The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom… Solomon, Proverbs 9:10 NIV
Something common to all humans is that we seek the “good life,” and since ancient times many people have pursued wisdom as a means of finding it. The Scriptures have a good bit to say about wisdom, Proverbs being the most notable of the Bible’s books on the topic.
It’s not clear why Solomon, the author of The Proverbs and the man so distinguished for wisdom, came to find it lacking. Something in his pursuit of the “good life” became disillusioning, evidenced by this statement in Ecclesiastes: “I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (1.13-14 NIV) Solomon’s words are perplexing given how his proverbs expressed such certainty compared to the disheartenment he expressed in Ecclesiastes. Maybe we could interpret the vacillation as Solomon’s recognition that wise sayings alone are unable to provide the “good life”. Whatever the explanation, this same man who told us that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” seems to have lost his way, or maybe he just lost touch with the fear of the LORD.
Eugene Peterson describes the fear of the LORD in this way:
“Fear-of-the-LORD is a cultivated awareness that I’m not the center of my existence, that I’m not the sum total of what matters, that I don’t know what will happen next.
This type of fear is an all-consuming response to God that keeps us from acting presumptuously and taking center stage.
It places God at the center and keeps him there.
This dynamic keeps us in our place, a place of awe and reverent submission.” 1
In Peterson’s mind, the fundamental effect of the fear of the LORD includes the displacing of self from God’s preeminent position, the awareness that God is God and we are not, and that someone else is more important and powerful. The fact that we don’t know “what will happen next” produces anticipation, hope and maybe even excitement. In other words, when we’re fearing God, He is anything but a boring person. When we’re fearing God, we become so awed, so impressed, so captivated by Him that we would never think of upstaging Him. We only want more of His glorious radiance and our natural response is to submit ourselves to God because of the clear awareness that He is the source of the “good life”.
It’s curious to me that Peterson would call attention to the fact that we must cultivate awareness that I’m not the center of my existence, which I can only assume means that our inclination to live as the center of my existence is permanent in this life. Therefore, to give our souls what they will need (continued visions of God’s glory), we will need to keep pursuing God in the places and in ways He is revealed, otherwise we will easily “curve back in on ourselves” 2 .
From even a cursory reading of Ecclesiastes it seems that Solomon was no longer awed by God’s glory and presence. In spite of his vast knowledge and extensive experiences, it seems that he became a fool, seeking to hedonistically indulge every appetite while being confused as to why his indulgences proved meaningless. In spite of the depressed tone of the book, Solomon does seem to have a purpose in writing that should be recognized as wise. I say this based on his conclusive statements:
The Quester [presumably Solomon] did his best to find the right words and write the plain truth…The last and final word is this:
Fear God.
Do what he tells you.
And that’s it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil. (Ecc. 12:10-14 NIV)
Solomon’s last recorded statement calls attention to the coming judgment of God. This, too, is part of what it means to fear God, that is, the One who created us and the universe in which we live has a right to call us into account for how we have lived. On that great day, we will stand before Him soberly and in awesome wonder of His greatness, to be judged. That judgment will primarily be in reference to who He is, our Lord, Creator and Sustainer. The account we will give will be our response to: His authority, His design, and His provision.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, wisdom begins with the recognition that we are accountable. Our wise response is to arrange ourselves under his authority, acknowledge we can only function according to his design and receive from him what we need to function accordingly. But, that is not to say that the fear of the LORD is only a primer step in a long succession of steps. Instead, the fear of the LORD provides a perspective, a lens though which we look at ourselves and God’s world that enables us to take the knowledge we acquire, especially from Scripture, and skillfully live lives of worship resulting in a sense of well-being and wholeness. This is wisdom, and the fear of the LORD is not just its beginning but an ongoing essential.
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1 Eugene Peterson, Conversations, The Message with Its Translator, NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO, 2007, p. 1540.
2 A term coined by Augustine of Hippo in Confessions, meaning self-centered.
“…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” --Jesus, Matthew 6:20 (NIV)
Once, when our daughter was 7, she was reluctant to perform her violin solo at a recital. I gently tried to cajole her, but with no success. Quickly sizing up the situation, Traci maneuvered her body between me and our daughter, whispered a few words in her ear, and our daughter promptly jumped off her chair and onto the stage to perform her piece with no lack of energy. I was obviously curious what Traci said. She later revealed that she promised her ice cream for her cooperation, a choice I would have resisted if I’d known. My concern was that the reward defeated what we wanted to instill in our daughter.
So, how do rewards fit into God’s plan for his children? Jesus was pretty explicit that God rewards. In fact, he used the word reward 13 times in Matt. 5 and 6. In Matt. 6 He pointed out the kind of life God does not reward by naming several pious practices that some in the Jewish culture routinely flaunted outwardly. The list included charitable giving (v2), praying (v5), and fasting (v16). Jesus called these ostentatious expressions of pious action “storing up treasure on earth” (6:19), and He said about those who performed them that the attention they had received was their reward (6.5). Of course, these are good actions that can be expressions of love and devotion to God, and Jesus claimed that these actions, done in secret (6:4, 6, 17-18), would indicate sincerity as opposed to status seeking.
By contrast Jesus said to “store up treasure in heaven” (6:20). In this statement, Jesus is not only verifying that God rewards, but he’s commanding us to seek them. If you’re curious about what “storing up treasure in heaven” looks like, here’s a partial list, found in Matt.5, of what Jesus might have had in mind: turning the other cheek; going the extra mile; giving another one’s cloak; loving one’s enemies; and praying for those who despitefully use us. In chapter 6, in addition to acts of piety done in secret (vv 1-18), he added trusting God for one’s provision instead of worrying over how we might obtain them (v 25), and in chapter 7, He instructed us to resist judging others (v 1).
Even though we can infer from Jesus’s message what kind of action qualifies as “storing up treasure in heaven”, He did not tell us what the treasure is. We have to examine some other New Testament writings to gain perspective on that question.
Speaking to the Elders of the churches in his first letter, Peter described a glory they would share that would be revealed later as a result of exhibiting a leadership that was not conducted for dishonest financial gain but instead included a heart to serve others. This kind of leadership was to take place while eagerly awaiting the Chief Shepherd’s appearance, at which time they would receive a crown of glory that will never fade away (1 Peter 5:1-4). Peter seems to be saying that this crown of glory is the treasure and that sacrificial leadership that puts those being led ahead of oneself is the way for Elders to lay up treasures in heaven.
In Philippians 3, Paul spoke of how his conversion resulted in seeing his religious achievements (self- effort for self-gain) as rubbish (vv.7-8). The grace and favor of Christ had so changed his heart that what he wanted most was to know Christ and to live according to His lifestyle, which included the fellowship of His sufferings (v. 10). Paul exhorted the Philippians to do the same. He warned them against the “enemies of the cross” whose god is their stomachs (self-indulgence) because their minds were set on earthly things (vv. 18-19). Meanwhile we who embrace the life of self-sacrifice await our heavenly reward, the transformation of our bodies to be like His glorious body (v.21).
Both Peter and Paul seem to be on the same page, each stating that following Christ’s example of self- sacrificial love will result in the receiving of a glorious body (reward).
Jesus said to His Father in prayer, “ I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (John 17.22 NIV). Theologians don’t agree on what Jesus means here, but they do agree that it includes the embodying of God’s glorious Spirit by His followers. According to Paul, we have become containers of His glorious Spirit (2 Cor. 4:7). In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul said that “we carry around in our body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus also may be shown” (4.10 NIV). Paul is using the phrase, “carry around in our body the dying of Jesus,” as a metaphor to describe the self-sacrificing lifestyle Jesus has called us to. He points out, at the same time, that our motivation for this lifestyle is the life of Jesus (His glory) being revealed through our self-sacrifice.
So, what compels Christians to live a self-sacrificial obedience to God? Having placed His glory (Spirit) in us, the motivation must include a desire to reveal our glorious God, and we will reveal Him and His glory to the extent that we embrace the cost of self-sacrifice and reject our self-gratifying desires. In a very counter-intuitive way, our self-sacrifice also becomes the reward.
I’ve changed my perspective on rewarding 7 year olds with ice cream. My daughter is now 37 and has become a highly responsible mother of two, devoted wife, business owner, military officer and nurse. She’s quite amazing, but I’m not sure how much credit to give that ice cream motivated violin performance.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” --Paul The Apostle, Philippians 4: 6-7
In my previous blog (Part 1), I made a case for “peace that passes understanding” being a condition of soul as opposed to the absence of anxiety. I also described the need to retrain our souls as the means by which we can grow toward this peaceful condition. Retraining is necessary because we live in a harsh and sometimes violent world. As a result, each of us developed self-protective habits that have become reflexive. By the time we come to faith in Jesus, these reflexive habits cause inner resistance to resting (trusting) in God. Therefore, the retraining process entails learning to distrust our emotionally triggered reflexive habits of self-protection that war against the ways God has invited us to rest in Him. This is difficult for all of us because, when we are under stress, everything in us screams for immediate relief.
Retraining begins with the recognition that Jesus is our peace (Ephesians 2:14), which doesn’t mean that He will eliminate our anxiety but that we can rest from our efforts to provide for and protect ourselves. This is why Paul instructed the Philippians to bring their anxiety to God in prayerful supplication “with thanksgiving” (v. 6). In my prior blog, I referred to the number of times Paul “rejoiced”, even though he was in chains. To pray with thanksgiving is to pray from a posture of rest—the awareness that our God has the power to rescue us if He so chooses or that He has the power to use the hardship for our good. In either case, God can use our circumstances as a retraining environment or as a means of glorifying Himself. Maybe both.
In Gethsemane Jesus brought His anxiety to His Father. The anxiety was so intense that He sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:44). He began His prayer by asking to be delivered from the cross. By the time He finished praying, He was resolute of mind and obedient in action. He regained perspective of His Father’s plan, His Father’s love, and the “joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12.2). He walked directly toward the cross. Something dynamic must have happened while He was praying because Jesus exhibited no sign of anxious struggle through the horrific events that followed. The peace that passes understanding guarded His heart and mind against self-protection that allowed Him to express surrendered obedience to the waiting adversities without a need to defend Himself.
Here's a summary of Jesus’s action:
- Recognizing His anxiety, Jesus brought His concerns to His Father in prayer, something He’d likely done throughout His lifetime.
- He was honest about His feelings and desire for deliverance in His prayer.
- It is possible that Jesus asked Himself if there was something He wanted more than deliverance from the cross. There was. He wanted His Father to be glorified by executing His plan of redemption.
- He embraced the pressure and pain that awaited Him and lived into those hardships with aconfident hope of God’s strength, and the peace that passes understanding anchored his soul.
- As we process through our anxiety we may need to repeat steps one through four, possibly numerous times.
So, in summary, how do we obey Paul’s command to “…not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present our requests to God?” In my view the two most critical ingredients are: one, a vision that God is faithfully at work in our anxiety-producing circumstances to transform our souls, and two, to be able, like Jesus, to draw upon our vision for God’s glory by asking ourselves, “Is there something I want more than God’s strength to endure?” When the answer is, “Yes, I want God to be glorified in me in light of my hardship,” self-protection loosens some of its grip, empowering us to walk into the hardships with courage like Jesus. God’s transforming power and a challenging life experience, combined with our faith, produces the integrating soul restructuring that, over time, can result in the increase of the peaceful condition of soul that passes understanding.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus,” --Paul The Apostle, Philippians 4: 6-7 (NIV)
Paul’s letter to the Philippians might be summed up in one word—rejoice. He uses the word 8 times in this short letter. What’s noteworthy about his multiple uses is that he wrote the letter while under house arrest in Rome. It might have been in Paul’s mind to model to his readers a hopefulness undeterred by circumstances. Knowing the kind of pressure the Philippians were under, Paul names the inner challenge that is often at the core of our failure to sustain our faith when we’re under pressure—anxiety. Anxiety causes a powerful emotional compulsion within to relieve the pressure, which is why Paul commands them to “not be anxious.” (4.6)
Paul’s command can be confusing, however, because no one stops feeling anxious as an act of will. It’s perfectly reasonable that the Philippians would be feeling anxious because of their knowledge of Paul’s hardship and because of the relational conflict among them (4.2), as well as pressure coming from others who were insisting faith in Christ needed to include circumcision (3.2). Anxiety can disconnect us from our wisdom and make us more apt to lose sight of God’s rule, which leads us to navigating our own way. Paul was alerting them to the need to be aware of their anxiety and its effects. No one escapes the pain and discomfort of anxiety 1 because it’s part of our natural wiring. Anxiety is God’s internal warning system alerting us to take precaution when we sense danger. The action we take is reflexive and usually unconscious. For this reason, our reflexive reactions can bypass our conscious thoughts and convictions. A good deal of the wisdom needed for living life is gained by learning to act on our rational knowledge while resisting our anxious reflexive urges. Psychologists refer to this as the regulating of emotions, but how do we do this?