Jehovah's Witnesses Straight Talk - Forum/Blog

January 09, 2020

Christian's must remember if we don't obey God out of love, it becomes a religion we obey for fear of punishment.

Romans 8:15 For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba {Abba is an Aramaic word for father or daddy, often used affectionately and respectfully in prayer to our Father in heaven.}! Father!"

2 Timothy 1:7 For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "Don't fear what they fear, neither be troubled."{Isaiah 8:12}

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

Facts: Mastigophobia, or poinephobia, is a fear of punishment. The fear is commonly encountered in children who get punished frequently by parents or other adults. People observing cruel actions in others or warnings received can cause fear.

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.”
Albert Einstein

A once common example of both physical and emotional punishment is washing out a child's mouth with soap because the child has used bad language. While the procedure is only uncomfortable, rather than painful, the degradation the child experiences is great. Without consciously knowing it the child responds not only to the obvious message that he said something bad but also to the implicit message that the parent views his insides as dirty and bad—that the child himself is vile. In the end the parent's goal—to eliminate bad language from the child's vocabulary—is rarely achieved. Instead, the punishment serves to convince the child that although the parent is very much concerned with overt behavior, he is completely uninterested in whatever annoyance compelled the child to use bad language. It convinces him that the parent is interested only in what he wants, and not in what the child wants. If this is so, the child in his inner being reasons, then why shouldn't he too be interested only in what he wants, and ignore the wishes of his parent?
By BRUNO BETTELHEIM

poweredinpeace.com see also www.nu-truth.com