Christians—you ever hear something that seems… not quite right? Even though it sounds biblical? You might be dealing with a distorted teaching.

This is the first of a series of blog posts I will be calling Distorted Teachings! One of my passions in life is taking whatever distorted Christian teachings I find and sorting them out so that others don’t stumble over them. It’s so important to me because the most important thing in everyone’s life is their relationship with God, and distorted teachings can hurt that. They can even lead people to reject God altogether.

I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and how I felt. I was at a tiny concert hall in Charlotte to see my favorite Christian rapper, and I was making conversation with the man selling me a T-shirt. We got to the topic of spirituality—the man was also a Christian. I opened up to him a tiny bit about struggling with anxiety, which causes fear in my walk with God sometimes. “Well, you know, fear is actually a sin,” he said to me. I looked at him the way a deer looks at a pair of headlights. “Oh?” I squeaked. Ironically, his words didn’t make me any less anxious; they made me more anxious. I knew there was no way he was actually correct. But what if he is? I wondered. After that discussion, I had trouble enjoying the concert—the inner voices of guilt and anxiety shouted even louder than the hip-hop music.

The Good Intention

The first thing to mention about distorted teachings is that they aren’t completely false, as they are based on truth—and they are all well-meaning. When this man told me fear was a sin, he truly meant well. He wasn’t trying to make me “commit the sin” of fear (even though he did). He just loves Jesus and wants to take all of His words seriously, because it is true that multiple times throughout Scripture, Jesus says “Do not be afraid.”

What I aim to show you here, though, is that taking Jesus’s words seriously doesn’t always mean taking them literally. Jesus always means what He says, but not always in a literal sense. For example, when He said “I am the bread of life,” He meant it. But does that mean Jesus is made of literal bread? Of course not! Also, when Jesus says that when you pray, you should go into your room in shut the door, that doesn’t mean you literally need to only pray in your room. Otherwise, every time you prayed in church, at a restaurant, or in a YouTube video, you’d be sinning, and we know that isn’t the case. So you have to be careful reading the Bible. I’m not saying Jesus’s teachings are subjective—Jesus is always right, and He always has one clear point in mind when He speaks. Since Jesus used a lot of parables and metaphors, it takes wisdom and practice to be able to interpret what He means when He’s talking.

The Distortion

Fear is not a sin because fear is an emotion. Every human has natural emotions—anger, sadness, affection, fear. Every single one of our emotions can be used in evil ways; that doesn’t make any emotion inherently evil. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for your emotions; He died for your sins. When He was on the cross, He atoned for your actual sins, not the times you freaked out in the doctor’s office, or the times you panicked before your exams, or the times you worried about how you’d make ends meet with no job.

Part of the issue is that some people adopt a rather black-and-white view of emotions because of certain Bible verses. In reality, the Bible as a whole has a very nuanced view of emotions. Take anger for example. Some verses make anger seem like a sin, like Colossians 3:8, Matthew 5:22, or Psalm 37:8. But we all know that anger is not actually sinful—at least not all anger! God Himself feels anger. There are many instances of righteous people being angry, especially Jesus, and their anger is not considered evil. The same principle applies to sadness and, yes, even fear.

Our “fight-or-flight” response is a product of our Creator. It’s healthy! Not that God’s will is for us to be perfectly safe all the time; that would be a false gospel. But it’s a natural response to perceived danger, which God wants us to pay attention to whenever it makes sense. The Bible’s story is filled with righteous characters who experienced anxiety, and they were not condemned for it. Here’s when fear becomes sinful: if it causes you to disobey the Lord. But even then, the fear itself isn’t the sin; it’s the disobedience.

The Time Jesus was Anxious

And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Luke 22:41-44

This is an excerpt from right before Jesus’s arrest, written by Luke. Luke was a physician, and I think it’s no mistake that, as a physician, he wrote that Jesus was sweating blood. Bloody sweat is a symptom of a super rare but historical condition called hematidrosis, a condition caused by extreme stress or fear. Here, Jesus clearly exemplifies righteous fear. He was about to be mocked, slapped, spit on, whipped, and crucified by His enemies. On top of that, His Father and friends were about to leave Jesus to suffer through all of it alone. Wouldn’t you be terrified of the pain? Jesus sure was; that’s why He pleaded with the Father to spare Him from it.

But notice what He says next: “‘not my will, but yours, be done.’” The Father wasn’t going to make the Son do anything. But Jesus knew there was but one way to redeem sinners, which is what God ultimately wants for us. So, even though He was afraid to suffer, Jesus suffered anyway, obeying His Father’s will.

We can clearly learn from the life of Jesus that, even though He doesn’t want anyone to be afraid, He knows we will still experience fear. He is not one to condemn your anxiety, because He understands what anxiety is like. What God doesn’t want you to do, however, is disobey Him because of your fear.

Why This Matters

Why is this teaching important? Well, it’s because fear is natural, so we’re putting words in God’s mouth (which is evil) when we go around telling people fear is a sin. In fact, fear is pretty necessary, too. It is perfectly natural to be afraid of scary things, and this life is full of scary things. For some, fear can even be uncontrollable and can impact their walk with God, which is one reason mental health is a growing topic in the church today. Unfortunately, not everyone in the church understands how out-of-our-control anxiety can be, but fortunately, the more we learn about the brain and mental health, the more effectively we can minister to people inside and outside the Christian church.

It’s normal, not sinful, to feel afraid when you know you’re about to endure a lot of pain. It’s normal, not sinful, to feel really anxious if you lose a job, a parent, or a spouse. And if your child’s life was in danger, I’d be concerned if you weren’t at least a tiny bit afraid! The point that God wants to make, though, when He tells us to not be anxious about anything, is that anxiety doesn’t have to control your life. You may have an anxiety disorder for the rest of your life, but you don’t have to let it condemn you. If scary things happen to you, will you trust God to get you through them? When the fear hits, are you running TO Him or FROM Him?