Bible Study The Fear Of Ourselves

[ugmug]

The Fear Of Ourselves

As a Christian here is my opinion on all the social riots and upheavals. It is stated in the judeo-christian bible that the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. And it is also stated in the bible that we were created in God's image. So when we lose our fear of God we also lose the fear of ourselves and with it we lose all wisdom necessary to act righteously.

Therefore it can be said that the fear of God, and the fear of ourselves (hint: because we have the image of God we must therefore act on God's behalf), is the beginning of all wisdom which is why God gave us his 10 Commandments.

The first 5 Commandments pertain to maintaining a fear of God spiritually while the remaining 5 Commandments pertain to maintaining a fear of God physically as ourselves, since we all have the image of God.

Both sets of commandments bring about a wisdom of righteousness by forcing us to question all of our desires and deeds as being Good or Evil towards God and/or each other.

When God sent his only begotten Son to become man, as Jesus Christ, God was placing himself under his own commandments and therefore God was, in effect, fearing himself as a man (hint: Jesus Christ is God become man giving all honor and Glory to God the Father by following his 10 Commandments as a man) and hence maintaining and validating, for eternity, the wisdom of God.

An evil person will desire fear from others that is exclusively owed to God. Evil is a state where a person has no fear of God, or himself.

The fear of God is ultimately the fear of not being with God because of our sin. If you feel the fear of emptiness that permeates this sinful lost world then just believe in the death and resurrection of God's son Jesus Christ. Then you'll be relieved of all the fear of violating God's word simply because Jesus Christ has already paid the price for all of our infractions!


God Bless

 

[Chopper]

Very well written my friend. There are so few believers who have a good grasp on the "fear of God". They seem to think that it refers to being afraid of God Himself rather than fearing to sin against such a loving, provisional God....Home Run there Buddy!

 

[About the Son of God]

I've sometimes seen translators choose the word "awe" in place of "fear" when translating that the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. Translating with "awe" removes the English suggestion/weak connotation that things which are feared are automatically to be conquered rather than loved.

I'm trying to read your post... and When I count the number of sentences in the Commandments, I don't come up with exactly ten. There are more than 10 verbs in the list and both in Jewish and Christian thought throughout history, there have been different ways of accounting which sentence belongs to which command. Some group the commands as 3 and 7 (Triune God and Man), others as 4 and 6, and now I'm seeing 5 and 5.... ?

The bible itself doesn't say which is which....

So as a practical matter of bible study, could you cite the sentence itself, or at least the first words of the sentence where the second group of 5 is supposed to begin? Verse numbers weren't added to the bible until nearly a thousand years after Christ.... so they aren't a reliable way of determining an official command numbering.... what we have is:

Exodus 20:3-17 ( eg: 15 verses, not just 10... with 11 "Thou shalt" + 1 "honor thy" = 12+ distinctions )
Exodus 20:20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

And...

Deuteronomy 5:6-21 (eg: 16 verses, not just 10, with 12 "Thou shalt" + 1 "honor thy" = 13+ distinctions )
Deuteronomy 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

So there is a fairly clear shift between commands relating to the divine essence, eg: those before "Honor thy mother and Father", and commands relating to relationships between people which make up the remaining commands. But even that's not perfectly clear....

For in Exodus all the first commands before "Honor mother and Father" explicitly reference "God" or "Lord", and only talks of man doing something "because" God did it. (Image of God, exactly as you note); Whereas the second discussion in Deuteronomy focuses on a relationship between people when mentioning "that thy manservant and maidservant may rest as well as you" and is not strictly God to Man.

Jesus does reference "Honor Thy Father and Mother" as a command that the Pharisees and Scribes recognized as "a" command. ( Matthew 15:4 ); So I'm inclined to believe that as a grouping -- those words should always be accounted as one command. But it still doesn't help us figure out the ordinal for it, whether 3rd, 4th, o r 5th... etc... But I'm inclined to think that from Honor thy Mother and father onward is part of the second tablet that Moses wrote.