Bobby Jolley

“We are inclined to a sinful trust and dependence upon each other, and to an inordinate fear and dread of each other. We act as if the creature were a god rather than a man, a spirit rather than flesh. Thus, our fear magnifies and exalts the creature, putting it (as it were) in God’s room and place. God rebukes this sin in His own people: “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the LORD thy maker?” (Isa. 51:12–13a). It is evident that fear exalts people and belittles God. It thinks upon a person’s hamful power so much that it forgets God’s saving power. In this way, a mortal worm, which perishes as the grass, eclipses the glory of the great God, who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.”
― John Flavel, Triumphing Over Sinful Fear