Proverbs 15:32 ESV
The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
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To desire “glory and honor and immortality” seems a little suspect to us nowadays. Ought we really to be pursuing ‘honor’? The idea seems selfish, self-directed. Certainly Philippians 2:3 condemns ‘selfish ambition;’ how is a desire for ‘honor’ any different from this? Yet it must be. The Lord does not contradict Himself, and the ‘glory and honor and immortality’ mentioned above come by direct quote in approbation from Romans 2:7, “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.” Further, Proverbs 15:32, today’s verse, speaks of honor as desirable. The questions, then, are how we are to find ‘honor’ and what Scripture means by the word.
Now, this verse looks a little discombobulated at the first glance. It seems to start with one topic, the fear of the Lord, and end on another, humility. Yet a little more inspection will change this assessment. This verse is a chain. The first clause is an equation, setting ‘fear of the Lord’ as the basic form of ‘instruction in wisdom’ and its source; the second clause builds upon this, showing the fruit which the fear of the Lord brings, which wisdom brings, for humility is both.
Humility, at its base, is seeing the world truthfully and in light of eternity. Humility means that we see ourselves as we are in relation to God and to His world and to His image, every other man. Thus, between men humility is submission to His law, neither claiming an authority He has not given or shirking a duty He had demanded (sins of commission and omission in relationship). This part of humility, we must remember, is not merely self-abasement. It is truth-telling to yourself and to everybody around you in heart, in thought, in speech, and in deed.
How is the fear of the Lord ‘humility’? Because it tells the truth about our relationship to God. God is God, and we are not. We are indeed sinful men (1 John 1:10), sinners from birth (Ps. 58:3) and till death. We are infinitely less than Him (Ps. 8). We must, therefore, reverence Him. The ‘fear of the Lord’ is not the fear which tyrants demand of us, though, not for His people. For the wicked, of course, the fear of the Lord ought to be a consuming terror, an ever-present affliction, tormenting the wicked man with his wickedness till he turns to the Lord in repentance. His people, though, whom He has saved by His blood, we fear Him as a child fears his father. We respect and reverence; we regard with mingled apprehension and gratitude His discipline; we bear in mind our estate in comparison to His.
From humility rises honor, then, but how?
First, we must find what honor actually is, as promised above. From verses such as Genesis 49:6, Psalm 7:5, and Psalm 8:5, we can derive a general idea: ‘honor’ is an enduring good name (reputation), the result of a good character in life. The word Proverbs 15:32 uses, often translated ‘glory’, is not merely for man either; this is also the ‘glory’ of God in Leviticus 9:6,23. This is the ‘glory’ which appeared to the people in the wilderness. Thus, honor is the expression of righteousness and worthiness, of the weight of the person upon all who see and remember him.
Humility, then, produced honor first because it is itself a virtue. To have true humility is in itself an honor to a man, for it shows in him a clear sight and a self-mastered will, a capacity to set self away without succumbing to the pride of demonstrative modesty. This virtue is an honor to a man, but it doesn’t stop there. Second, then, humility produces honor because it cultivates that right relation to creation and Creator which is necessary for all virtue and prosperity. Only by right relationship with Him, through Christ’s intercession, do our works become acceptable to Him, worthy of honor (Heb. 13:15-16).
Humility brings us into harmony first with God and then, through Him, to His creation. Now, our world is flawed, dreadfully marred by sin, twisted and warped. Sin makes virtue hard and its victory harder. The vicious rise, and the righteous are trampled beneath them (Ps. 73:4-15). Thus, humility does not assure worldly victory, though by God’s grace and in the conquest of creation which is the coming of the new earth (Is. 65:17-25). Yet humility does assure to us that in all this, He still reigns, and the blessing of His hand will triumph in the end, though we may long fail to see it.
The honor which humility brings comes too from another quarter: from relationships with family, with friends, with the world at large. Pride is fatal to these. The closer a relationship is, the more poisonous pride is to it, and we can all remember when our self-love, our lie about ourselves, hurt those we love. Humility turns aside from this; humility builds relationships in love and with understanding of each other’s flaws (understanding which is slow to anger yet does not excuse). By humility, we may have the honor of being remembered, in life and after death, by family, by friends, by children down through many generations, and being remembered by them as a child of God, a shining light for the Lord in their lives, honorable in honoring Him.
Proverbs is an immensely practical book, when we really think about it. This advice, to seek the fear of the Lord, to seek humility, is advice each and every one of us needs each and every moment. We humans are a prideful folk, you see. The counsel of Proverbs is the remedy for so many of the ills of our lives, the ones we know of, the ones we don’t know about, even the ones we cling to. I urge you, then, as I must urge myself, to seek first the Lord, seek right relationship with Him, and then, in that relationship and as part of that rightening, right relationship with all those about you (Matt. 6:33).
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.