Fear of the Lord
When I considered last the fearer of the Lord, I did not elaborate except to give a loose definition: "The Fear of the Lord is the knowledge that He is a Holy God, who created all, who watches everything, knows everything, and is making a tabulation of all that He sees. It is the knowledge that nothing we do or say or even think that is not open and revealed to Him and that one day we must give an accounting of what we have done before Him." We are given the command over and over in scripture to fear God. An example is the following verse from First Peter.
1 Peter 2:17 (NASB)
[17] Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the *king.
Why do we want to fear God? What is the motivation here? The psalmist rightly calls upon us to Fear the Lord, that we should be in awe of Him, because He is the one who created the world with just a command from His mouth. Not only that, but the creation held together, it stood firm. That is an enormous amount of power and majesty. No man is able to create, no man is able to make something that holds fast ( due to the second law of thermodynamics-everything eventually falls apart nothing survives aging).
Psalms 33:8-9 (NASB)
[8] Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
[9] For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it *stood fast.
Even the angels that surround the throne are in fear of Him, He is awesome to behold and just seeing Him let's you know that you are inferior to His mightiness. There is no one like Him.
Psalms 89:7-8 (NASB)
[7] A God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones,
And awesome above all those who are around Him?
[8] O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty *LORD?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
Even Solomon, for all of his wisdom and majesty (given to him by the Lord Himself), concludes his exploration of life by saying that we need to Fear the Lord and follow His commandments. We eventually will have to stand before Him and give an account of ourselves at the judgement.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NASB)
[13] The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. [14] For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Hebrews 9:27-28 (NASB)
[27] And inasmuch as it is *appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, [28] so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
He is Holy and He is to be the one that we fear and dread. I repeat, there is no one like Him, there is no one that He answers to. He is in complete control of the universe. It us He that we have to give an accounting - we have no choice on the matter.
Isaiah 8:13 (NASB)
[13] “It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
As for the Christian, the one who follows Christ, the one that counts Him as Lord, we naturally fear Him. We are to conduct ourselves in fear of Him. And that is because we understand the enormous cost to buy us our salvation. Something the world will never understand.
1 Peter 1:15-19 (NASB)
[15] but *like the Holy One who called you, *be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; [16] because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
[17] If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;[18] knowing that you were not *redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, [19] but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
1 Peter 2:17 (NASB)
[17] Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the *king.
Why do we want to fear God? What is the motivation here? The psalmist rightly calls upon us to Fear the Lord, that we should be in awe of Him, because He is the one who created the world with just a command from His mouth. Not only that, but the creation held together, it stood firm. That is an enormous amount of power and majesty. No man is able to create, no man is able to make something that holds fast ( due to the second law of thermodynamics-everything eventually falls apart nothing survives aging).
Psalms 33:8-9 (NASB)
[8] Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
[9] For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it *stood fast.
Even the angels that surround the throne are in fear of Him, He is awesome to behold and just seeing Him let's you know that you are inferior to His mightiness. There is no one like Him.
Psalms 89:7-8 (NASB)
[7] A God greatly feared in the council of the holy ones,
And awesome above all those who are around Him?
[8] O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty *LORD?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
Even Solomon, for all of his wisdom and majesty (given to him by the Lord Himself), concludes his exploration of life by saying that we need to Fear the Lord and follow His commandments. We eventually will have to stand before Him and give an account of ourselves at the judgement.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NASB)
[13] The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. [14] For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Hebrews 9:27-28 (NASB)
[27] And inasmuch as it is *appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, [28] so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
He is Holy and He is to be the one that we fear and dread. I repeat, there is no one like Him, there is no one that He answers to. He is in complete control of the universe. It us He that we have to give an accounting - we have no choice on the matter.
Isaiah 8:13 (NASB)
[13] “It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
As for the Christian, the one who follows Christ, the one that counts Him as Lord, we naturally fear Him. We are to conduct ourselves in fear of Him. And that is because we understand the enormous cost to buy us our salvation. Something the world will never understand.
1 Peter 1:15-19 (NASB)
[15] but *like the Holy One who called you, *be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; [16] because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
[17] If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;[18] knowing that you were not *redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, [19] but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.