Cowards

There is a word in the Bible that recently caught my attention.

The Greek word “delios”, means “to fear. Timid, fearful.” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament) This word is only used three times in the New Testament; Twice translated as fearful and once as coward. The first two times are talking about the same story in Matthew 8:26 and Mark 4:40.

“As he got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But He was sleeping. So the disciples came and woke Him up, saying, 'Lord, save us! We're going to die!' But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, you of little faith?' Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm.” Matthew 8:23-27 (Emphasis mine)

I think we have all felt this way at times. We are following God's will when all of the sudden a storm will arise and we are crying out to Him to save us. There are times when we loose some of our nerve, and our faith may waver a bit. The point is that we aren't to remain in that state.

Something else I find interesting is, in order to be fearful or cowardly about something you have to believe. You can't be afraid of something you don't believe in. Think about it.

Now, with that in mind, we come to the verse which piqued my interest. Revelation 21:8 “But the cowards, unbelievers, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars – their share will be in the lake of fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Emphasis mine.)

The cowards are not unbelievers. They are mentioned separately. Neither are they liars or people who let other things become their god. Who is this group then? I've come to think these are the people who live their life in fear. They believe in God and the may love Him, but their fear of what others may think, or of stepping out on a limb, outweighs their love. This, then, is their inheritance.

The disciples were described as having this kind of fear at one point, but they allowed the power of Christ to come through them and conquer it, and we can too. I can't imagine coming before the Creator of the universe at the Judgment seat expecting to hear, “Well done”, yet being called a coward and sent away from His presence for eternity. Let's be vigilant for ourselves and those around us.