"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." Psalms 111:10
The Psalmist said "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom..." I believe the biggest downfall of people and even some believers in Christ is their lack of fear for God. This lack of fear is the first step to ungodliness. A lack of fear in God is about the most unintelligent thing a believer can do. The lost have no fear of God because they do not believe or understand him. The lost are at enmity with God and would rather fear a falling tree more than God. However, for the Believer in Jesus Christ it is totally different. The believer has no reason to not fear God unless they are in a very weak church that never teaches the Sovereignty of God. The Psalmist wrote that the fear of God "is the beginning of wisdom" fearing God is where true wisdom begins. We should fear his name because it is Holy and Reverend. Fear will cause us to respect Gods laws, his will, and his doings. Fear will also cause us to fear offending him or causing other to offend him. All wisdom for the believer begins with fear, God has just proved it. Job wrote in Job 28:28 "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Now here Job adds to the Psalmist thinking in adding that our fear of God will make us wise but it also causes us to exit evil in our lives. When a believer who knows better goes ahead and sins, lives in sin, or has sinful ways about them, then they are not fearing God. They are convinced that God will not chastise them or that he will ignore what they are doing and that could not be further from the truth. What kind of God, what kind of Father would he be if he did. Not only is wisdom the beginning of wisdom but the writer of the Proverbs adds in Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." it is the knowledge of is understanding, that is it brightens your understanding of God as a Holy God. It also brightens your knowledge of Gods works, will, and ways. It will also brighten you understanding of the Holy Scriptures. The Preacher wrote added in Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." The conclusion of the preacher was to fear God, but he also added it is our duty to God. God has done so much for us in salvation, that we will never repay him, even if we lived a million life times. All God ever asked of Israel was to be faithful to Him and obey Him and they failed. All God ask of the believer is to be faithful to Him and sometimes we also fail, some more or less that others. If one fails to attend church it is the beginning to being unfaithful to God. We must attend church and study and learn that we might show ourselves advanced in scriptures to God. 2 Timothy 2:15 "Study to shew thyself approved unto God..." Your improvement in scriptural knowledge shows God your fear of him but it also shows him how much you love him. But is also teaches you how to "rightly dividing the word of truth." That means it will teach you how to hold a straight course in life. Beloved it is every believers duty as a Christian to fear and follow God. We cannot do this if we are not following His fearing him first and foremost.
