Proverbs 2:5
"Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God"
It is absolutely crucial in the gaining of knowledge that this information not be cut off from knowledge of God – that He is a Holy God and that He keeps track of all the things that we do and that He will call a man into judgment for everything that he has ever done, said, or thought.
When information is divorced from an understanding of God and His nature and the eventual eternal evaluation, then it becomes perverted and twisted and can be used to destroy instead of to aid mankind.
Remember that what you are searching for is wisdom and understanding, not information and power. Too often we think that these concepts are synonymous. They are not. To be wise means, at times, that you give up power. At times it means that you do not gain intimate or detailed knowledge of certain things.
The fear of the Lord is a crucial concept to a righteous life. It is associated in the New Testament with the knowledge of God's review of your life when you die.
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
1 Corinthians 5:5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.
There is a subtle suggestion that you do not have accurate knowledge of God until your knowledge includes fear of Him. He is a fearful being with all power and all knowledge. We are sinful and disgraced and rebellious against the Holy God who set us here.
I am deeply concerned that people have invented a conception of God that has removed all the fear. They have a tame God of their own invention. What a shock that they will see not that God is their pet willing to bend to their wishes but Holy, awesome, and bending time, space, and eternity to His own wishes. He demands my allegiance and submission just by the power of His being, and yet He asks for it as though it is not His to demand.
The ethic of both the Old and New Testament is love God and love your neighbor. Are you doing anything positive in your life to change the life of those around you or are you living a purely selfish life? Is the record of your life going to show that you were selfish to the core even when you seemed to be loving or that you are willing to be transformed by the message of God's love and forgiveness?
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz