The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Ecclesiastes is one of those books that warrant a thorough reading at least once a year to help maintain a sharp perspective. Some may find this book a little too tedious or pointless to do so, thinking that once every few years is adequate enough to remind us of the gist of the author’s sobering exhortation.

I’ve always found this book to be the very opposite. It is revealing, arresting and convicting; there is always something new that I hadn’t considered before – as with all of Scripture. One of the incredible factors of this book is that Solomon had searched and tried everything under heaven at his wish and command. He applied his heart to seek out all that is done. In the ESV (English Standard Version) footnote, heart according to the Hebrew term is translated as, “denotes the center of one’s inner life, including mind, will, and emotions.” Solomon was a man of no half measures. With the wisdom that God had given him, he came to the all-conclusive reality that everything outside and independent of God is an absolute and utter waste of life; the only thing that gave human life substance and satisfying purpose was to fear God and keep His commandments.

Here was a man of experience who could substantiate with authority all that he uttered. What a striking contrast to the way in which we gather the majority of our knowledge via the internet or some fascinating documentary; our thinking is done for us; we have learned theoretically but not lived where the experience comes in which is the highest form of knowledge.

I have never come across so often as I have in America where so many people say, “I’m a God-fearing man or woman.” But their lives do not give off any form of interest in pursuing hard after God. It is just mere words, more like a superstition and a tradition that has been passed down through the generations. It is no wonder hearing such ‘clichés’ in what is called the Bible belt, where everyone is assumed to be a Christian, but in reality it is more like paying one’s due respect to God and then live however which way you want. But this is not the fear of the Lord. James in his epistle states that the demons tremble with awe and fear knowing that God is Who He says He is, but they work day and night to thwart God’s plan of salvation that continually unfolds as He has predetermined.

The fear of God is something that nearly all of us shudder at. We misunderstand, misinterpret or just brush it to one side, confining such thinking to the ‘harsh’ God of the Old Testament; the majority of us strongly believe that since Jesus Christ came into this world, full of grace and truth that there is no need for the fear of God – we now live purely in the realm of grace. But surely such thinking is a travesty of Biblical Christianity. To revere God nowadays is something that is so outdated and alien to us. It is absent in our churches. We prefer to ‘party’ to ‘bask’ and ‘soak’ in God’s free grace only to live in a way that the apostle Paul strongly warns against in Romans 6.

The fear of the Lord is mentioned many times throughout the Psalms. Psalm 19:9 states, “The fear of the Lord is clean [pure].” There is nothing unwholesome, twisted or warped about fearing the Lord. Our misconceptions are due to being victims of abuse, whether parental, a spouse, a teacher or governmental leaders. You will notice the graciousness and continual long suffering and endless mercy of God throughout the Old Testament, just as much as the New Testament! You will find the fear of the Lord mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. The fear of God is not about ‘obeying the Lord or else we are in trouble’. It is being in awe of God, amazed and moved to adoration and love that one fears to bring an offence to the One so mighty (Think of being in the presence of royalty or some dignified president; no-one would dare display any conduct that would bring shame and embarrassment to themselves. Multiply that by infinity). One is eager to please, not in order to appease wrath (all that was dealt with when we were justified through Christ’s propitiatory atonement) but because God is majestic and beautiful; there is no one, or ever will be, worth comparing to Him. He is perfect in all of His ways, righteous, just and loving in His dealings with us.

Many of us are all too familiar with Matthew’s passage in chapter 7:21-23 where Jesus will say to many, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.” Many will be stunned and shocked to hear these words ring through their ears. The very people who rise to defend themselves on that day will say in disbelief, “But Lord, You’ve got it wrong, You’ve got the wrong person, surely You’ve made a huge mistake (no offence, Lord) but didn’t You see me do all these amazing things in Your name, the good life I lived, all the money I gave to missionaries, the homeless people I fed, the church I pastored and how many thousands joined…my name was known all over America…we were so successful in Your name…” This Scripture passage is not necessarily a sobering reality and warning to those who think they are bad, but to those who are ‘expecting’ a warm welcome and reception by the Lord Jesus Christ; any of us who may have been deluded – through wrong evangelism and teaching – into a false sense of security believing we are saved when we’re really not! If it does not unnerve anyone one of us we have not understood the implications of that passage. Lawlessness which Christ speaks of is not implying someone who breaks the law of society, but God’s law, God’s commands, one who walks according to God’s will – a righteousness that exceeds the way of the Pharisees. There will be many, good law-abiding citizens in hell but who did not love and fear God. God will judge our motives. Many may appear to be very charitable but only for their own ends. God reads the secrets of our hearts which the Pharisees failed to understand.

A true fear of God inevitably results in obedience to God. To clear away any misunderstanding: to fear God in a biblical way will manifest itself by us living unto God, a life that is devoted to His ways, plans and purposes over and above our own ways. Anything less than that is nothing more than a mere sentimental infatuation with God, which the powers of darkness are all too willing to propagate and entertain. We can bark, rant, rave and dispute this until the day we die. We can bring in all our insinuations and excuses and argue that such standards are binding, legalistic, unloving, critical and a pure joy-kill. They are nothing but the voice of a present politically-correct, pluralistic, relativistic, wishy-washy and pop-cultured based Christianity that is ever learning but never arriving at a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:7)

To know the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. – Proverbs 1:7