Fear is commonly understood to be a bad thing, something to avoid at all cost. It implies anxiety, lack of control, lack of knowledge. If someone told you they “feared” a person, you might assume some sort of abuse was going on, maybe physically, maybe mentally.

In our culture, there’s no higher value than personal autonomy, the freedom to do as you please without fear of judgment or loss. It’s often described as “boldness” or even self-realization. The bottom line is this: we tend to view “fear” as something that constrains or derails a person’s potential.

Not so in Proverbs 1:7. Here, fear is the doorway to true knowledge, wisdom, and instruction. It’s through fear, specifically the fear of God, that we come to understand the world around us truly and live in a way that maximizes our time here on earth.

Now, we understand that the fear mentioned here isn’t a description of dread or horror as we so often mean (otherwise, the author of these proverbs would be much less keen to draw near to the Lord!). That kind of fear might make you freeze, but the fear described here is active, taking steps toward God with reverence.

Let me illustrate. Most kids (and probably most adults!) would say a dark room is scary, frightening, creepy. Without full awareness of everything around you, your senses begin to compensate, heightening your perception of things you wouldn’t notice otherwise. Your lack of knowledge only adds to the sense of dread, even panic.

So pretend for a minute that you’re in the basement of someone’s house when the power goes out. Without any light, you have to rely on your memory of the surrounding space. You can panic and scream, dashing through the room and smashing into things, OR you can take a different path. Acknowledging your lack of knowledge, you might feel around for a flashlight or even call for help. As much as fear can stir up panic, it can also bring focus that yields a way of escape, salvation.

The fear of the Lord brings a certain awareness that, instead of causing despair, actually produces knowledge and insight. It starts with acknowledging dependence: “I am not enough. I cannot sustain myself or even find my way out of a brown paper bag on my own. I need help.” Though embraced dependence is the first step, proper fear of God doesn’t stop there but also follows this pattern:

• Listening to his word: “Rather than filling the void by shouting my own affirmations into the darkness, I will instead listen for clues along the way from the Creator.”
• Obeying his commands: “My own instincts have let me down and hold no promise for the future, but faithful obedience to God’s word will never end in rejection.
• Embracing humility: “Only when I die to myself will I truly find life.”

All of this is true and possible because Someone has gone before us. In other words, we have no need to trail-blaze, because Christ Jesus has cleared the path. Each of these characteristics of the fear of God describe no one more truly than Jesus: acknowledging dependence, listening to God’s word, obeying God’s commands, and embracing humility. Jesus didn’t metaphorically do this, he actually gave up his life in fulfillment of them.

You might say, “Well, then, Jesus is a fine example, but I’ll never live up to those standards! I don’t have that kind of humility—not all the time anyway.” But that’s just it, Christ isn’t a mere example but the foundation of a fear of God that bears fruit!

Second Corinthians 5:11 says, “Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” Paul, the author, is describing a compulsion he has to go into the world declaring how to be made right with God. It’s a scary thing, but for him the fear of the Lord is much weightier. Why?

He goes on to say this, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:14–15). In other words, that fear isn’t dread of God’s power but awe at his love—that the death of Christ should save people living in the darkness of their own sin.

True knowledge and eternal wisdom are found only when we fear the Lord in light of Christ’s death and resurrection. What does it mean for you? Is the death of Christ the filter for wisdom or just an add-on?