DO YOU KNOW THE LORD by Paul Washer

“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” (2 Corinthians 5:11)

The use of the English word “terror” in this verse as a translation indicates that the Old Testament phrase “fear of the LORD” means much more than implied than “reverential trust.” The only other New Testament use of this phrase is in Acts 9:31: “Then had the churches rest...and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.”

These two passages are informing us that when a church is “walking in the terror of the Lord,” its members will be seeking every means whereby to “persuade men” to come to Christ.

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). That is, we know that the Lord Jesus, who died for lost sinners and has commissioned us to tell them of His great salvation. At His judgment seat, “the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is....If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:13, 15).

The terror of the Lord, when we appear before Him on that day, is not the only motive for witnessing, of course. “The love of Christ constraineth us,” and when our testimony is received (our motives being “manifest unto God” and even to the “consciences” of those to whom we witness), then the glorious result is “a new creature” in Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:14, 17).