The Fear of the Lord

This article is to give some insight as to what I have come to see and understand concerning the “fear of The LORD”  and how we, as God’s people, must begin to live in it and by it.

There are many scriptures that use the phrase “fear of the LORD.” I will use only a few of them. At this time I am not trying to do a complete study of the subject.

• Job 28:28 And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.”
• Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

 If someone asked if you want to be wise and have knowledge in your life most, if not all, would say certainly. We see here in at least two verses that to have wisdom you must operate in the fear of the LORD.

• Deuteronomy 31:12 Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law
• Psalms 34:11 Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

 In the above two scriptures we see that the “fear of the LORD” is learned. If the “fear of the LORD” is learned behavior how do I learn it?

We see in these two verses that you have to hear and listen. Now I think that the hearing and listening is done on purpose. It is not just letting sound go in our head, but on purpose hearing and listening to what our Father God is saying.

If I am wise I will choose on purpose to hear and listen. Look at these verses:

• Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
• Proverbs 1:29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD, ³⁰They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. ³¹Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
• Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate

If I don’t like what I am experiencing as far as how my life is going I may not have heard and listened to the counsel of the LORD.

Once again I will say hearing and listening is not just letting sound go in our head but on purpose hearing and listening to what our Father God is saying and then prove I heard and listened by doing what HE said. 

Next I want to give you a definition of the “fear of the LORD.” I believe that the “fear of the LORD” is manifested in our lives in the following ways:

• I love God greatly.
• I respect God greatly.
• I hate what HE hates.
• I love what HE loves.

 If I love God and if I respect God I will begin to imitate HIM in

1. my thoughts
2. my words
3. my deeds
4. my attitudes and
5. what I allow to motivate me.

I could say it this way:  I will begin to, on purpose, take on HIS nature and character. Now I realize that the preliminary step to all of this is the new birth. However, being born again is not necessarily proof that you are walking or living in the fear of the LORD. I will deal with this a little later

First I must find what God Himself says about His nature and character if I want to imitate HIM. If we go to the Old Testament we will find a clear description given by the LORD Himself of:

1. who He is
2. what HE is like
3.  what HE does and
4. why HE does it or
5. what His character and nature is.

 Moses was talking to the LORD and said:

Exodus 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. To say that in our terms he asked the LORD what HE was like, what HE did and why HE did it.

The LORD said back to Moses:

Exodus 33:19 And he said, “I will make all the light of my being come before you, and will make clear to you what I am;”—Bible in Basic English

Then the LORD enlarged on this in:

Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, ⁷“keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

From these verses the LORD Himself tells us that HE is “merciful (Hebrew, compassionate), gracious (full of grace), longsuffering (slow to anger), full of goodness and truth, keeping mercy (Hebrew, lovingkindness, covenant keeping) and one who forgives.

Our statement that we are to imitate Him if we love and respect HIM is valid because we see Jesus Himself doing this.

• John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
  
• John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
• John 8:26 I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of (from) him.
  
• John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

In these four verses we see Jesus, in effect, saying:

I only do what I see my Father do and say what I hear my Father say.

He loves and respects His Father so much that He imitates Him in all that He does.  We have instructions from the Apostle Paul as follows:

• 1Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
• Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ²And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 So, clearly, if we will set our hearts to learn the Word, Will and Way of our Father imitating Him in our everyday life, we will be living in the “fear of the LORD.”

Apostle Paul gives us further instructions:

Ephesians 4:21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

No longer allow the old Adamic nature to rule your life “PUT OFF” the old man. He says “PUT ON” 

1. The new man
2. The new creation
3. The hidden man of the heart

 On purpose begin to imitate Jesus and act on the Word of God. Let His love and His very nature and character be made manifest in your life by presenting to HIM your body for HIM to live HIS life through. 

Now to go back and deal with the statement I made earlier:  ”being born again is not necessarily proof that you are walking or living in the fear of the LORD.”

We see evidence of this in the scripture when Paul told the Romans: 

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

If the Romans were really loving God, respecting God and imitating Him then Paul would not have told them to “be not conformed to this world.” Obviously they were being conformed to this world or not imitating God because they were not living in the “fear of the LORD.”

We see a similar situation in:

Ephesians 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

The Ephesians were walking as other Gentiles (unbelievers), so Paul is instructed them to live as those who are born again and imitate God. He even says in:

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ² And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

He is telling them to “imitate Christ” who 

• loved HIS Father
• respected HIS Father and
• presented HIS body

 to HIS Father as a sacrifice that was “a sweet-smelling aroma” to HIS Father.