Divine Requirement and Human Response
W. Clarkson Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.… What is the conclusion of this inquiry? What result may be gained from these inconsistencies of thought and variations of feeling? Deeper down than anything else is the fact that there are - I. TWO GREAT DIVINE REQUIREMENTS. God demands of us: 1. Reverence. We are to "fear God." That is certain. But let us not mistake this "fear" for a very different thing with which it may be confounded. It is not a servile dread, such as that which is entertained by ignorant devotees of their deities. Only too often worship rises no higher than that; it is an abject dread of the malignant spiritual power. This is both a falsity and an injury. It is founded on a complete misconception of the Divine, and it reacts most hurtfully upon the mind of the worshipper, demoralizing and degrading. What God asks of us is a well-grounded, holy reverence; the honor which weakness pays to power, which he who receives everything pays to him who gives everything, which intelligence pays to wisdom, which a moral and spiritual nature pays to rectitude, to goodness, to love, to absolute and unspotted worth. 2. Obedience. We must "keep his commandments;" i.e. not only (1) abstain from those particular transgressions which he has forbidden, and (2) practice those virtues which he has positively enjoined; but also (3) carefully study his holy will in regard to all things, and strive earnestly and patiently to do it. This will embrace, not only all outward actions observable by man, but all the inward thoughts of the mind, and all the hidden feelings and purposes of the soul. It includes the bringing of everything of every kind for which we are personally responsible "into obedience to the will of Christ." It requires of us rectitude in every relation that we sustain to others, as well as in all that we owe to ourselves. The text suggests - II. THE TWO GREAT REASONS FOR OUR RESPONSE. One is that such reverent obedience is: 1. Our supreme obligation. "This is the whole duty of man," or, rather, "This it behooveth all men to do." This is what all men are in sacred duty bound to do. There is no other obligation which is not slight and small in comparison with this. The child owes much to his father, the pupil to his teacher, the beneficiary to his benefactor, the one who has been rescued to his deliverer; but not one of these obligations, nor all added together, expresses anything that approaches the indebtedness under which we rest to God. To him from whom we came, and "in whom we live and move and have our being," who is the one ultimate Source of all our blessings and of all our powers, who has poured out upon us an immeasurable wealth of pure and patient love; to the gracious Father of our spirit; to the gracious Lord of our life; to the holy and the benignant One, - to him it does indeed become all men to render a reverent obedience. The other reason why we should respond is found in: 2. Our supreme wisdom. "For God will bring," etc. God is now bringing all that we are and do under his own 'Divine judgment, and is now approving or disapproving. He is also so governing the world that our thoughts and actions are practically judged, and either rewarded or punished, before we pass the border-line of death. But while this is true, and while there is much more of truth in it than is often supposed, yet much is left to the future in this great matter of judgment. There are "secret things" to be exposed; there are undiscovered crimes to be made known; there are iniquities that have escaped even the eye of the perpetrators, who "knew not what they did," to be revealed. There is a great account to be settled. And because it is true that "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one of us may receive the things done in his body," because "God will judge the secrets of all hearts," because sin in every shape moves toward exposure and penalty, while righteousness in all its forms travels toward its recognition and reward, therefore let the spirit be reverent in presence of its Maker, let the life be filled with purity and worth, with integrity and goodness, let man be the dutiful child of his Father who is in heaven. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. WEB: This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.