The idea of "god-fearing" is because of an incomplete translation from the original Hebrew etymology. The idea was actually more about being in awe of God. It was never meant that we should fear God as in being frightened of God.

Side note: the idea of a defined Gender is not evident in the ancient etymology either. Many of the original terms for God were female as well as male – and, terms meant to be gender interchangeable.

We humans invented religion to basically cut the idea of God down into compartmentalized smaller aspects we could grasp. Then, being flawed humans, we used compartmentalized bits to further make God seem smaller – to cut God down to our petty, vindictive size and with our human desire for a punative God to fling at our enemies.

But, God remains bigger than we can imagine. "God is love." And, if we know love we know God. [1 John 4]. God's grace and love are unbounded, beyond our narrow human perspectives. As I recently offered elsewhere: "What if "amazing grace" is grace unbounded by any constraints? What if "grace" means that the God who is love condemns NO ONE to everlasting torment – ever." That is, IME, the "awe" meant in the ancient phrasing and etymology of the original texts.