Solomon writes in Proverbs 1:7 that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. In Proverbs 9:10, he says it is the beginning of wisdom. The closest and most concise direct scriptural definition is Proverbs 8:13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.”

But, what does that mean, you may quickly ask?

The absolutely perfect moral character of God described as holiness, purity, perfection, honesty, integrity and much more, is unchanging, and demands the utmost respect and reverence of mankind. It is impossible for God to lower His own moral standards to man’s level.

Romans 3:23 does say, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” you fully realize, right?

Thus, when man begins to hate evil, he is stepping up to a new level of understanding of his relationship with God and how this fits in with the world around him. However, as we know all too well, that  raging, relentless and savage cry of our flesh to love sin is an ever-present matter in our lives.

The fear of God is more closely aligned with a fear of being alone, without God. Or rejected by God—which makes the promise of Psalm 34:7, one of great comfort to the humble believer:

“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.”

And true wisdom is knowing that being on God’s side in life’s travels is of utmost importance; the beginning place of wisdom. The respect and reverence for God’s righteousness that we often associate with the fear of God takes on new meaning when we realize how easy it is to turn away from the Lord to our own fancies (though we really know better).

Thus, Solomon also writes:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

I think “ways” in this verse means more than pathways—but attitudes, motivations, purposes and decisions.

Psalm 103:7 says: “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” (One only sees the actions of God from afar, not His ways.)

In Romans 1:18-32, Paul writes of the end results when mankind rejects the presence of God from their lives, and the lusts of their flesh ravage their total beings, bringing them to a horrible end.

The context of Proverbs 1:22-33 also details how it spins out:

“For scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded; because you disdained all my counsel and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your terror comes. When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.

Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. The turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”

It is no wonder, then, that Jesus would include in the model prayer He taught the disciples, the phrase, “but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13), and Jabez, that obscure individual of ancient Israel would lodge a request with God to “keep me from evil that I might not cause pain” (1 Chronicles 4:10).

Let’s recap the unfolding pattern of spiritual growth that a believer experiences in a “normal” Christian life that leads to a healthy “fear of God” concept in daily life.

A person hears the gospel, is convicted of his sins, turns to Christ for forgiveness, repents and is born-again. Lots of details and finer matters of doctrine go into all of that, but Titus 3:4-7 seems to sum up the process to this point:

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Paul identifies the believer’s position, then, in this manner: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Peter then writes: “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul challenges them on their carnality—living by the works of their flesh:

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able…” (1 Corinthians 1:1-2).

The writer of Hebrews also writes in chapter five of that audience’s lack of growth beyond the “milk-for-babes” stage and identifies it in verse 14 as a lack of application of the truths of the Word of God: “But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

As a believer “puts off the old man and puts on the new man by the renewing of his mind” (Ephesians 4:22-24), in the leading of the Holy Spirit into all truth (John 16:13), he will discover that the old man, the carnal flesh of his former life, can contribute nothing, absolutely nothing, to his relationship with God. As a matter of fact, the robes of self-righteousness are as filthy rags in God’s eyes.

We believers spend unreasonable amounts of time trying to get our old man of a sin nature, which is spiritually dead but not in the grave, to behave and act religiously and it just does not work! Like the thin, fine line between love and lust, we seem to hover over it like a tight-rope walker until we finally understand Paul’s statement in Romans 8:5-7:

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

In the previous chapter, chapter 7, Paul had captured in detail his own struggle with the failure of his flesh to submit to the law of God, whereupon, he uttered these words of extreme desperation, followed by his total submission and abandonment to God: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:24-25).

Therefore, I submit that the fear of God, in its true sense, kicks in when a believer is absolutely convinced that he is totally empty in himself of any spiritual quality acceptable to God, that he is totally capable of submitting to the lusts of his flesh, his eyes, and of his pride of life (1 John 2:16).

And, once at that point, he cannot bear the thought of God turning away from him in sorrowful disgust. Though He was not a man born with original sin, perhaps the greatest cry of anguish at such a separation was that from Jesus at Calvary: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34).

The late Lorne Sanny, former president of The Navigators and successor to its founder, Dawson Trotman, used to say, “Few end well,” and it does appear so as we see the “falling away” of end-time prophecy. And Paul’s admonition of 1 Corinthians 10:12 rings out like a resounding trumpet blast:

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall!”

We cannot let this topic go, however, without the promises of hope that Jesus, Himself, has made, indicating His loving kindness and tender mercies toward those who would believe in Him. In Matthew 12:20-21, He quotes from an Old Testament description of Him in Isaiah: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench…,” and then, in Hebrews 4:15-16:

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (MKJV).

It has always been a nagging question in the backstage of my mind, when I ponder the lesson of the parable about the ten virgins who are bridesmaids in the wedding story that Jesus told in Matthew 25:1-13. For a quick review, here is that passage (NKJV):

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

In the context preceding and following this parable are two other parables, all dealing with the faithfulness of a good servant. The preceding parable is the one of the ten talents (Matthew 24:45-51), and it springs out of several references to the admonition to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man, as Matthew 24:44 warns:  “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

The parable following that of the ten virgins or bridesmaids is announced in this way at Matthew 25:14:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.”

It likewise deals with faithful and unfaithful servants. Throughout the whole context is the admonition to be faithful to one’s stewardship of responsibility before the Lord and of the uncertainty of the time of His coming. Within the context in chapters 24 and 25, we are given tips as to the “times and seasons” of His coming, as in Matthew 24:32-34, where He presents a parable of the fig tree:

“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

Preceding that was the listing of events that would occur in the season of His coming, both having to do with His coming for His church at the Rapture and His coming to reign on earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem. (The declaration in Matthew 24:31 is often claimed as support that this is a reference to the Rapture by the post-Tribulation believers.)  “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Please note, however, that the elect are gathered from the breadth of  heaven, not the earth.  The fact that the elect are scattered across heaven indicates, too, that they did not just then arise in a post-Tribulation Rapture and meet the Lord in the air to return with Him to the earth. Interesting, isn’t it, how a close inspection of the Holy Writ answers so many nagging questions with clarity and common sense.)

Now let’s go to the matter of the ten virgins or bridesmaids and their situation.  The setting of the parable is a traditional Jewish betrothal and wedding. The issue is the spiritual well-being of the bridesmaids, for five ended up with oil for their lamps while the other five did not.

Some finer points of doctrine are hinted at in the passage, too. Note that “they all slumbered and slept”, even those who had oil for their lamps, so they apparently were no more faithful to their stewardship responsibilities as those who were foolish. Therefore, it appears that the only reason they were allowed into the wedding ceremony was because they had oil.

See what that implies? If oil is a representative of the Holy Spirit, then their “salvation” did not depend on their works at all. They were as unfaithful as those without oil. And note further, they could not share their oil with the foolish ones. Thus, personal salvation is an individual matter—no other human can provide it for me.

Some other facts to consider are that the bridesmaids are not the bride; they are to attend to the bride and prepare her for the coming wedding, making sure she is a worthy bride-to-be, in purity and faithfulness. The future husband has gone away to prepare a place for his bride and will return at some unknown future time.

When the groom returns, he does not come for the bridesmaids, but the bride. So the analogy that this is mainly an illustration of the Rapture is not the purpose of the parable at all. It has to do with the faithfulness of the bridesmaids to their assigned duties. Elements of the Rapture in the framework of the traditional Jewish wedding arrangement, but the emphasis is upon the bridesmaids, not the bride.

The parable is an analogy of how the kingdom of heaven works, as it says in the beginning of the story:  “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1). In the analogy, the bridegroom is the Lord; the bride is the church. Who, then, are the bridesmaids? They are the called servants of the Lord

who are to minister to the church until He comes again for them. As the parable finishes, some of the bridesmaids are also included in the church, but some are not. That seems to be the point of the parable—the need to be a true servant of God, not a fake, or even a true servant, but unfaithful.

Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-16:

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Before we lay any blame at the feet of any church leaders, let’s note that the broad expanse of Scripture points to the fact that all believers are entrusted with a stewardship of the gospel to the unsaved and the saved: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy” (Psalm 107:2), and “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

I heard one new believer say, in respect to his sense of value in a small group Bible study, “A good way to help new Christians stand up for Christ is to lean them against each other!” Not a bad idea, that one.

With the bride identified as the church, this passage in Ephesians clearly summarizes the duties of the leading “bridesmaids” who are the servants to the bride. As the end of the age approaches, Paul also writes that there will come a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3)of faithfulness to the Lord, indicating that some of those servants who have “oil in their lamps” will have become like those in the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:15-17):

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—.”

These characterizations are not unlike the patterns displayed in those parables in Matthew 24 and 25. John goes on to record what Jesus really desires of these unfaithful ones, in verse 18:

“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

In respect to those who are following a false doctrine and teaching others likewise, I am reminded of the admonition of Jesus at Matthew 5:19:

“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Therefore, it remains upon all those in the body of Christ, the true believers, to follow the instruction Paul gave Timothy:

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

If one who poses as a servant of God, yet has no “oil in his lamp,” that is, he has never received Christ into his life and thereby received the Spirit of God into his life, he is facing the sure expose’ of that pseudo-righteousness and those awesome words, “Depart from Me, for I never knew you!”