Fear Comes First - #272

The fear of the Lord is not just an idea you agree with or a feeling you experience from time to time. It shows up in the choices you make throughout the day 

Transcript

If you truly fear God your life will begin to reflect that. The fear of the Lord is not just an idea you agree with or a feeling you experience from time to time. It shows up in your daily life, in the choices you make throughout the day. Fearing the Lord does not mean being scared of Him. It means recognizing who He really is and allowing that reality to shape everything about your life.

 Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast—a weekly Bible study packed with practical truth from God’s Word to help you pursue lasting purity, spiritual integrity, and genuine freedom in Christ. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #272 – join me as I dive into part 3 of a series on Fearing God. This week’s episode is entitled “Fear Comes First.” 

 Deuteronomy 10:20 gives this command: “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name” (Deuteronomy 10:20 NASB’95).

Fearing the Lord does not mean being scared of Him. It means recognizing who He really is and allowing that reality to shape everything about your life. Your heart says, “God, you’re not just a part of my life, you’re the center of it.” When you begin to understand His authority, His holiness, and His faithfulness, your natural response is reverence.

Then Moses makes that loyalty very practical. First, he says, “You shall serve Him.” That reminds us that reverence for God is not limited to moments of worship or church gatherings. It carries into everyday life. Fearing God shows up in the choices we make throughout the day: choosing integrity when cutting corners would be easier, choosing to love people even when it costs something, choosing to use your time, abilities, and resources in ways that reflect God’s priorities instead of just your own.

Next, Moses says we are to “cling to Him.” That word (“cling”) makes it very personal. It paints the picture of holding tightly to someone you totally and fully depend on. To cling to God means you do not treat Him as a last resort when everything else falls apart. Instead, even when life is going great, you lean in closer. When you are feeling happy and blessed, you still seek His wisdom. When you are confident, you continue to draw strength from Him rather than pulling away.

Then Moses adds, “you shall swear by His name.” In the culture of that time, swearing by someone’s name meant publicly aligning yourself with them. It was a declaration of loyalty and identity. For us, that means our lives reflect the fact that we belong to God. Our words, our commitments, and our choices should match the name we claim. We do not separate our faith from our character. If we say we belong to Him, our lives should always reflect that reality.

This verse (Deuteronomy 10:20) invites some honest reflection. Are we serving God only when it is convenient? Are we clinging to Him only when we are in a crisis? Do our words and our actions consistently show that we truly belong to Him?

You see, when the fear of the Lord takes root in your heart, it becomes a steady way of living. You serve Him actively, you cling to Him relationally, and you represent Him faithfully. You live in such a way that anyone watching your life can see that God is not just an accessory you carry along when it is helpful. He is your anchor, your authority, and your deepest allegiance.

OK. Now I am going to invest the rest of this episode taking you to three passages of Scripture. As I do, I want you to pay close attention to the numerical order of what is being said. Notice the sequence; there is a pattern in these verses. Here’s a hint: Fearing the Lord always comes first.

Before anything else—before obedience, wisdom, or the results that follow—the starting point is always a right reverence for God. So, as we look at these passages together, keep your eye on that order and see how everything else flows out of the fear of the Lord.

Our first verse is found in Proverbs 3:7 which says, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7 NASB’95). Did you catch the order (sequence)? The reality is this: I will not consistently turn away from evil until I first learn to truly fear the Lord. 

I want you to note the phrase, “Do not be wise in your own eyes.” That is really about self-trust, the assumption that my judgment is good enough and that I can rely on my own reasoning to figure things out. 

The truth is, when I am about to step into something wrong, it rarely looks obviously evil at the time. More often, it looks reasonable. It feels justified. I can explain it away. And that is exactly why being “wise in my own eyes” is so dangerous—I can talk myself into almost anything if I trust my own perspective too much.

The fear of the Lord interrupts that pattern. When you truly fear God, you stop treating your own viewpoint as the final authority. Instead, you acknowledge, “God sees far more clearly than I do.” That kind of humility changes everything. It opens the door for correction. It allows God’s Word to challenge your thinking and reshape your decisions. Fearing the Lord helps cut through the self-deception that so easily creeps into our lives.

Then Solomon shows us the result of fearing God: “turn away from evil.” Notice he does not say “try harder” or “feel guilty.” He says turn. That is directional language. It means making a conscious decision to move away from something that leads you in the wrong direction. 

Evil starts to lose some of its attraction when God becomes truly holy in your heart. When God feels small or distant, sin can start to seem manageable or harmless. But when you recognize that God is holy, always present, and worthy of deep reverence, sin begins to feel out of place. It does not fit anymore.

Fearing the Lord is not constantly worrying that you will be punished … instead it means caring deeply about your relationship with Him. When temptation appears, something inside you starts to say, “That doesn’t line up with who God is, or with who I’m becoming as I follow Him.” That inner resistance is often the first step toward repentance.

There is another important layer here, too. The fear of the Lord begins to replace other fears. So much of sin is actually driven by fear—fear of missing out, fear of rejection, fear of discomfort, fear of losing control. But when God’s approval becomes the most important thing in your life, those other fears begin to shrink. If His opinion matters most, then comfort, pleasure, and public approval stop being the things that control you. Turning away from evil becomes not only possible, but increasingly natural.

The phrase “turn away” implies movement. Turning away is not passive avoidance, but an intentional shift in direction. You cannot move toward God and toward sin at the same time (see Matthew 6:24). Fearing God reorients your life. You start thinking, “If I’m facing Him, I can’t keep heading that other way.” Repentance stops being just regret and becomes an act of loyalty.

When you put it all together, it looks something like this: fearing the Lord humbles you. That humility makes you teachable. Being teachable helps you see evil for what it really is. And once you see it clearly, it loses much of its pull.

If you ever notice your desire to turn away from something starting to weaken, the answer is not just to try harder. The real solution is deeper reverence. Go back and focus on who God is. Reflect on His holiness. Remember His authority. Let Him become the absolute authority in your heart and life again.

The fear of the Lord provides clarity. When God is in proper focus, everything else falls into proper perspective. And from that place, turning away from evil does not feel like forced restraint anymore. It simply becomes the direction that makes the most sense.

OK. Now let’s look at Deuteronomy 6:13–14 which says, “You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods” (Deuteronomy 6:13–14 NASB’95).

Once again, the order matters. Moses does not begin with worshipping. He begins with fearing God. We will not genuinely worship God, represent Him well, or consistently guard our heart from idols unless we first learn to reverence Him alone.

The fear of the Lord answers the question, “Who matters most?” Until that question is settled, worship will always feel unstable. If God is just one priority among others then our allegiance will shift depending on what feels most urgent at the moment. But when you truly fear Him, when you recognize that He alone is God, He becomes non-negotiable.

The people Moses was speaking to were surrounded by other gods that teased them with a false sense of security, prosperity, and control. Those idols were not just statues sitting on shelves but represented real temptations. And honestly, not much has changed today. Our idols just look different. Success promises security. Money promises control. Approval promises belonging. Comfort promises peace.

Fearing the Lord means you refuse to “hedge your bets.” You are not keeping backup mini-gods around just in case. You are not saying, “I trust God but I’m also going to lean on this other thing to feel safe.” Reverence for God clears out those competitors before worship even begins.

Without the fear of the Lord, worship can quietly become driven by preference. We worship based on what feels good, what fits into our schedule, or what benefits us. But when the fear of God is in the right place, worship becomes something deeper; it becomes allegiance. Our hearts say, “God is worthy whether this is convenient for me or not. He is worthy whether I feel emotional about it or not.”

This kind of reverence protects worship from becoming self-centered. It also invites us to ask some honest questions. What do I instinctively run to when I feel anxious? What do I rely on for my sense of identity or security? What would shake me the most if it were suddenly taken away? The answers to those questions can reveal where your fear—and therefore your allegiance—might be drifting.

The progression in Deuteronomy 6:13–14 is clear. Fearing the Lord establishes His authority in your life. His authority calls for exclusive allegiance, and that allegiance becomes worship. You cannot give God your whole heart until you have settled that He alone is worthy of it. And if worship ever starts to feel thin or divided, the solution is not simply trying harder. Go back and remember who God truly is. When the fear of the Lord is in the right place, worship follows naturally.

The final text I want us to examine this episode is found in Deuteronomy 10:12–13 which says, “And now, … what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? (Deuteronomy 10:12–13 ESV)

You can almost hear Moses saying, “Alright, after everything you’ve seen and everything you’ve heard, what is God really asking of you?” And the first thing he mentions is fearing the Lord. After that comes walking in His ways, loving Him, serving Him with all your heart and soul, and keeping His commands.

That sequence is not accidental. If I don’t begin with the fear of the Lord—if I am not first anchored in reverently recognizing who God really is—then everything else that follows becomes unstable. I will not consistently walk with Him, I will not love Him deeply, I will not serve Him wholeheartedly or obey Him faithfully unless that foundation is in place first.

Consider the phrase “walk in all His ways.” Walking is everyday movement. It is not dramatic, but steady and ordinary. It is the way you move through your day. When the fear of the Lord is at the center of your life, it begins to shape those everyday choices. You pause before reacting. You think about your decisions. You start asking yourself, “Does this reflect the God I claim to follow?” Without reverence for God, walking with Him can become casual. But when the fear of the Lord is present, that walk becomes purposeful.

Then Moses talks about loving God, which might sound a little surprising at first—how does fear lead to love? But when you truly see God for who He is, love becomes your natural response. Deep respect leads to deep affection. When you recognize His holiness, His goodness, and His faithfulness, your heart is drawn toward Him. It is hard to love deeply what you do not truly revere.

Next Moses says to serve Him with all your heart and soul. That kind of wholehearted service flows from the same place. If I have not settled that God is truly worthy of my life, my service will always be partial. I will give Him convenience instead of commitment. But when I fear Him—when I understand His authority and goodness—serving Him fully just makes sense.

And then there is obedience. Moses reminds us that God’s commands are given “for your good.” God is not handing down random rules just to control people. He is giving guidance that aligns our lives with what is actually true and good. But if the fear of the Lord is not in place first, obedience can feel restrictive. It can feel like something forced on us. When we start with reverence for God, obedience begins to feel wise and life-giving instead.

If you ever feel like your walk with God is inconsistent, or your love for Him feels distant, it is worth asking an honest question: Has God become too familiar or too small in my thinking? When the fear of the Lord is in your heart and mind, everything else starts to fall into place. Your walk with Him becomes steadier. Your love becomes genuine. Your service becomes wholehearted. Obedience begins to feel less like an obligation and more like the natural response to a God who is truly worthy of your life.

Alright, we’re going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode where we will continue our understanding of what it means to fear God.

In the meantime, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes! So, until next time this is Steve Etner – author, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry – reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.