The Fear Of The Lord: Love Wisdom And Hate Evil

The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

Proverbs 19:23

Are you content? Is your life untouched by trouble? Learn to understand the fear of the Lord.

About ten years ago, I attended a Christian wedding for which the bride and groom wrote their own wedding vows. As the solemn, joyful moment came, they faced each other, clasped hands, and exchanged those vows.

The bride said, “And the reason I love you and want to spend my life with you is that you understand the fear of the Lord.”

What is the fear of the Lord? Do you understand it? Is it important to you?

Many of us have lost the fear of the Lord. We have forgotten our deep awe for the character of God, His holiness, His eternality, His sovereignty over all the affairs of men. We let Him get smaller. We let our impression of ourselves get bigger. We see ourselves as larger in intellect and capabilities, as more technologically advanced and more scientific. As we prosper, we don’t need God as we once did.

What is the fear of the Lord? And how can we get it into our lives? The fear of the Lord is to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. The fear of the Lord is both positive and negative.

Love Wisdom

The positive is to love what God loves—wisdom. God loves wisdom. The fear of the Lord is to love wisdom. “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding…then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom” (Proverbs 2:1-2, 5-6).

To love wisdom is to fear the Lord. “‘The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom’” (Job 28:28). The person who would understand the fear of the Lord will love what God loves. God loves wisdom, so he will love wisdom.

Wisdom comes from God alone. Many want to add their own unique theories to the wisdom of God. We often want new ideas, new truth. But the pages of Holy Writ give testimony to the durability of God’s wisdom over man’s fresh ideas.

When we add to the wisdom of God, it does not become the wisdom of God plus something, but the wisdom of God minus something. Can we lead a rebellion against the eternal God? Can we be His teacher? Let us learn to love the wisdom of God, and then we will understand the fear of the Lord.

Hate Evil

The negative is to hate what God hates—evil. God hates evil. “To fear the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “Through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil” (Proverbs 16:6). “To shun evil is understanding" (Job 28:28). The person who would understand the fear of the Lord will hate what God hates. God hates evil, so he will hate evil.

What differentiates the person who understands the fear of the Lord from the one who does not ? The person not gripped by the fear of God tolerates evil. He does not take exception to the moral filth which permeates culture. He doesn’t like it, but his motto is, “Live and let live.” He is not of the world, but neither is he into the world. He is God’s person in the world, but he has not been sent into the world. He has no impact, because he tolerates evil.

The person gripped by godly fear cannot tolerate evil because God does not tolerate evil. He hates evil with the intensity that God hates evil, or at least he tries to. He is a reformer, not a recluse. His hatred of evil sanctions him no occasion to tolerate.

Two in One

The fear of the Lord consists both in loving and hating. It is loving what God loves—wisdom, and hating what God hates—evil. When we love what God loves and hate what he hates, we are not far from the kingdom of God. “The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble” (Proverbs 19:23). Do you know what God loves? Do you know what God hates?

The Antidote for Disobedience

How important is this ignored injunction to fear the Lord? Solomon waxed eloquent for twelve chapters in Ecclesiastes about the futility of pursuing temporal kingdoms. At the end of the book, he summarized: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Though we have lost the fear of the Lord, our duty is to find it again.

The fear of the Lord is the antidote for disobedience. The Hebrew people pledged obedience to God when Moses declared the ten commandments to them. God responded to their pledge: “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always" (Deuteronomy 5:29). God links obedience to the fear of the Lord—it is the antidote for disobedience.

Learn to understand the fear of the Lord. Surrender to it. Love wisdom and hate evil.

I SURRENDER

Father, teach me the fear of the Lord. I surrender my own clever ideas that I would add to Your wisdom. Help me to love what You love—wisdom. Help me to hate what You hate—evil. Take away my tolerance of evil that I might be a reformer, that I might be sent “into” the world and not merely take up space “in” the world. Amen.