Reverence and Respect for God is the Foundation of Wisdom

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments…… Psalm 111:10. For a believer, the word “fear” means: ‘reverence for God; respect for His law and His will.’ Such reverence and respect is the foundation of wisdom. Those who fear God fear nothing else. For a nonbeliever “fear” means: ‘terror’ and ‘dread.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Hebrews 10:31. Those who have no reverence or respect for God fear everything. Want proof? Observe how willingly they bow down to godless ideologies. Irreverence and disrespect for God is the foundation of foolishness.

Irreverence and disrespect for God is everywhere discernible in the secular world, but not so discernible in the church world. Why is that? Such is not expected from the church world and therefore little thought is given by most to its possibility. In the meantime, this is a primary reason for the decline in church attendance and for church buildings being sold off at a rate of knots. So for new Christians and others considering embracing Christianity, allow me to explain. Churches that bow down to godless ideologies will, by default, not bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ. Money or men, Jesus has told us we cannot serve two masters. Bow down to godless ideologies and Jesus will walk away. Yes, Jesus will be quoted from the pulpit and heard in the pews, but biblical reverence and respect for Him will be absent.

However, irreverence and disrespect for God is not limited to churches in decline. The same will be discernible in the majority of seeker-sensitive churches, mega or otherwise. In those places, Jesus will be spoken of, certainly, but on the whole He will be misrepresented. In other words, preachers subscribing to godless ideologies will elevate the Jesus who speaks for love and tolerance, for gender equality, for LGBTQIA rights, for social justice, for interfaith church gatherings and for whatever else is “trending” this week. But they will not elevate the Jesus who calls for repentance, for separation from sin and the world system, for holiness, for righteousness, for obedience, for reverence and respect towards Himself, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and the Bible.

Jesus said, He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me…… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word…… He who does not love Me does not keep My words……John 14:21, 23-24. Notice the emphasis is on the individual, not the collective. It ought to be obvious to the individual but so often it’s not; it is he or she alone who will give an account to the Lord for their irreverence and disrespect towards Him. He or she alone will answer for bowing down to godless ideologies. No church leader or fellow members will be standing alongside on that day to speak on an individual’s behalf. Individuals who don’t do His commandments don’t love God. They say otherwise of course, but that’s the reality and it won’t change unless they embrace reverence and respect for God, the foundation of wisdom.

The question now is what are the commandments of God? There are only two as far as Jesus is concerned: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself Matthew 22:37-39. When comparing these two with the Ten in Exodus 20:1-17, there is no discrepancy; the first four of those declare our obligations to God, the last six declare our obligations to people. When we fail to love God, naturally we’re headed for failure in loving people. The second failure takes a lot longer to show up as such, but failure it is and it can’t be denied. This explains the reason for Western society’s deep moral deterioration over the past 60-plus years.

The next question then, why don’t people love God? They don’t know God. They know God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3:16; they’ve been hearing that and reading it on placards at major sports events and church notice boards for eons, but still they don’t know God. Those outside the church could care less, and too many inside the church are not a lot better. The latter will talk about God, that He came to save us from sin and from hell, but that’s the extent of their knowledge because that’s the extent of what is taught from most church pulpits. If it were any different, they would be different! There’s a great difference between believing you possess everlasting life and knowing you possess it.  

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent John 17:3. To “know” means: to perceive, to recognize, to become acquainted with, to understand. Eternal life is God’s life; it can only be received by way of a full surrendering of one’s life to Jesus Christ, the human manifestation of God. That’s what repentance means. It’s like Jesus would say, “Your life for Mine; My life for yours,” because that was the purpose of His dying on the cross. God took the sinless Christ and poured our sins into Him; in exchange, He poured Christ’s righteousness into us. The person who fully believes that divine exchange will experience it as such, and will never be the same again. As for bowing down to godless ideologies, they will curse the mere thought of it!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new 2 Corinthians 5:17. That’s right; he/she becomes a brand new person in Christ – new heart, new mind, new attitude, new outlook, new everything! The Christian who doesn’t give witness to that reality needs to seriously re-examine where he or she is at in Christ. “Am I truly born again?” That ought to the first question to ask. Simply praying “the sinner’s prayer” is not enough; all too often that’s lip-service. Multitudes who’ve done that are in hell today and multitudes more will be there tomorrow. Why? There is no internal change. They may have confessed their sins but they have not forsaken their sins. No fear of the LORD and no good understanding of His commandments is the primary reason for that.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding Proverbs 9:10. Not only is the Lord Jesus Christ misrepresented in much of today’s Christianity, but so too is the Holy Spirit. Both pulpits and pews are filled with people attributing words, works and acts to the Holy Spirit that should be questioned. True, Scripture says, Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. But it also says, Test all things; hold fast what is good 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21. What is not good is all too often, testing is not done. Not every dream, vision, prophecy, word of wisdom and word of knowledge is given by the Holy Spirit. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world 1 John 4:1.

How can we know who is of God and who is not? Galatians 5:22-23 gives the answer. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Study each attribute, then under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ask yourself if that’s what you see or discern in those who claim, “The Spirit of the Lord says….” For a start, those used of the Spirit will not jump up and down or fall over giggling, screaming, shouting, spitting, hissing or blowing on you. If the flesh is being crucified, it will not happen; it didn’t with Jesus, it didn’t with the apostles, our grand biblical examples. Therefore, we ought to be extremely weary of those who do that. The Holy Spirit is holy, not silly!

Those constantly attributing words, works and acts to the Holy Spirit that don’t line up with Scriptural revelation and principle are clinging to godless ideologies every bit as much as the Cultural Marxist/Socialist/Communist crowd cling to theirs. Everything that is not of God is godless! Yes, as Christians being led of the Holy Spirit we can get it wrong at times; what we thought was of the Spirit, was in fact, the flesh. But if it is the truth we’re constantly seeking then the Holy Spirit will honor our efforts and bring the necessary adjustments. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority…… John 16:13.That means too then, whatever the Holy Spirit does speak, God the Father and the Son will affirm it. They don’t affirm foolishness! 

Indeed, reverence and respect for God is the foundation of wisdom. Irreverence and disrespect for God is the foundation of foolishness. If the world wants to wallow and drown in the latter, that’s a tragedy. But the greater tragedy is to see Christian people wallowing and drowning in it. The acceptance of godless ideologies in churches that claim Jesus Christ is Lord is total blasphemy. However, Jesus and the New Testament apostolic writers more than once warned us this would happen. Compromising, corrupt, dead and lukewarm churches were all prophesied in Scripture, so all who are aware of that yet continue to remain part of them are without excuse. Time to get real. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools Proverbs 3:35. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding Proverbs 4:7.