Luke 12:4-5
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

For a society that has devalued life so much to the point that it is disposable to them, people sure do cling to their own life, doing anything to preserve it, even fearing their own death.  It’s not surprising that godless people might be afraid to die because they have no firm answer for what comes next.  They have no assurance that there is anything at all for them, let alone something good, after they draw their last breath, so they want everything they can get out of this life.

It should not be the same for a believer in Christ.  All life should be valuable to us, including our own, but we do not need to fear dying or being killed, because killing our body is not the end of our life.  Killing our bodies is a limited power that man can have, because no man can kill a soul.  God holds every soul in His hands.  And if we are His, we will go to be with Him in heaven.  If not, our soul will be cast into hell, and only God has the power to do that.

So let us not misplace our fear.  Our fear should be of God.  As Christians, we don’t fear being sent to hell, but we recognize God’s place of authority over us, that our souls and our lives are in His hands, that He is the judge of all mankind.  We should be more fearful of what God can do to us than what anyone else can.  Man’s power is always limited compared to God’s.  So even though we may someday face the very real danger of being killed for our faith in Christ, we don’t have to be afraid of those people who would kill us, because we know our souls are secure in our Father’s hands.

Let us determine to be faithful to God no matter what the society around us does.  Let us focus on pleasing God and honoring Him and serving Him and cast aside fear of what other people think of us or what they might do to us.  We ultimately answer to God for everything that we do.  He judges us.  And if we have made the all-important decision to trust Christ as our Savior, then there is nothing anyone can do to destroy the life we have in Him.