Proverbs 1.8
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
The mindset you bring to the pursuit of wisdom is a critical factor. By “mindset” I mean your belief system. Your worldview. The lens through which you look at the world and yourself in the world. In this famous verse from Proverbs we are told that the starting point for the right mindset is “the fear of the Lord.”
The message is profound: There is no lasting knowledge and wisdom apart from a right relationship with the God who created us, redeems us, and calls us into relationship with him. The Lord is the Author of all truth, both physical and spiritual, and he seeks to be our Teacher about how the world works, and how he wants us to work in the world.
Step one in gaining wisdom is submission to the authority of God the Creator. The key to a wise and skillful life is acknowledging that God has created moral and practical principles that govern his universe. This is what it means to “fear the Lord.” The Hebrew word for “fear” in this verse has a wide semantic range that goes from “deep respect” and “awe” to “utter terror.” It’s meaning here is recognition of and humble response to the Lord’s sovereignty over all things. His standards are the reference point for what is true.
Proverbs says that those who reject the Lord as the Author of truth are fools. They reject God’s standards and replace them with their own personal preferences. As a result, they live by distorted reference points, which then produces distorted decisions. The despise God’s principles, and they do not submit to the process of instruction and training (musar).
We will get into this in more detail in our journey through Proverbs, but a person’s view of truth is all-important. Everyone has a view of “what is true.” Everyone has a belief about right and wrong. Many today claim there is no such thing as objective truth; they believe that truth and morality are subjective and self-created. This is the position of postmodernism, which is the dominant worldview on most campuses and in many sectors of western culture.
Here are two very important things to keep in mind about people who embrace postmodernism and subjectivism: 1) They are highly offended by anyone who claims that truth and morality are objectively rooted in God the Creator; and, 2) They are constantly making truth claims and declaring what is moral and immoral. In other words, they are dramatically inconsistent. They are fools who despise the wisdom and instruction of God.
They claim that truth is subjective and that there are no objective standards, but then turn around and appeal to moral standards in order to denounce people and policies they disagree with. Amazingly, they do not see the inherent contradiction of this glaring hypocrisy. However, by appealing to standards (which they claim do not exist), they actually confirm the very thing that they deny. Despite their vigorous (and often angry) declarations, they cannot escape the reality of the moral architecture that God has created.
The problem, of course, is that the moral standards they use are incorrect and self-created. The result is the moral and cultural chaos that is currently spreading through western society. And it is this moral and cultural chaos that is the root cause of the dramatic increase in teenage suicides and tragic shootings that are devastating our schools. Young people are hearing, absorbing, and feeling the nihilism of the postmodern narrative, and it is producing despair. How could it not?
What do we expect to happen when teenagers — who are trying to discover their identity and purpose — are told by modern and postmodern culture that there is no God, and that they are the accidental product of the impersonal, arbitrary forces of evolution? When most forms of entertainment glorify violence, sex, and greed? When political leaders, social commentators, and news media viciously attack each other with no regard for respectful dialogue or discourse? When social media is used as a platform for bragging and bullying? When it is topped off by the cultural elite declaring that the traditional moral standards of the West are antiquated and oppressive?
In this environment it is no surprise that young people are confused, lost, and scared. Tragically, neither is it a surprise that self-harm and violence toward others is on the rise.
What, then, is the answer? The first step is for Christians to walk in greater degrees of wisdom. The church in America in all of its diverse and various forms has lacked wisdom in the way it has engaged modern (and now postmodern) culture. Many elements of the church copy the popular culture, while other elements of the church condemn the popular culture. But we have failed to do the one thing that God calls us to do, which is create culture in our respective spheres of influence. We must create culture that reflects the reality of the Creator.
That is why I have chosen to do this series on the book of Proverbs. We desperately need wisdom and skill that is born of the fear of the Lord. By “we” I mean those who profess faith in Jesus. There will not be positive change in America until the modern culture sees and experiences true wisdom in the way Christians live and work. By “fear of the Lord” I mean precisely what Proverbs is teaching here: honoring and respecting and submitting to the Lordship of Jesus as the Author and Creator of all truth.
May we have the mindset of Christ, and may we be trained in the wisdom of the Lord as we continue to navigate the challenges of the 21st century. May we honor and submit to the Lord and his truth in all that we think, say, and do.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:5-8)
