The fear of the Lord and loving the truth go hand in hand.
They are, in effect, two things that are so similar
that we cannot tell them apart sometimes.
Accepting and loving the truth, whether you like it or not
or whether you understand it or not is similar to the fear of the Lord,
which means keeping God above all else.
They both mean, humility is there and working in our hearts,
putting God above everything and everyone.
Keeping God front and center, knowing if you stray from God’s will,
God is a jealous God and He requires our whole selves, our all.
If we refuse to commit our lives fully to Him, we are not worthy of Him.
He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37-38 kjv
Fear of God does have an element of being scared of not pleasing God.
Jesus did say, fear Him who has power to cast both body and soul into Hell.
So, that is part of the fear.
God is the Maker of Heaven and Earth and the Maker each one of us.
We can’t ignore that or soften it.
It is part of the fear of God to know He can and does cast people into Hell.
That stems from humility.
What needs to be considered though is that God is able
and will reach His hand down to us, to clean us in His sight,
if we come before Him humbly and in honesty, in reverence and in adoration.
Jesus has the means and the best way to help us out of out sin.
We should never be afraid to bring our sin before Him
because He always has the answer.
But to say we should not be afraid of what He can do if we ignore our sin,
then, that is lacking humility.
The difference is what we are afraid of.
Bringing our burdens or sins to Him is what He wants
so He can cleanse them.
That is something we should never be afraid of.
We should be afraid of the consequences
of any time we are hiding something from Him.
Then, we are not being humble, we’re trying to fix things on our own.
Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at My presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves,
yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? Jeremiah 5:22 kjv
Loving the truth and fearing the Lord
are both responses to our Lord that are pleasing to Him.
If we love the truth, we will grasp His word with all of our being
and a large part of that acceptance is the fear of the Lord,
as God has required it since He created humans on the Earth.
Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not;
neither decline from the words of my mouth.
Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee:
love her, and she shall keep thee. Proverbs 4:5-6 kjv