The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1900, Page 14

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14

The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the LUTHERAN PIONEER.)

The First Commandment.
( Concluded.)

Having learned what God forbids when He
says: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before
me,’’ let us now see what these words enjoin
upon us.—‘“‘I am the Lord thy God,” says
God. He is the Lord, therefore we shall fear
Him; He is God, therefore we shall love Him ;
He is our God, therefore we shall trust in Him.
Hence our Catechism beautifully says in ex-
planation of the First Commandment: ‘‘We
should fear, love, and trust in God above all
things.’’

1. We should fear God above all things,
for He is the Lord. Right here let me, how-
ever, tell you that the word ‘‘fear’’ has a two-
fold meaning. For example, a slave fears his
cruel master, and a child fears its parents.
We see at once that the fear of a slave is not
like the fear of achild. The fear of the former
is connected with pain and alarm, the fear of
the latter is thé outflow of respect and vener-
ation. The slave fears the coming of his mas-
ter, but the child fears the going-away of its
parents. The slavish fear of God is not what
the First Commandment enjoins, but rather
the childlike fear of God; for slavish fear is
the consequence of sin, and is, in fact, sin-
ful itself. Every sinner has a slavish fear of
God; heis, namely, afraid that God will come
and punish him. Slavish fear of God is not so
much a fear of God, as rather a fear of God’s
punishment. Such a slavish fear we see in
Adam after the fall. For when he heard God’s
voice, he hid himself; and when taken to task
for doing so, he said: ‘‘I was afraid.’’ He
was afraid of the punishment which, he knew,
he deserved because of his sin. Such a slavish
fear of God had also Cain after he had mur-
dered his brother Abel. Neither Adam nor
Cain were disquieted because they had dis-
pleased God; nay, they only feared God’s
punishment.

The childlike fear which is enjoined in the
First Commandment is an earnest desire to
ayoid the displeasure of God. It is most beau-
tifully exemplified in the history of Joseph.
When, namely, the wife of Potiphar desired
to mislead Josepli into a terrible sin against
the Sixth Commandment, he gave expression
to the words: ‘‘How then can I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen.
89, 9.) The thought uppermost in his mind
in that hour of temptation was not: ‘‘If I do
this great wickedness, God will punish me,”’
but rather: ‘‘If I do this wickedness, I shall
be sinning against God. It will displease my
GodifIdoit.’’ The fear of God’s displeasure
preserved Joseph against sin. He knew that
by his refusal to do this great wickedness, he
would incur the displeasure, anger, and hatred
of Potiphar’s wife, and he also knew that the
"anger and hatred of this woman would mean
‘great hardship for himself; but all this he
_ counted for naught in comparison with the

displeasure of his God. He feared God above
those things.

This fear of God is often exceedingly difli-
cult, as we have just now seen in the case of
Joseph. This we also see in the case of John
the Baptist. The fear of God impelled John

to severely reprove Herod for his adulter-
ous union with Herodias, the true wife of his
brother Philip. Through this he incurred the
anger of Herodias particularly, and Herod cast
him into prison. His imprisonment ended with

He is. Risen.

his murder. John the Baptist feared God
above all things, even above his life. He
feared not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul; he rather feared Him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell. (Matt. 10, 28.)

Another beautiful example of the true fear
of God we find recorded in Acts 5, 17—29.
The apostles had been preaching the Gospel of

Jesus in Jerusalem. For this the high-council
of the Jews had thrown them into prison. Dur-
ing the night, however, an angel liberated

them, and the next morning they returned

and continued their preaching, despite the

fact that the high-council had forbidden them

todoso. When taken to task for their action,
Peter and the other apostles courageously an-
swered: ‘‘We ought to obey God rather than
men.” O, if we only possessed such a fear of
God in the hour of trials and temptations!

2. We should love God above all things, for
He is God. We should give God our heart,
our whole heart. He should be the delight
and pleasure of our heart. As Mary, while
sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to His
words, forgot all earthly concerns, so also
we should find our pleasure in God and our
heart should pant and thirst after Him. With
the holy psalmist we should exclaim: ‘‘Whom
have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none
upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh
and my heart faileth: but God is the strength
of my heart, and my portion for ever.’’ (Ps.73,
25.26.) To the psalmist heaven even was un-
desirable without God. He thought not of
heaven’s glories, but only of his God, with
whom he desired to be united. ‘To behold and
be with his God, who had loved him in Christ,
was the burning desire of his heart. This long-
ing after his God eclipsed all other desires and
caused him to care for nothing else beside.

This love to God is also beautifully ex-
pressed in the following stanzas:

“Wealth, I will not heed thee,
Wherefore should I need thee —
Jesus is my joy!
Honors, ye may glisten,
But I will not listen,
Ye the soul destroy!
Want, or loss, or shame, or cross
Ne’er to leave my Lord shall move me,
Since He deigns to love me.
“Farewell, thou who choosest
Earth, and heaven refusest,
Thou wilt tempt in vain;
Farewell, sins, nor blind me,
Get ye far behind me,
Come not forth again;
Past your hour, O pomp and power;
Godless life, thy bonds I sever,
Farewell now forever!’’
And what great reason have we to love God,
since He has first loved us! (1 John 4, 19.)
Did He not create us, and is it not by His
hand that we still stand? Is it not He who
daily provides for us all that we need for this
body and life? And above all, did He not so
love us as to give His only begotten Son to
save us from perdition? Should not this great
love of God inflame in our hearts a burning
love to Him?—And yet, alas! how sluggish
and cold are our hearts; how little of the true
love to God do we find in us!

8. We should trust in God above all things.
We trust in God when we put confidence in
Him, when we rely upon His promises. 18
particularly in days of distress that it becomes
apparent whether a man trusts in God.

God is a loving Father who wishes to help
us in all need, and He is the great and mighty
Lord who is able to help. Since God has give2
us His own Son, there can be no doubt what-
ever that He will give us all other things ths
weneed. If His love for usis so great that He

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