What are the virtues most often highlighted in sacred scripture? Certainly love, faith and forgiveness are among the usual suspects. But there is one virtue that we almost never discuss which receives an enormous amount of attention in the Word of God, namely, fear of the Lord. By some counts, this foundational spiritual gift is praised in over 200 verses.
Fear of the Lord is especially prominent in the Bible’s wisdom literature. It is the central theme of the book of Proverbs, for example, where it is mentioned over a dozen times. It is there that we receive the famous reminder: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov 9:10). Likewise, the first chapter of the book of Sirach contains an extended discourse on fear of the Lord, and it is a recurring motif in the psalms. Ecclesiastes 12:13 offers a neat summary: “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.”
