Who's afraid of what?

Two core group meetings ago, a come group member added application concerning how we must fear God rather than man.  I could see everyone recalling to memory multiple occasions during which they feared man and did not stand for God.  We are afraid of being shamed or mocked, though Jesus said these things would happen.  We should speak God's Word with boldness. 

"For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." (John 12:43). 

All too often I retreat or soften a message to uphold my own 'respectability'.  What a non-disciple thought process ... I want man's respect rather than God's?  Man is now, I can see him, and he might think I'm a fanatic.  But God is now and then, faith will be sight, and eternity is at hand.  I should be doing what gets secured in eternity, not what dies with man. 

This fear of man kept the civil authorities in John 12 from confessing Christ as Savior.  They made the comfortable decision that has proven to be severely uncomfortable.