The Fear of the Lord

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Wisdom and folly....the two major themes found throughout the Book of Proverbs.  A wise man in biblical terms is a man who walks in accordance with God's precepts.  A fool is one who does not...a fool lives apart from God.

With that having been said, the fear of the Lord is the foundation of everything.  It begins when the Spirit of God dwells inside us at the moment of salvation.  He (the Spirit)  moves in our thinking.


Fallen, unsaved man's mind, the Bible says, is depraved, blind, futile, foolish, and ignorant.  I can give you the references if you need them.  Here is what John MacArthur says about the mind of fallen man:

"So depraved it does not choose what is good, so blind it does not know what is good, so useless it does not perform what is good, so ignorant it doesn't even know it's doing all of this and you're left with the only alternative...everything is foolish. That's the mind of man, fallen man"

My mind was all these things and more before coming to the Lord...despite my college degree...despite my good job.  My life was in shambles...John MacArthur's quote hits home.  Upon acceptance of the Lord, however, the one thing that told me something supernatural had occurred was that I felt like my mind had expanded exponentially. I saw things and understood things with different eyes.  Many, many of my beliefs changed at the moment Christ entered my heart and The Spirit of God moved into my thinking. My mind which was once depraved, blind, futile,  ignorant and foolish was now different. No, I did not have a new brain, but I did have a new way of thinking and I no longer had the desire to do many of the sins that were so attractive to me prior to my conversion.


Solomon, the wisest man whoever lived, said this in the Book of Ecclesiastes.

And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all.

The fear of the Lord involves our devotion to Him and because of this it involves our hatred of sin because God  is holy and cannot look upon evil.   When we speak of the fear of the Lord it is really being afraid that we will do something  that will be grieving to Him.  Proverbs 8:13 defines it as hating evil.  Love for God and love for sin cannot coexist.  The longer you walk with the Lord the more you will despise sin. You will see it for what it is...ugly and disgusting and the cause of much  grief.  It corrupts, it defiles, it numbs people into complacency and it blinds them to reality.  Sin hurts the innocent and helpless.  It leaves destruction and devastation in its wake and has a stupefying effect on those who make a practice of it.

There is nothing more reasonable...more wise, if you will...than trusting,  reverencing and obeying the One who created you.  There is nothing more foolish than to reject the wisdom and counsel of the One who knows everything about you, to do what is right in your own eyes and live by your own wisdom.   

Look at your life.  Do you follow Christ?  Do you desire to follow Christ? And when you don't are you saddened by that? That is the mark of salvation. That is the fear of the Lord. Following Christ must be the direction of your life.  You will not follow perfectly but you will follow...you will persevere down that path.  The one who fears the Lord will love Christ and hate sin.  It is not that you will not sin, but you will sin less and less as you press on toward the goal of the upward call of Christ Jesus in your life. 

Love
Mom