Does fearing the Lord mean discounting His compassion?

The scribes and the pharisees brought a woman who was caught in adultery to the Lord Christ: “And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him: ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?’” (John 8:3–5). His response did not ignore justice but opened a door of compassion before her. Therefore, the fear of the Lord reveals Him to us as both sweetness and truth at the same time .

St. Augustine says, “had He said, ‘Let her be stoned,’ He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it became Him to say, both the gentle and the just, ‘Whoever is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ This is the voice of Justice: Let her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled, but not by the transgressors of the law … But He, who had driven back her adversaries with the tongue of justice, raising the eyes of clemency towards her, asked her, ‘Has no man condemned you?’ She answered, ‘No man, Lord.’ And He said, ‘Neither do I condemn you’ … Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let them fear His truth. For ‘The Lord is sweet and right’ (Ps. 25:8). You love Him in that He is sweet; fear Him in that He is right … The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful; but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on you space for correction; but you love the delay of judgment more than the amendment of your ways. Have you been a bad man yesterday? Today be a good man. Have you gone on in your wickedness today? At any rate change tomorrow … How do you know what tomorrow may bring forth? … God has promised pardon to him that amends, but God has not promised you a long life.”³⁶⁷

366 St. Ammonas, The Letters of Ammonas: Successor of St. Antony , trans., Derwas Chitty (SLG Press, 1979): p. 2.

367 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 33.5–7 (NPNF I/7:198– 199) amended.