the NIV rightly understands the fear in v. 18 to be God-directed awe, as is the case in v. 17. J. Ramsey Michaels notes well that, “Although the word order could suggest that the reverence is directed toward slave masters …, the clear distinction in 2:17 between reverence toward God and respect for the emperor demands that here too phobos means reverence toward God and not human masters.”8 In the “Live the Story” section below, I will discuss the fact that NT authors do not explicitly condemn the