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FEAR AND WISDOM

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

A number of years ago, someone wrote a book called The Death of Common Sense. As we look at what passes for knowledge and wisdom today, common sense has not been revived. Given what has been taught in colleges over the last half century, common sense is rotting in the grave. Groucho Marx of the famous Marx brothers said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” Dennis Prager was speaking before a Christian audience about his college experience. He wondered why educated professors would come up with some of the strangest points of view like men and women being the same and why they would support failed political systems such as communism. Then it came to him, he said. “There was no fear of God” and that led to a lack of wisdom.

To say that there is no fear of God today is probably an understatement. Even Christians do not have a good understanding of “the fear of the Lord.” If we don’t, then maybe we lack wisdom that is necessary to spread the good news. Let’s take a look at the fear of the Lord.

First, we know that there are those who do not fear the Lord. We are not surprised at the statement by the Psalmist who says, “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). With the recent release of a number of books by atheists attempting to deny the existence of God, and some of the reasoning behind their objections, one wonders where these people live. One prominent atheist who refuses to debate one author has stated that he believes it was visitors from other planets who began the human race, and believes in the randomness taught in evolution (1). Atheistic regimes have attempted to remove God from society by force such as Communist Russia. The “fear” of these people is that if people believed in God, they would be loyal to Him and not to them. Among the ideas some wanted was that they were a god and alone deserved worship.

Atheists who do not believe in God and therefore do not fear Him want to live lives without restraints. We find that they care nothing for moral standards and have difficulty with right and wrong, good and bad. Rather than believing in nothing, they believe in everything. One can look at Friedrick Nietzsche who wrote about God being dead, that is, irrelevant, and living a life with no relationships of lasting importance. He spent the last ten years of his life in an insane asylum. Solomon wrote about wisdom in Proverbs 1-9. One illustration he uses is that of the adulterous woman who tempts the son to whom Solomon wrote. It can be seen in a literal or figurative sense, where unwise choices lead to destructive behavior.

Atheists are not the only ones who have a problem with the fear of the Lord. We find that many leaders and politicians have no fear of God. It is not that they do not believe in God, they do; but they have it on their terms. They prefer that God stay out of the affairs of all things political. This might help explain some of the decisions we hear about coming out of various political bodies. Many are based on likes and dislikes, on feelings, rather than on common sense and reasoning with the facts. That is why we hear some of the silliness of global warming such as earthquakes causing it and many other things that ordinary people would just think strange. There are also the issues of power and control, humans wanting it rather than declaring that Jesus is Lord.

It is we Christians who need to understand what the fear of the Lord is and how to express it in our lives. There are two aspects to fear of the Lord: 1) the awe and awesomeness of God and 2) fear in the sense of power, holiness and judgment. These must be balanced, otherwise we might find ourselves struggling to gain wisdom. How we see God is important in understand the gaining of wisdom.

There is an aspect of the fear of the Lord that involves the power, holiness and judgment of God. God is the holy God and Creator, unapproachable in that holiness, using His power for both the benefit and the punishment of humankind. We see that in the Judges and Prophets in particular, both in the Old and New Testaments (2). What we need to understand is that God acts out of His love for His creation and attempts to bring about change in the lives of people. Ultimately it is our choices that lead to our eternal situation.

Unfortunately, many see God as the Judge with little or no mercy. This leads to a legalistic view of Christianity and the New Testament. Laws must be discovered and completely obeyed. Any violation of any law is an immediate threat to one’s salvation. Traditions are turned into laws so as to more completely obey God. That is why we have arguments over various issues. If the elders decide on two assemblies on Sunday, morning and evening, and that we are not to forsake the assembly (Hebrews 10:24-25), then if one could come on Sunday evening but chooses not to, then he is in danger of being lost (3). We “must” do the five acts of worship (singing, praying, preaching, giving, the Lord’s Supper) or we will be in danger of apostasy. Then we add that we cannot sing during the Lord’s Supper because scripture is silent on that, not thinking that it is also silent on song leaders and song books. This attitude leads to such ideas that if one is driving a car that blows a tire and is headed to a concert pillar, and takes God’s name in vain, and dies before repenting, that person is lost. No thought about the situation and shock.

This unbalanced view of God leads to ideas that lack wisdom. Now we need to understand that God is the Judge and in holiness will judge humanity. But there is more to God than being a judge who is looking to say “gotch ya.” God is also our Father who desires an intimate redemptive fellowship with us. We can now approach God through Jesus Christ, that we can call Him Abba, the Aramaic word expressing the idea of “daddy.” This closeness is something we should all strive for in our lives.

There is a danger in the above view. It comes from seeing God only as our Father. It then becomes the idea that He might be a grandfather or Santa Claus who gives His children anything and everything or that He ignores what we do as if it was not important. This can be illustrated by the idea that if Jesus returns and finds one at a dance, what would He think? He already knows that.

A healthy and balanced view of the fear of the Lord takes into account both the holy, judgmental aspect and the personal, intimate relational aspect of the love of God. One way we can understand this is to look at Jesus, who is the exact representation of God (Hebrews 1:1-3). This will lead to the beginning of wisdom and knowledge and understanding of both God and humans. It is a challenge for all of us.

Living a radical life will begin to change the attitudes of many toward Christianity. It has been said often enough that people have come to believe it; that Christians are hateful, angry, and too political. That stereotype is something that we will have to deal with by showing others that we understand that right and wrong doesn’t mean being judgmental but showing love by seeking what is best for another, though they might not think so.

No one said this would be easy but fearing God and gaining wisdom can give us the means to deal with the lack of common sense and wisdom we see today.

George B. Mearns

(1) Mr. Dawkins as recorded in Expelled: The Movie. He refuses to debate Dinesh D’Souza who wrote challenging atheists in What’s So Great About Christianity.

(2) Read Hebrews 10 and 12 as well as Revelation and some of the parables of Jesus.

(3) Among the problems with this view and using this text is that the Hebrew writer isn’t addressing two assemblies on one day but an attitude that has lost focus. There are three positive aspects in the text verses one negative, but we have chosen only to emphasize the negative, another problem in our view of God. There is also a failure to see the purpose of the assembly, as edification in our lives of worship.