Euichang Kim focuses upon the phrase "the fear of God'" which is drawn from 2 Corinthians' exhortation to reconcile with God. As opposed to these words appearing from nowhere, Kim points to the wider contexts of Old Testament passages quoted by Paul, and demonstrates that God's eschatological promises - in particular his coming judgment, his promise to redeem his people, and his promise of a new covenant - are intertwined with this motif of "fear."

Beginning with the meaning of fear in both the Old Testament and the New, Kim proceeds to the context of fear within 2 Corinthians, Scripture, the writings of Second Temple Judaism and the very eschatology of Paul, suggesting that it stems from an awareness of God's judgment to come and serves to motivate righteous behavior. Finally, Kim argues that, in the context of 2 Corinthians, the "fear of God" functions, retrospectively, as the proper response to God's saving acts in Christ that have established the new covenant people of God as the temple of God's presence; and prospectively, as the motivation for believers to pursue a holy life in anticipation of the eschatological judgment to come.