Apologies for the delay in posting.  Hurricane Irma got the best of me…temporarily…but God’s people always overcome.

The Scripture passages are identified with bold upright font and the author’s notes are identified with italic regular font.

7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Godly Fear

The fear that one should have for God is not a cringing fear but as the Hebrew language indicated in the definition of this word “moral reverence” for God that has the potential under the right circumstances to lead to a sense of dread at what God might do under certain circumstances.

That moral reverence and respect for God is considered the beginning of true “knowledge” – the type of knowledge that is manifest in wisdom and awareness of what is the best course of action.

If you are a person who hates instruction, who recoils at someone sharing wisdom with you, then according to this Scripture you are a fool. What is a fool? It is, according to the Hebrew language, “one that is perverse, one who despises wisdom, one who mocks when guilty, one who is quarrelsome, one who is licentious.” Being a fool seems to have no upside. You have a choice whether or not you choose to be a fool, so choose wisely.

If you find you do resist instruction and wisdom ask yourself why? Is there a wound or hurt in your past that has placed a large chip on your shoulder? Let God help you remove that chip, let down your guard again, so you might receive the good things out of life. Whereas, that chip on your shoulder might be keeping some pain away, but not as much as you think, it is also keeping the joy away, much more of it than you think. Lay down the chip, look around for the wise people in your community, and seek wisdom and instruction in whatever areas you need help in.

Once you have sought wisdom and instruction from those around you who are wise, once knowledge in the form of wisdom starts to manifest in your life, you come to understand in greater measure what it means to have godly fear. You might even embrace godly fear and be thankful for its Presence in your life.

Throughout this study if you need the wisdom of God on a matter, and you wish to receive the counsel of another Believer in Christ, please use the “comments” link to send your question to me.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.