“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” Psalm 111:10
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
There are all kins of fears. But the fear of the Lord is in a category all by itself or at least it ought to be. in order to fear the Lord, we must be taught to do so. We learn to fear by the experience and extent of our knowledge of God. When we recognize that God, who created all things, is the greatest power and authority there is and that He can use that power and authority against us at any time if He chooses so, is the beginning of wisdom.
So, acknowledging and accepting the relationship first leads to developing a healthy fear and reverence for Him. The next layer of understanding comes when we seek to know and discover for what purpose we are created. We are created to praise and worship God and in so doing we are transformed back into His image and likeness that we had in Adam from the beginning.
After the fall of Adam and Eve every man was a law unto himself and the world grew darker and more sinful until God had to bring about a reset of His creation with Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal in the Ark. So, every living thing except those in the Ark were destroyed by the flood. After the flood there was still no law until God gave Moses the Ten commandments. From that time to this day that law has not changed. Nor has its truth been altered. Those who live by it do well and where governments have made it the foundation of their laws they live in peace and prosperity.
Our nation was founded on those truths. Today, however, too many people, both young and old, have either forsaken or have never known the fundamental principles of living in this world and in community with other people. They don’t know because they have not been taught or they know but have abandoned the principles they learned in their youth. Many have given themselves over to all kinds of abhorrent practices; coarse speech, immodesty and salaciousness in their dress, surrendering their God given sense of decency and decorum, respect for themselves and for others to embrace depravity, vulgarity, debasing themselves in the most prurient manner of living, which is not living at all, but a slow walk to self-destruction.
Now, we find ourselves in a society led by men and women of such corrupt and depraved minds that they would even dare to dismiss God’s creations of male and female human beings made in His image and likeness, and replace them with some monstrous things of their degenerate imaginations.
But, for those who would follow Christ these truths are still self-evident, immutable and eternal. By them the righteous and the unrighteous might all live in peace. And only if the greater numbers of those in the family of man embraces and submits to these things can there be any hope for individuals, for families, for neighborhoods, communities, cities, states, and nations to live in peace.
Top 21 Things we need to keep before us to know and to do every day,
1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Matthew 7:12
2. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Matthew 7:12
3. Do not lie or bear false witness against anyone. Exodus 20:16
4. Do not covet or be envious of another person’s possessions or station in life. Exodus 20:17
5. Render to no one evil for evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
6. Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Luke 6:27
7. Judge not. Luke 6:37
8. Forgive those who trespass against you. Luke 6:37
9. Give generously even to those in need regardless of their political, social or spiritual standing. Luke 6:30
10. Speak the truth in love. Ephesians 4:14-15
11. (Commandment with Promise) Give and it will be given unto you. Luke 6:38
12. (Warning and Promise) Whatever you sow that you will also reap. Galatians 6:7
13. (Warning and Blessing) The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. Romans 6:23
14. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
15. Have faith in God. Mark 11:22
16. Love God with all that you are and all that you have above all other Mark 12:30
17. Love (look out for) your neighbor as you love (look out for) yourself Mark 12:31
18. Honor the Lord with your substance (stuff) and the first fruits of all your increase Proverbs 3:9
19. Present your body as a living sacrifice to Him. Romans 12:1-2
20. Worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:23
21. The Truth is Jesus. John 14:6
These truths were given to us to know God, to know wisdom, to gain understanding and to always prosper and be in health. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord not the fear of the government or any man, nor of any social-political movement among men. God did not call His church to be intimidated or silenced into submission to a godless mob who hate Jesus Christ and His body, the Church.
He has also not called us to war against flesh and blood, because people are not the targets of our warfare. As God’s agents on the earth, we are charged with waging war in the spirit and tearing down the altars of sin and death he has set up in the world order and ways of mankind apart from God.
The only enemy, the real thief, the killer, the one who seeks to destroy all of mankind so that they suffer his fate, is the devil. Judged and banished from God’s presence because of his arrogance and pride, attempting to usurp the authority of Jesus and set up his own kingdom in Heaven, he was cast down out of Heaven and fell to the earth to be trampled under the feet of man. His only goal is to take revenge against God for his fate by wreaking as much havoc as he can among the people created in the image and after the likeness of God because we are the beloved of God.
Now we know that peace will not be found in the things of this world. Keeping our minds fixed, securely anchored, always meditating on Jesus is the place and posture of peace. Lot, the nephew of Abraham, lived in a world of abject depravity and wonton sin that grew more depraved and vile every day, until it was no longer safe to even venture out of the house at night. The scriptures describe Lot as a man whose soul was vexed daily by the way the people of Sodom lived.
”For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.” 2 Peter 2:4-10
If the wonton madness of this current age is a vexation to your soul you are not alone. Could it be that we, the body of Christ, are indeed living in that time that Jesus spoke of in Luke 17.
“For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. 26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17:24-30
We tremble at these words with an awesome fearful reverence on the one hand and exuberant anticipation on the other. Could we be seeing the signs of the time when Jesus will return in power and great glory?
And when He comes, how will he find us? In what condition will His people be?
“I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8