March 3
“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.” Proverbs 14:27
Much more could be said about the fear of the Lord and what a key role it plays in helping us to avoid sin. We have been exploring since late February how crucial humility is to obedience, and how pride is a cause of great disobedience. We touched on the seriousness of a pharisaical spirit of pride that holds oneself above others and produces hypocrisy and hardness of heart.
We spoke about cleansing ourselves from all defilements of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, as Paul commanded us, and how our hearts have a figurative sticky glue on them that will attach themselves to whatever we let them give attention and affection to. It is up to us to guard our hearts and decide what they are allowed to love. We talked about the need to examine our hearts at a very deep level to really understand the needs and desires that are driving our behavior, and we mentioned how easy it is for evil thoughts and desires to remain unchallenged in our lives for extended periods of time, years even. We also looked at desires for comfort and ease that may lodge deep in our hearts and cause us to sin by not being fully engaged in loving and serving the Lord.
We explored the crucial need to ask the Lord to change the desires of our hearts so that we long for what He longs for and desire what He desires. We saw how are sin is in reality putting God to the test. We discussed the need to surrender our wills to God and become the kind of people who only want what He wants, as Jesus did. We looked at how God’s incredible promises, specifically His promise of fellowship with us, are great motivators to cleanse our selves from all defilements of flesh and mind.
We touched on the examples of Uzza and Ananias and Sapphira, how they were struck down dead for their sins, as an example for us, and that these are reminders for us that God expects us to obey Him in every detail that He has commanded in His word and not neglect any of the commandments. We must treat Him as holy in way we conduct ourselves and take every sin seriously, even sins we think are small, and we saw that God is just in His punishments and consequences for sin, even if we think they are much more severe than warranted.
Fearing God is mentioned frequently in both the old and new testaments. It is not something that is replaced by love and grace but is very much needed to properly understand and walk in God’s love and grace. Fearing God has always been key to our obedience to the Lord and to avoiding sin. While trying to emphasize God’s love and grace and avoid painting God as an overbearing tyrant, the currents of modern Christianity seem to deemphasize fearing God and trembling at His word (Isaiah 66:2). But I think the more these are neglected the more sin will increase. I think it is possible to discuss God’s love and forgiveness and His holiness and hatred of all sin. I think it is possible to talk of His mercy and talk of His punishments for sins that we leave unaddressed in our lives. I think we need to admonish and warn one another lest we become proud and put God to the test.
Much more could be said about fearing and revering the Lord. We could look at the judgments God said He would bring on Israel if they turned their backs on Him (Deuteronomy 27 for example), and how He brought that about many years later (for example 2 Kings 17). We could look at how God reproves a man and consumes as a moth that which is precious to a man when he sins against God (Psalm 39:11). We could go into more detail about His discipline and scourging (Hebrews 12). And all these things He will bring about and do to us if we persist in our sins.
I highly encourage you to do your own study of the scriptures to see what they say in the old and new testaments about fearing the Lord. You may discover surprising things. But tomorrow we will move on to the next overcoming temptation principle, repenting and confessing our sins to God.