An Essay on the Fear of the Lord

The Fear of the Lord

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)

            As a child, I remember there were many moments I had goofing around with my brothers and sisters. Often they were moments of fun, but, on occasions, these fun times turned into trouble when one or the other of us involved began to be pushed too far. Someone may have gotten hurt or was just plain tired, signaling then the end of the altercation. However, more often than not, the person that was unhurt still wanted to continue the roughhousing. This is when the offended person would yell loudly, “MOM!”. This would always cause a unique reaction in the other person involved. Often their eyes would bulge and they would jerk quickly away looking desperately for the dreaded authority. This was not to say that mother was an oppressive authoritarian, quite the opposite to be sure. Mother, though, did hold that place of authority and she did wield the power to enforce it, with the rod. Yes, we loved our mother dearly and she returned that love affectionately.  Nonetheless, if there was no fear of her, there was anarchy. Just like in society, if there is no man with a gun and a badge to enforce the law, people often see fit not to follow that law.

In Proverbs 1:7 it says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The foolish resist authority because they are only about doing what they want to do. What you fear is what you obey; and, to take that further, what you fear often controls who you are. Fools resist God because they have deceived themselves into thinking that they can do whatever they want.

In our present day, it is a good thing that we do not have a proper metaphors of how Jesus described our relationship to God and how it should be like slavery. Slavery is extinct in our society for good reason, but the reality is that we Christians are slaves of Christ. Often in the Bible the Greek word δοῦλος doulos is translated as servant when it clearly means slave. This means when Jesus used the word translated servant in Luke 17:6-10, He really means slave. This is in reference to us. Christ should have command over our lives. For us simply to do our duty is hardly being a good slave. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10)

This also should mean that we must be motivated by the fear of the Lord to do good things as well. Maybe my reader has wondered “How can I be motivated to do what God wants me to do?” Part of it is this issue of the fear of the Lord. I have often wondered how the great men of the past could do so much to change their times - men like William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. How did they stand against the societal norms of their day and make a stand for the truth? They had the courage to speak out when others were silent, because they feared God more than their fellow man. They recognized that they would have to give an account for their actions before a Holy God some day. Just like it says in Romans 14:11-12, “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”  The fear of God should drive us more than our natural fear of man. Most of us won’t admit this; however, most often, we fear what men can do to us as well as what men thinks of us. This does not motivate us to good works. In Psalms 11:3 it says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Maybe a better way of saying that would be,  the foundations of the earth are being destroyed, and what are the righteous doing about it? That would be more accurate to the Hebrew tenses. When there is trouble, we Christians should be the first on the scene. We are to be the salt and light of this world. Where else are those things going to come from if not from us?

In summary, the fear of the Lord is something that is being played down and diminished in our current evangelical churches. I have to admit that even I have been at fault in this too. Maybe if we simply take these words as God intended, rather than putting our own spin on them, than maybe we will learn a valuable truth to unlock a special power to live the Christian life. As Proverbs 19:23 asserts so beautifully, “The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”