The Fear of the LORD - An Example of Submitting to the Text

 

 

In the previous post in this series, I asked, “What does it look like to submit to the Biblical text, as opposed to allowing our presuppositions to drive our understanding of the Bible, the Word of God?”

 

I mentioned that there are some subjects that I know, when thinking about them with others, will likely require much time and in which I can only hope for so much understanding. Why? Because of the habit of our hearts and minds to impose our understanding on the Bible as opposed to allowing the Bible to impose its truth on us. In other words, our habit is to force the Bible to submit to us, rather than submitting ourselves to the Word of God (see 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16).

 

I wrote that, “Among these areas are the Trinity, free will and election, eschatology (Biblical prophecy), evangelism and witness, prayer, and Judas Iscariot.”

 

Now I’ll add to this list, the fear of the LORD. The difficulty we have in thinking about the fear of the LORD is not only due to our propensity to force the Bible into our image and mold, but also that we are exalting the social “sciences” above the Biblical text, making therapy and our desire to feel good about ourselves our goal, thus adopting images of God that accommodate our therapeutic orientation. A sad irony of this is that, if we remind ourselves that “therapy” and “therapeutic” are words from New Testament Greek than speak of healing, our adoption of man’s system of inner healing closes us off from God’s holistic healing as mediated in the Bible and found only in the Person of Jesus Christ. God’s healing is found in the Cross of Christ being our Way of Life; the social “sciences” sanitize the Cross and its self-denial, indeed its death to self, and give us a Jesus Christ who specializes in making us feel good in the embrace of a group hug and a “Don’t worry, be happy” hymnody.

 

In this post I want to demonstrate what the Bible says about the fear of the LORD and how we can think about this important subject. Let’s begin with some Bible verses, as you read them what do you see? How do they relate to each other? What are they teaching? How do the first six verses relate to those that follow them?

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7.

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10.

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” Psalm 111:10.

 

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever…” Psalm 19a.

 

“Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” Psalm 33:8.

 

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness.” Psalm 33:18.

 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15.

 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7.

 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18.

 

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 – 11.

 

Let’s please take some time to ponder these passages, asking the Holy Spirit to help us see and understand what God is saying and how they relate to each other. We’ll return to the fear of the LORD in the next post.