Psalm 111
Bible Passage: Psalm 111
When I read today’s Psalm, the last verse stands out to me. The first part is also a familiar line that has been used more than once in the Bible.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.”
~ Ps 111:10
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
~ Prov 1:7
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”
~ Prov 9:10
In today’s modern era of Christianity, it is strange that Christians have various explanations of why they need not follow the commandments of God.
I remember when I was in Junior College, I tried to share with a fellow Christian classmate about the importance of keeping the commandments of God, which is evidently emphasized in True Jesus Church. I did not really understand why we ended up spending time debating which comes first – to love God, or to keep His commandments. I was trying to tell him that we have to keep the commandments of God to show that we love Him, as said by Jesus in the following verses.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” John 14:21
My classmate was trying to say that I am emphasizing on the wrong thing as a person who loves God will naturally keep His commandments. Perhaps he found me judgmental trying to probe if a Christian has kept or not kept God’s commandment, and rather only God can be the judge and whether he loves God and keep His commandments, God knows.
Superficially many Christians think that they love God and they will keep God’s commandments automatically. Unfortunately for them, they do not understand God’s commandments, as God’s commandments are not easy to keep because it involves disciplining our body and fighting against our natural (fleshly) desires.
“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these things are opposed one to the other…”
Gal 5:17
Loving God is different from loving man. Doing charitable acts is a form of loving man, but this does not equate to loving God, and it still falls short of loving God.
Loving God is as what Jesus has taught us – to keep His commandments.
We have to realize that we first have to gain the knowledge of His commandments through reading His Word and seek understanding of them – which will lead us to eternal life, and which, when broken, leads us to eternal death. Having true fear of God will keep us from taking the commandments recorded in the Bible lightly.
“A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.”
Those who do His commandments have a good understanding as they know what God wants of them. Those who have the knowledge of the Holy One (One True God whom we should worship in Spirit and in Truth) have understanding. Those who reject listening to the truth, reject listening to where they have fallen short, where they have misinterpreted the Bible and taken the grace of God for granted, those who despise instruction given in the Bible, are fools.
These are teachings from the Holy Bible.
Those who have an ear, let them hear.
May the fear of God guide us in our faith.
4 Comments
Yellow Parrot
Please let me recast your comments in a mathematical format:-
“Loving God” not = (different from) “Loving Man”
“Loving God” = “Keeping His commandments”
BUT “His commandments” = “Loving Man” as He says ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’
SO “Loving God” = “Loving Man” (especially those who hate and hurt us).
Love brings compassion, mercy (forgiveness), long-suffering (tolerance) and make us think less of self and more of others.
In 1Corinthians 13:2, Paul says ‘And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
And though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.’
Jesus showed the greatest love of all by dying on the cross for the sins of ALL men.
Isn’t it beautiful how the love of God comes round in a full circle to the love of Man?
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
Learner
I have friends who feels that as long as we love God it is enough. Actually it is because of God that we know love. Everyday we are learning and growing in being able to comprehend the breath and length and height and depth of His love, and we know His love surpasses knowledge and we can never say we have comprehended.
My experience is: Knowing love does not equate that we know what is His commandment of “Loving Man” and “Loving God” but we only realise we still fall short so much. Thus I like to add that if we really put effort in the fear of the Lord, we can gain knowledge and keep His commandments. Let us treasure this grace we have received. Let us take up our cross and follow Jesus!
YSL
I resonate with both comments above. I really hope the love we have for God and vice versa will unify us so that none of us will fall away from feeling a lack of love.
Shalom
There are different words to describe different kinds of association between concepts. ‘=’ (equal) is very special. Thus, a careful reading of Matt 22:36-40 (differentiating the love for God and the love for man) and 1 John 4:20-21 (love for God includes love for man) show that a more accurate relationship between the two loves should be that “the love of man is part of the love of God”. This is important because there are some aspects of the love of God that do not include the love of man, such as Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet, which sometimes, as shown in this case, may even incur the displeasure of man.
This article highlights the fear of God and clearly shows that understanding the different aspects of God and not always lumping them together into God’s love will help us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.