What’s the best way to become wise? Most people might answer that the best way to attain wisdom is to read and study the basic principles that pertain to living in this world. Some might add that it would be helpful to be given real-life practical situations and practice problem-solving techniques. One might throw in, along these lines, finding a person who possesses wisdom to observe what he does. All of these are helpful suggestions, but how many would suggest Proverbs 9:10?

That verse tells us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” A similar verse is Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Yet another verse adds this thought: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever” (Ps. 111:10). What do these verses teach? One can find knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in some measure in secular teachings. But those will only help in earthly matters. Spiritual knowledge and wisdom can only come when one fears God.

The problem with society in general today is that people have no fear of God. His attributes include both justice and wrath against sin, but His nature has been diminished to basically only include love. To be sure, He is love, and we are right to emphasize the immense boundaries of that love—but not to the exclusion of His attitude toward sin, disobedience, and rebellion. Even religious people no longer want to hear about God’s anger; as in Isaiah’s day, they want to hear “smooth things” (Isa. 30:10).

Such an attitude will never achieve wisdom. God has the power to terminate our lives any moment He chooses, as He did with Er and Onan (Gen. 38:2-10). He also has the power to cast the eternal soul into hell, which He will do unless their name is in the Book of Life (Rev. 20:15). If we do not fear Him and His awesome power, we are foolish indeed. We can be motivated by both the fear of the Lord and love of Him as well (since He desires that all be saved). We should never lose sight of the fact that He expects our love to bring about obedience (John 14:15), which in turn gives us a good understanding.