To those who fear God
The first step is to fear God.
Pr 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Job 28:28 "And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’"
You can’t get the knowledge of God if you don’t fear Him because the fear of the Lord is the beginning, or the starting point, of the way to knowing God, and understanding God and tapping His wisdom.
Ps 25:14 The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant.
If you don’t fear God you will not find out His secrets. That is, you will not get an understanding of His word.
So what does it mean to fear the Lord?
Pr 8:13 "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate."
To fear someone is to hate to hurt that person. If you know that a person does not like something then if you fear that person you will hate to do that thing.
God hates evil. Therefore, those who fear Him will hate to practice evil.
Those who hate to do what is evil in the sight of God will understand the secrets of the Lord (only those secrets that He chooses to reveal to man, of course (Deut 29:29)).
While we should hate all evil in general, there are specific things that the Lord really hates. Specifically, if you want God to reveal His secrets to you then you must take pains to remove pride and arrogance and a perverted mouth from yourself. A perverted mouth is one that tells lies, deceives, exaggerates, misdirects, etc. An arrogant person is one who mistakenly assumes that he is more superior than he really is. A proud person is one who thinks that the thoughts that enter his mind are truer than the word of God.
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