The fear of the Lord [is] to hate evil
All evil in general, evil thoughts, evil words, evil actions,
evil company, evil worship, and evil doctrines; and by "the fear
of the Lord", which shows itself in an hatred of evil, because of
the loathsome nature of it, and being contrary to God and his
will, and as it appears in the glass of the law, and especially
in the glass of pardoning love, is meant not the fear of his
judgments and wrath, or a distrust of his grace and goodness,
much less an hypocritical fear, or a mere show of devotion; but a
reverential affection for him, which is peculiar to children; a
filial, godly fear, which is consistent with strong faith, great
joy, and true courage; and is opposite to pride and
self-confidence, and is accompanied with real holiness; it takes
its rise from the grace of God, and is greatly increased and
promoted by the discoveries of his love and goodness: this is
brought into the account and description of wisdom, to
distinguish it from carnal wisdom; to commend wisdom from its
holiness; for this the beginning of wisdom, yea, wisdom itself, (
Job 28:28 ) (
Psalms
111:10 ) ( Proverbs 1:7
) ( 9:10
) ;
pride and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward
mouth, do I
hate;
these are the particulars of evil, which Wisdom, or Christ,
declares his hatred of. "Pride", which appears in men in thinking
too highly of themselves, in speaking too well of themselves, in
despising others, in setting up and trusting to their own
righteousness for salvation, and in crying up the purity and
power of human nature; this is very contrary to the spirit of the
meek and lowly Jesus, and must be hateful to him: "arrogancy"
differs little from pride, and the two words in the Hebrew are
very much the same, very little differ; it is an ascribing that
to a man's self which does not belong to him, whether in things
natural, civil, or spiritual; when men attribute their
justification and salvation to their own works, it is arrogancy,
and must be hateful to Christ; who been at so much pains and
expense to bring in everlasting righteousness, and work out
salvation for men: it is the height of arrogancy in a man to
conceit he a power to regenerate, renew, and convert himself,
and, with the haughty Arminian, Grevinchovius, to say, he has
made himself to differ from others; this must be hateful to
Christ, by whose Spirit and grace this only is done: and it is a
piece of arrogancy when men ascribe all the good works done by
them to their own power, when without Christ they can do nothing;
which therefore must be displeasing to him. "The evil way", as
Aben Ezra observes, is an evil custom and course of sinning; a
man's own way, which he chooses and delights in, and which leads
to destruction: "and the froward mouth" is the mouth that speaks
perverse things; things contrary to a man's own heart, contrary
to truth, to the rule of the divine word, to the Gospel, to
Christ and his people, and to all men; which must be hateful and
abominable to him who is truth itself.