Knowing the Fear of the Lord - 2 Corinthians 5:11

Paul’s ministry was driven by both the love and the fear of God (cf. 2 Cor 5:10-21). But his knowledge of “the fear of the Lord” (v. 11) was attached to a commonly understood reality associated with the judgment seat of God (v. 10)–i.e., Gehenna. The bodily punishment of the wicked in the Valley of Hinnom was the dark side of Jewish apocalyptic thought that is often neglected today at both an academic and a popular level.