If perfect love casts out all fear, how can fear of the Lord be the beginning of knowledge, understanding and wisdom? Fear paralyzes where love liberates. But if we look more closely at the kinds of fear, natural, moral, religious and psychological, we see that rightly understood each of these has a wisdom about them. Ultimately the purpose of fear is to call us out of our self-centeredness and into the liberating love that no longer needs to fear.
