The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7a)
So, What is the End of Wisdom?
I want to suggest that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but that it is not the end of wisdom. To me, the end of wisdom is not to fear God, but to fear what God fears.
Let me put it this way. For a toddler, the beginning of wisdom is to fear daddy and mommy. Knowledge of their love, and the natural love that comes up in us in response, is good and wholesome. But wisdom, the constructive side of the "knowledge of good and evil," consists in more than the knowledge of love (Colossians 1:3-4, 8-10). Wisdom is the ability to discern what is edifying from what is harmful, what is safe from what is dangerous.
Fear of the Lord is the First Step
The fear of Lord is the beginning of wisdom. God is our father, our mother, the father of our fathers and the mother of our mothers. It may be a major positive step to fear God's disapproval over things that seem innocuous to us in our biological adulthood and spiritual toddlerhood. But beyond the first step in wisdom is the maturing of wisdom. I come to understand later why God disapproves of many things—and I see that God loves me and wants to protect me from harming myself, harming others, and harming my environment. The end of wisdom is that I come to join God in hating what is harmful, not because I know I will "get in trouble" with God if I do what is harmful, but because I learn two things:
1. In accepting God's love, I grow to love my own well-being and the well-being of all that God has made.
2. I grow to discern what kinds of behaviors and attitudes tear down that well-being, and what kinds of behaviors and attitudes build it up.
In Colossians 1:7-10 You can see this pattern:
Epaphras ... has told us about your love in the Spirit. And that's why we haven't stopped praying for you, from the first day we heard about you. We've been asking that you'll be full of understanding about God's will—with total wisdom and spiritual insight. That way, you'll live in a way that's worthy of the Lord. You'll please him completely, doing all kinds of good things. You'll be bearing fruit and growing in your understanding of God.
The Colossians have love, the first and foundational part of mature wisdom; Paul prays that they may be completed in knowledge of what is best, the second part, so that they may be fully equipped for God's effective service.
Fearing What God Fears
Through wisdom I have come to understand that my mother does not have two opposite sides, and that she did not have a habit of suddenly turning against me. For the very reason she loved her children, she feared for my safety and the safety of my sisters and brother, therefore she rescued me from myself and rescued my sisters from me. The beginning of wisdom was to fear her reaction; the end of wisdom is to fear what she fears.
Dear friends, we're children of God now, and it hasn't yet appeared what we're going to be. We do know that when Jesus appears, we're going to be like him, because we're going to see him just as he is. (1 John 3:2)
We've come to know and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and when a person lives in the love that's in God, God lives in them. That's how love is brought to completion with us, so that we can be confident on judgment day—because as God is, so we are in this world. There's no fear in love. Just the opposite: perfect love kicks out fear. Because fear has to do with punishment, and the person that fears hasn't been perfected in love. We love because God loved us first. (1 John 4:16-19)
Father we pray for wisdom and Godly fear, which protects and respects. May today be full of love and promise for all those in my life. Amen
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