Intro

To fear God doesn’t mean nameless fright, evading,

idolizing or superstition.

Rather, to fear God means to admire, trust, esteem,

understanding, caring, obedience.

It is consecration, love, absolute worship,

requital, surrender without complaint.

Verse 1

Without genuine knowledge of God,

man can’t admire or trust, understand,

nor can really care or obey,

but would be filled with dread and unease,

full of doubt, misunderstanding,

prone to evade and want to avoid.

Without genuine knowledge of God,

consecration and requital can’t be,

and humanity would not have worship

and surrender that is real,

only blind idolization,

nothing more than dead superstition.

Verse 2

Without genuine knowledge of God,

man can’t walk in His ways, fear God, shun evil.

Rather all they do will be filled with

rebellion and with defiance,

full of sland’rous accusations,

inaccurate judgments about Him,

and with evil conduct opposed to truth

and what God’s words really mean.

But with real trust in God,

they’d know how to follow and depend on Him.

Only then would man comprehend,

understand God, start caring for Him.

Verse 3

Only with genuine care for God

can man have genuine obedience.

And from obedience will flow

genuine consecration to God,

and from such real consecration,

requital that’s unconditional.

Only thus can man know God’s essence,

disposition, and who He is.

When they know the Creator,

then true worship and surrender can stir.

Only when these exist

can man truly put aside their evil ways.

Outro

And these things constitute the entire process

of “fearing God and shunning evil”

and give the content too in its entirety

of “fearing God and shunning evil.”

It is also the path that needs to be traveled

to become one who fears God and shuns evil.

Adapted from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. Preface