When the Bible talks about the fear of God it means “the fear of God” (literally).  A word that is often used in the New Testament to refer to the fear of God is “phobeo” in the original Greek text of the Bible (the source of the English word “phobia”).  

We are told in Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”  

The true fear of God is an intense dread of displeasing and offending Him.  It is not talking about the unreasonable fears many have due to falsely believing that God is arbitrary, capricious, or something along those lines.  Any who doubt whether God should really be feared only need look at the drastic, dreadful things He did in the Bible to make an example of those who turned from Him and did wickedly.  

Here are some more Biblical truths about the fear of God:

He has a controversy with those who don’t walk in His ways (Hosea 4:1, Micah 6:2).  

He condemned Sodom and Gomorrah with an overthrow, making them an example to those that after should live ungodly (2 Peter 2:6).  

God is angry with the wicked every day.  He has prepared His judgment for them if they turn not (Psalm 7:11-14).  

He will punish workers of lawlessness on Judgment Day (Isaiah 26:21, Luke 13:27, 2 Peter 2:9).  

He calls Himself “a great God, a mighty, and a terrible” (see Deuteronomy 10:17).  

He equates honoring Him with fearing Him in Malachi 1:6.  He also rebukes Israel’s priests for not fearing Him in the same verse.  

In Jeremiah 2:19 He tells the people of Judah that it is an evil thing and bitter that they’ve forsaken the Lord and that His fear is not in them (thus connecting not fearing God with forsaking Him).  

In having the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence and a place of refuge (Proverbs 14:26); in the true fear of the Lord there is life, satisfaction, and protection (Proverbs 19:23).  

Nobody is getting away with anything.  When God’s wrath fully comes, it is then too late to repent and get right with Him (Hebrews 9:27).  The Bible says that the unrepentant treasure up wrath for themselves on Judgment Day (Romans 2:5). 

Without the intense dread or fear of offending God at the foundation of one’s life it is impossible to enter into and continue in a living faith in Jesus Christ which shuns sin’s temptations and causes one to live worthy of His everlasting kingdom.  

We see in Mark 9:43-48 how Jesus said that it’s better to lose an eye, a hand, or a foot which is an instrument of sin rather than to be cast into the fire of hell that shall never be quenched (this is obviously implying that those who continue to sin will go into the fire that shall never be quenched).

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