The Fear of God and the Gospel

The opening words of Proverbs state that the fear of God is where to begin to understand how life works. Then, just to strengthen the point, Solomon says the people who think they have no need of God despise the fear of God. If Proverbs 1:7 is one of the verses you have memorized, you might be thinking that you don’t remember the verse exactly this way.  The verse actually reads this way:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge,

but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The verse is saying that the fear of the Lord is the foundation of knowledge.  But fools, those who say there is no God, despise this foundation, i.e., the fear of the Lord. This brings us to an intimate connection with the gospel.

My goal with this post and the next several posts is to make this familiar verse relevant to your life and your children’s lives. Fear and the gospel are not often connected. But I believe this verse is teaching that without understanding the fear of the Lord the gospel will have little, if any, meaning.  Give this some thought! Let me know what you think and we will pick this up in the next post. Thanks again for your participation in the Shepherd Press blog community!

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