Kanye West is to pop culture as Donald Trump is to the United States. He’s not just an influential person, he’s a remarkable brand. Kanye is renowned for being many things: hip-hop artist, fashion designer, marketing genius. But theologian, however, is not one of them.
He resurrected his Twitter account around 2 weeks ago, and he’s been extremely active ever since—posting over 350 tweets, most of which going viral among his 28.1M followers. His tweets consist of an assortment of topics, ranging from politics, entrepreneurship, humor, and even (you guessed it) theology.
This past week, he tweeted about a theological conundrum many of us have likely struggled with at some point. And while most of us would probably hold back a bit when approaching this subject, Kanye did not. Here’s what he said:
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/987699874362675201
I admire the honesty of his tweet. Perhaps the most viral component is that it echoes the way many people try to make sense of God and the Bible, especially in the progressive, post-modern society we live in today.
As our cultural narrative would have it, “God is love, and he is to be loved. God is not fear, nor is he to be feared.” The Bible even says in 1 John 4, “God is love” (v. 8) and “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (v. 18). Clearly, terms such as ‘God-fearing’ are antiquated and backwards, and as Kanye suggests, for manipulating and controlling people.
Yet, the Bible also says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7) and “Let all the earth fear the Lord and stand in awe of him” (Ps. 33:8) and “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life” (Prov. 14:27).
So, what are we supposed to do with that?
According to 1 John, fear and love appear to be antonyms. But in other parts of the Bible, fear and love seem to be synonyms, as if they’re different sides of the same coin. So, how can it possibly be both?
Kanye feels the tension in the text. We feel the tension. What gives? Ultimately, this felt contradiction happens when we define ‘fear’ in a narrow, particular way (i.e., ‘fear is always a bad thing’ or ‘fear is always the opposite of love’).
Fear, however, is not simply an emotion that we feel; it’s a deep indicator of what we love. Let me give you some examples:
If you love people’s approval, you fear not having it.
If you love your wife, you fear hurting her or hurting the relationship.
If you love feeling safe, you fear taking risks.
And similarly, if you love God, you fear grieving his heart, sabotaging your relationship with him, and suffering the repercussions of sin.
This is why the Bible can use fear and love interchangeably at times when referring to how we should relate to God. When we love the right things, our fears are right responses.
However, when we love the wrong things, our fears are wrong responses. That’s also why the Bible can describe fear and love antithetically at times, too. When it does so, it’s not contradicting itself; it’s contrasting the right fears/loves from the wrong fears/loves. Fearing/loving God will save you from being enslaved to distorted fears/loves in every other area of life.
When the Bible says, “God is love” and “Perfect love drives out all fear”, it is conveying not that fear and love are opposites, but that the right kind of love (love for God) dispels the wrong kind of fear (fear of anything else).
And how can that be possible in our lives, practically? “We love because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). Dwelling on God’s love for you accomplishes two things: 1) it creates the right love and right fear in you for God, and 2) it dispels the wrong loves and wrong fears in you about other things. If you fear God, you truly have nothing else to fear.
To conclude, let’s refer back to Kanye’s tweet.
Kanye asserted that ‘fear is used to control people.’ And in one sense, he’s right. If the fear of God is separated from the love God, then, Christianity would be a manipulation scheme. You would fear God and do all the right things precisely because you love yourself and desire safety from punishment. A wrong love breeds a wrong fear, and vice versa. Manipulation.
But the gospel changes everything. Since Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law and was punished for our sin, Christians are not coerced into good deeds by fear of God’s condemnation; they’re compelled into good deeds because of gratefulness for God’s love and salvation.
I hope Kanye realizes one day that fear and love are two sides of the same coin. Perhaps he needs to listen to his own song just one more time, I Love Kanye, where he raps about his fear of losing what he loves: Kanye. And I pray it might turn his heart to seeing the God who loves Kanye and fears losing Kanye more than even Kanye does.
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On a lighter note, I’d be remiss to not include one of the most popular quotes from one of the greatest minds of all time about the peculiar relationship of love and fear…
