Understanding The Fear of the Lord (Part 2)
In the first part of this teaching about the Fear of the Lord, we understood that the fear of the Lord is our treasure, it is not old-fashioned and that whatever we fear and hold in reverence becomes our god. I am now building on this teaching with a few more considerations of what it means to fear the Lord and how ultimately, we can cultivate this virtue in our lives.
III. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil
When man fell through Satan’s temptation and Adam’s yielding to temptation, evil entered the world. God’s original creation and plan which was perfect, glorifying and pure became defiled, vile and impure, to this day. The devil corrupted all the good God had created. For every beautiful thing God had created, the devil made a counterfeit and this is the evil in our world today. The originator of evil, Lucifer, certainly did not have the fear of the Lord in him which led to his rebellion. There is therefore no fear of the Lord in anyone that teams up with the devil and walks in all his counterfeits, which God collectively calls evil. Let’s begin by considering the primary verse for this concept about the fear of the Lord.
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Proverbs 8:13
I am persuaded that this is God’s straightforward definition of the fear of the Lord, to hate evil. He goes ahead to list a few kinds of evil. He begins with pride (which was the first sin and Lucifer’s downfall). Pride cannot coexist with the fear of the Lord because in its very nature is the element of self-sufficiency and need of nothing else. A proud person will have “no need for God” and therefore will not fear Him.
The other evil closely following pride is arrogance. Merriam-Webster defines arrogance as an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. All this is evil. Since there is so many kinds and manifestations of evil than God could ultimately list, the Holy Spirit chose to use the phrase, “the evil way”. This is a collective phrase to refer to any attitude and act that is against God’s holiness. As long as its evil, He hates it. Therefore, if we are to fear God, we are to hate everything he hates, and that’s every evil way.
Jesus as a Man that Feared the Lord
Jesus, in his human character exemplified the fear of the Lord in the way He related to His Father. As a Messiah, many attributes marked out Jesus and one particular and remarkable attribute was His fear of the Lord. Isaiah prophesies in Isaiah 11 about the manifestations of the Holy Spirit that would mark out Jesus as the Messiah. Let’s read from there;
Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot — yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old tree. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jesus was marked out with wisdom, understanding, counsel, might and knowledge. The final attribute that marked Him out was the fear of the Lord. If Jesus, a Son of God cultivated and walked in the fear of the Lord, how much more should we, His disciples. The Holy Spirit’s manifestation is manifold, from one manifestation to another. He can also manifest Himself differently and yet at the same time. That was how He worked in Jesus.
We have seen, again, that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. If Jesus did fear the Lord, then it should also be true that He hated evil. This can be proved in Psalms 45:7 where the Holy Spirit declares His approval of Jesus as a Man that hated evil.
“Your throne, O GOD, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice. You love justice and hate evil. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.” Psalm 45:7
Jesus had the Spirit of the fear of the LORD working in Him and He doubtless hated evil. Therefore, if we are to walk in the fear of the Lord, we too should hate evil.
We saw in Part 1 of this teaching, that submissiveness to God is also one way to live out the fear of the Lord in our lives. Submissiveness to mean allowing to submit to God’s will, His instructions and His commands. This was very true about Jesus as we find in Luke 22.
“He [Jesus] walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Luke 22:41–42
In this painful moment, Jesus, because He was in the flesh, requests His Father to take away the assignment of the Cross. But quickly, because of the Spirit of the fear of the Lord that was upon Him, He tells the Father, ‘Not my will but your will.’ He completely submitted to the will of His Father. In John 4:34, Jesus makes a bigger declaration about his resolve to obey His Father’s will and thus to walk in the fear of the Lord.
“Jesus said to them: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” John 4:34 ESV
What Jesus treasured more than anything else was to do His Father’s will. In the same way, we can cultivate the fear of the Lord in our lives by daily submitting to God’s will over our own wills.
