First & Final! - Proverbs 1:7

 

📖 Scripture

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, and correction, but fools despise.”
— Proverbs 1:7

🔎 Examination

The starting place for everything is the Word of God. The sixty-six books of the Bible. Mormons believe in a version of Jesus… but they reduce Him to a created being and the “spirit-brother” of Lucifer. Muslims believe in a version of Jesus… but they reduce Him to a lesser prophet… and say that the Old and New Testaments have been corrupted… that’s why they follow the Qur’an. Progressive (pseudo) Christians believe in a version of Jesus… one who affirms their sin, enables their rebellion, and opens heaven’s gates for everyone.

So the question isn’t whether we claim to believe in Jesus or even whether we believe the Bible, but whether we truly submit to it as the Word of God. Scripture doesn’t present itself as one possible authority for our consideration among many competing voices. It reveals itself as God's supernatural, perfect, sufficient, and authoritative revelation—the starting point, governing standard, and final judge for every area, aspect, facet, and dimension of life.

Human culture has always convinced people to begin and end with something else. Contemporary culture is about feelings, preferences, experiences, political loyalties, personal ambitions, and popular trends. These things function as the true authorities shaping our goals, lives, and daily decisions. Scripture, if it is consulted at all, is sought afterward... and in doing so it is abused, twisted, and perverted for proof texts that will merely confirm and support our depraved hypothesis. It’s not submitted to as the GENESIS of objective truth, but as a corrupted tool validating the conclusions we've already reached. 

Proverbs 1:7 dismantles that approach entirely. Knowledge, wisdom, and correction don’t begin with us. They don’t originate in academic achievement, social consensus, or personal experience. The fear of the LORD, i.e., the Word of God, is the starting place for everything. John 1:1 reveals Jesus Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Biblically, the fear of the LORD has nothing to do with emotion. It’s not subjective awe, reverence, remorse, or fright. It’s not even our humble submission to God's sovereign authority. It is, quite simply, the Word of God. Read Psalm 19:7-9 and you will see that the law, ordinances, precepts, statutes, and commands of the LORD are set in parallelism (equal) with the fear of the Lord. And because the fear of the LORD is the Word of God… the foregone conclusion is that we, as created beings, are expected to be holy (set apart) for our Creator. 

He has the right to define reality, morality, purpose, identity, worship, and truth. Therefore, we have neither right nor authority to stand over Scripture as its judge. We can lean on our own understanding… and many do to their detriment, destruction, and death. But the saints humbly submit to Scripture as those created, informed, judged, corrected, instructed, conformed to, and transformed by it.

This appears throughout Scripture. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Christ repeatedly answered, "It is written." The incarnate Word did not appeal to military power, cultural wisdom, popular opinion, or human innovation. God's Word was His first and final authority. Likewise, the Bereans were commended as noble-minded because they listened first, and then examined everything according to the objective standard of the Holy Scriptures (Acts 17:11). Every teaching, trend, and tendency must be tested against God's inerrant, sufficient, sovereign, unchanging, and revealed Word.

This exposes a dangerous tendency within many cults (pseudo-churches). It is possible to affirm biblical authority on paper while functionally denying it in practice. Anyone can own a Bible. Even wolves attend “church” services faithfully. Scoffers and hypocrites will affirm and endorse orthodox doctrines while living according to personal preferences rather than divine revelation. Such a posture resembles the religious leaders of King Jesus' day, men who knew Holy Scripture intellectually but refused to submit to its Divine Author.

This isn’t about the worship of a book. That would be idolatry. The issue is about what that supernatural book reveals about our Creator. Ultimately, the issue is Christological. John opens his Gospel declaring that Jesus, the Christ, is the eternal Word. Therefore, submission to the Word of God and submission to Christ cannot be separated. To reject the authority of the Word is to reject the authority of the One who spoke it and continues to speak through the revelation ALREADY given in it. Joyful obedience to Scripture flows from our supernatural regeneration by the Holy Spirit, our being “born again,” and baptismal union with Christ, i.e., our new identity as devoted and functional members of His Body & Bride.

The faithful saints are always relentlessly devoted members of a legitimate local church established on and enduring in God's Word. Scripture informs worship, discipleship, evangelism, relationships, priorities, doctrine, and practice. It confronts sin, exposes deception, corrects error, and directs saints into joyful obedience. God's Word shall not merely be our FINAL authority… some superficial rubber stamp slapped on all of our carnal, hedonistic, depraved, and woefully sinful independent lives and decisions. It shall not be a “Hail Mary” of desperation when the consequences of our rebellion come home to roost.

The Word of God must be our starting place, where we continually abide, and our final authority in all things at all times. The question isn’t whether we believe in Jesus… even the demons believe. The question isn’t whether we say that the Bible is true with our lips. The question is, “What do our lives reveal?”  It’s under that testing and examination by the objective standard of God’s Word that Christ is either truly found in us… or we are exposed as hypocrites, frauds, and counterfeits… those who will hear King Jesus say, “I never knew you. Away from Me, you workers of lawlessness.”

🤺 Action

• Examine your starting point — “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, and correction but fools despise.” (Proverbs 1:7) Before making decisions, don't ask yourself or people who agree with you, search God's Word as your starting point. Are you are beginning with personal preferences, emotions, traditions, or cultural assumptions and only consulting Scripture afterward?
• Test your authorities — “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.” (Isaiah 8:20) Identify the voices that most influence your thinking—media, politics, family traditions, personal experiences, favorite teachers, authors, historical figures, or cultural narratives—and compare them honestly against God's revealed Word.
• Evaluate your obedience — “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22) Examine whether your devotion to Scripture is producing visible obedience, repentance, and conformity to Christ, or whether biblical truth remains merely intellectual information as a "casual" Christian.
• Search your worship — “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, because God approved his gifts.” (Hebrews 11:4a) Consider whether you are offering Christ your firstfruits—your best time, attention, resources, and devotion—based on God's Word... or merely giving Him sloppy leftovers after everything else has been prioritized for your gain and glory.
• Practice Berean discernment — “Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.” (Acts 17:11) Make it a habit to test every sermon, podcast, book, ministry, tradition, and personal conviction against the objective standard of God's Word... which is not the same as what your favorite pastor, author, preacher, or contemporary prophet has to say.

💭 Reflection

God has not left His people wandering in the wilderness of uncertainty. He has spoken. His Word is clear, trustworthy, sovereign, and sufficient to guide His saints. The Holy Spirit does not lead contrary to Scripture but continually directs Christ's people deeper into submission to it. Today, ask the Lord to expose, not by feelings but by the WORD, any competing authorities or idols in your heart and to cultivate an authentic love for His unchanging and eternal truth. Life begins when God speaks and where His people gladly obey. Will you?

🧠 Study

• Q1: According to Proverbs 1:7, where do true knowledge, wisdom, and correction always begin? Since the heart is deceitful above all things, is it any wonder that rebellious sinners seek to ignore and undermine the authority of God's Word?
• Q2: Why is it destructive and deadly to elevate feelings or experiences as equal, or even superior, to God's Word?
• Q3: How does Christ's response to Satan's temptations (Matthew 4:1–11) demonstrate Scripture as His first and final authority? How does this integrate with John 13:13-17?
• Q4: Explain how the fear of the LORD functions as an epistemological foundation for biblical theology. How does Proverbs 1:7 shape a Christian understanding of knowledge, wisdom, correction, authority, and objective truth?
• Q5: Many claim, "God told me..." in ways that often contradict or supersede Scripture. Why does this undermine the sovereignty and sufficiency and authority of God's revealed Word, and how does Isaiah 8:20 expose such claims?

Blessings & love,

Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor

BigIslandChristianChurch.com

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