiritual code that can open us to a higher consciousness. To understand that code and how to apply it anytime yourself is to find the key that unlocks the cosmic realms. 

Transcript

Fear not! That two-word phrase appears as a divine command more times in the Bible than any other directive from God’s angels or Jesus. According to one source, the divine command to “Fear not!” or “Fear ye not!” — sometimes translated as “Do not be afraid!” — appears as many as 92 times in the King James Version of the Bible. A few examples:

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 28-30, tells the story of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to tell her that she would conceive and bear the Son of the Lord God, Jesus. The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Naturally, Mary appeared startled and perplexed, and so the angel continued, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

And again in Luke, chapter 2, verses 1-10, when Jesus was born, an angel appeared radiantly to shepherds living in their fields, and the shepherds were terrified. This angel used the same divine command, “Do not be afraid, for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people … to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah.” And the angel directed them where to find the infant Jesus.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 14, verses 22-27, we read that in the evening after a day of preaching to crowds, Jesus told his disciples to go on ahead of Him to cross the sea by boat while he went up the mountain to pray alone. And in the early morning, He came walking toward them in the boat across the sea. They thought it was a ghost and cried out in fear. Jesus said to them, “Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.

Now many interpretations logically suggest that this divine command to “Fear not!” simply is a reassurance in response to the startle or confusion of a sudden supernatural vision or spiritual visitation. But a command that appears 92 times is NOT to highlight the divine need to calm the reactions of mere mortals in the face of a spiritual experience. That actually would not make sense, right? Like many scriptural passages — across many different religions — this phrase actually provides us with a spiritual code that can open us to a higher consciousness. To understand that code and how to apply it anytime yourself is to find the key that unlocks the cosmic realms. 

Anthony de Mello was a great awakened and enlightened teacher, mystic, counselor, therapist and, also, a Jesuit Priest, of the 20th Century. On that last point, many find it interesting that the Catholic Church, felt the need to censure de Mello a full 11 years after his death, declaring that several “positions” that it claims de Mello espoused in his teachings and talks “are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.”

I’ll only say two things about that here. The first is that in every talk by de Mello that I’ve heard, he adamantly exhorts his audience only to be open to what he tells them, and though he might sound convincing, not to just “swallow” anything he says but rather to be ready to hear something new, consider it, analyze it for themselves, and find the truth in it.

The second thing I’ll say about de Mello’s posthumous censure is simply to share one of his most famous metaphors, which he repeated at his very last seminar. He said: “We humans have scriptures and all we do is feed on words. It’s like going to a restaurant and eating the menu.” His typical exhortation not to confuse the menu with the meal when it comes to spirituality, for me, is inspired and inspiring. 

What de Mello said about fear in his last seminar provides the key to our understanding of why the divine beings in the Bible so adamantly instructed humans to “Fear not!”

De Mello tells us that all violence and evil comes from … FEAR! He calls it the one real enemy of the human race. He explained that when we fear something, we HATE it because we feel threatened. Think about that for a moment. Fear arises from perceiving a threat. We all know about what is called “natural fear” such as when we’re walking across an open field and see a bear or mountain lion moving towards us. Or when we’re asleep and hear a strange noise at the other end of the house. That kind of fear is healthy fear, our internal alerting system that floods our bodies with adrenalin and cortisol to prepare us physically and mentally for fight or flight.

But there’s another kind of fear. We can call it “unnatural fear,” because it arises from a thought or feeling inside us that makes us feel threatened or paranoid. 

This is very important. Our made-up thoughts can create the feeling of fear. Literally, we are at that point afraid of our own thoughts. In a prior episode we explored the tool of self-discovery called The Work by Byron Katie. One of Katie’s four questions is “Who would I be without that thought?”  And that comes right after asking ourselves, “How do I feel when I think that thought?”

So, let’s be clear that the THOUGHT — NOT THE SUBJECT OF THE THOUGHT —is what causes unnatural fear. This kind of fear arises from thoughts that we make up in our minds or hear from others and then adopt for ourselves, like “they are out to get us.” “They’re coming for our _____” fill in the blank. Or “they’re taking away our jobs” or “our rights” or “our children’s values and wholesome education.” It can be ANYTHING. And it IS just about ANYTHING. But those thoughts of ours that cause such self-induced fear are stories that we hear from friends, social media, family, opinions expressed by others in the media, on Tik-Tock, strangers we meet in public. In other words, someone else’s made-up thoughts. And we don’t even ask what expertise or credentials they have for the opinion or thought they so insistently share with us.

See, that’s why a teacher like de Mello took great pains to tell his audience that however shocked or convinced they may be  about what he told them, they should not immediately accept his word as valid or truth. Instead, they should consider what he says with an open mind, analyzing the meaning and implications of his message. And then, as the saying goes, accept what they like and leave the rest.

Here's the most important point that relates to why the divine command to Fear Not appears 92 times in the Bible. The great danger of such unnatural fear – the fear of a made-up mind based on the adopted thoughts or words of others or our own assumptions, beliefs or judgements — is that we MAKE ourselves feel threatened, which then very quickly moves us emotionally from FEAR to hate for the perceived threat.

This is not AN innocuous or harmless shift in us because, as de Mello told his audience of 300 priests and nuns in his last seminar on May 20, 1987, where no fear exists, there is no hatred. And when we are free of hatred, ONLY THEN DO we find love.

That is why it is sometimes said that the opposite of love is FEAR, which comes just before hatred. We CANNOT LOVE THOSE WHO WE FEAR. So, you now know that if someone — a spouse, child, co-worker, whoever — ever tells you “I’m afraid of you right now!” they are telling you that they do not feel love for you in that moment. It’s impossible. Those two feelings cannot co-exist in the person you care about. Of course, we can sometimes feel moments of fear or even hate for those we care about — but in those moments, we cannot feel love for them.

De Mello finished his teaching on fear that morning by telling his listeners that all fear comes from the SELF. But where there is love — no fear and no hate — there is no self because we are, at that moment, SELF-LESS. Real love is SELF-LESS.

Of course, de Mello’s observations about fear and love are widely known outside spiritual circles. In fact, one of the tactics of police hostage negotiators in a stand-off with a barricaded suspect is to bring the suspect’s spouse or other immediate family member to the scene. Their goal and hope is to help shift the emotional state of the hostage-taker from fear and hate to love for their family member to avoid violence and de-escalate the situation.

Okay. We need one more piece to unlock the mystery of understanding the hidden code of the phrase Fear Not in the Bible. And we find that last piece in the Gospel of John, chapter 13, verse 35 when Jesus is giving instructions to his disciples in His final days. He tells his disciples: “By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” He was telling them that following His path requires that they love one another. That means that they cannot be in a state of fear or hate.

So, the command to Fear Not in the Bible comes from divine beings to humans. As divine beings, they possess divine energy so that their words are not like normal human communications. Just like when God said in the very first chapter of the Bible, “Let there be light,” these were not at all like spoken human words — God wasn’t communicating to anyone. What we can only understand in words was actually an active manifestation of Divine Will. 

These other divine beings were not trying to communicate a message to humans — not trying to tell them to DO ANYTHING with their fear; they were activating a divine command OVER THEM. With that awareness, we can understand that when Jesus and the angels said Fear Not, this actually was an active manifestation of Divine Will — a burst of intentional directed cosmic energy — that instantaneously removed all fear and hate from those to whom the command was addressed. That immediately opened in them the state of love so that they could accurately receive and understand the divine message about to be given. To state it differently, those words were a direct attunement to the cosmic energy of divine love.

Copyright © 2024 by Joe Kornowski