“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:1-5, ESV).

I found it interesting that they are searching to know God, to know His Word and His ways, to understand God’s Scriptures and commandments, and what they receive is the fear of the Lord. They had to first understand the fear of the Lord to find the knowledge of God that they were after.

To know God is eternal life (John 17:3). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. You have not even begun if you don’t have the fear of the Lord.

People most often are led to Christ for what’s in it for them and have never been taught the fear of the Lord. They are the most in danger of slipping away. In the Parable of the Sower, they are the ones who receive the Word with joy. The good news sounds great to them. It offers them freedom from guilt—and peace, and offers them heaven over hell. They may even have been promised more: healing, prosperity, their best life now. But as soon as the troubles come, the good feelings are gone and they turn back. They weren’t getting what they hoped for, thinking of their flesh and not of God’s desire for them. Any believer who is going to endure must learn the fear of the Lord. If you don’t have the fear of the Lord, seek it and God will let you find it.

Without it, you haven’t even begun to really know God and His salvation.