To fear God signifies to not do evil. To fear the Lord is to worship and revere Him, for in worship there is a holy and reverential fear, which is grounded in the consideration that the object of worship is to be honored. To fear God and give glory to him signifies to worship the Lord from holy truths, and to worship, or adore him, signifies to worship the Lord from the good of love. Fear of God, as used in the Word, signifies worship, either grounded in fear, or in the good of faith, or in the good of love. When the subject concerns the unregenerate or people not fully developed spiritually, it refers to worship grounded in fear. When the subject treated of concerns the spiritually regenerate, it signifies worship grounded in the good of faith. Finally, when subject treated of concerns the celestially regenerate, it signifies worship grounded in the good of love. The fear of God, as in Genesis 20:10, signifies a regard for divine or spiritual truth.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 2826 [1-14]; Exodus 10, 20)

2435. 'That I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken' means that this being so he would not perish, that is to say, the person with whom the truth which has good within it is present. This is clear from the meaning of 'a city' as truth, dealt with in 402, 2268, 2428. From most ancient times men have argued about which is the firstborn of the Church, whether charity or faith. The reason is that man is regenerated and made a Church by means of the truths of faith. But people who have given preference to faith and made it the firstborn have all sunk into heresies and falsities, and at length have annihilated charity altogether. One reads of Cain, for example, by whom a faith such as this is meant, that he at length killed Abel his brother, who means charity. One reads after this of Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, by whom also faith is meant; but he defiled his father's couch, Genesis 35:22; 49:4, as a result of which he was disgraced and the birthright passed to Joseph, Genesis 48:15; 1 Chronicles 5:1.

[2] This was the origin in the Word of all the disputes, and also the laws concerning the birthright. The reason for this controversy was that people did not know, even as it is not known today, that the amount of faith a person has depends on the amount of charity there is in him, and while a person is being regenerated charity offers itself to faith, or what amounts to the same, good offers itself to truth, and implants and accommodates itself in every part of it, and also in so doing causes faith to be faith. This being so, charity is really the firstborn of the Church, though to man it seems to be otherwise; see also 352, 367. But because these matters are the subject in many places after this, more in the Lord's Divine mercy will be said when those places are reached.