Daily Bread - Feb 06 07

Acts 9:31 - Then all of the churches had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria being built up and moving in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit multiplied.

The Old Testament teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 9:10). The Psalmist taught that through the fear of the Lord we would learn to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking guile.

The fear of the Lord causes a person to depart from evil and pursue peace (Psalms 34:11-14). The fear of the Lord is the hating of evil, arrogance, and pride (Proverbs 8:13). The expression, "the fear of the Lord," is only found one time in the New Testament but an equivalent expression, "the fear of God," is found three times: 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:17. Peter also quotes Psalms 34:12-14 in the context of inheriting a blessing.

The most common characteristic of the fear of the Lord is the hating of evil and the loving of righteousness. It was Jesus who above all others modeled this consecration to life and the ways of the Father and was given this testimony,"You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of extreme joy above your fellows" (Hebrews 1:9; Psalms 45:6-7).

Be joyful,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org