The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God…The fear of the Lord is to hate evil…The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…The fear of the Lord prolongeth days…The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death…by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil…be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. (Assorted Proverbs)
Charles Spurgeon chimes in on the topic (150 or so years ago):
“Perhaps some of the Puritan fathers may have gone too far, and have given too great a prominence to the terrors of the Lord in their ministry: but the age in which we live has sought to forget those terrors altogether, and if we dare to tell men that God will punish them for their sins, it is charged upon us that we want to bully them into religion, and if we faithfully and honestly tell our hearers that sin must bring after it certain destruction, it is said that we are attempting to frighten them into goodness. Now we care not what men mockingly impute to us; we feel it our duty, when men sin, to tell them they shall be punished, and so long as the world will not give up its sin we feel we must not cease our warnings. But the cry of the age is, that God is merciful, that God is love. Who said he was not? But remember, it is equally true, God is just, severely and inflexibly just. He were not God, if he were not just; he could not be merciful if he were not just.”
I agree with Chuck – we have gotten away from preaching fire and brimstone, and for all the wrong reasons. Yes, we should share the Gospel message in love, but ignoring God’s immeasurable power, His justifiable and righteous wrath, eternal damnation, specifically as it pertains to the consequences of sin, is not loving. If the Bible declares that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, then it should be one of the first points we hammer down when sharing the Good News.
Read those Proverbs in the first paragraph again. If you’re still not convinced, look up the other 100+ places in the Bible where the fear of the Lord is taught. I got news for you, the fear of the Lord is not just a call to be respectful to our Almighty God. I submit to you that the literal interpretation of the passage is the proper way to proceed. I further submit that is can be conveyed compassionately, however sometimes a more fearful tone is required.
Jude 21-23 puts it this way:
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”
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