DEPART FROM EVIL – Proverbs 16:6
Proverbs 16:6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It was by sin that man destroyed his relationship with God. It was by the mercy of God that HE sent HIS only Son into the world to die for our sins so that all who believe on HIM should have their sins forgiven. Jesus told us that HE was the Truth and as such, by HIM we can obtain eternal life.
God does not owe us anything. It is by our own freewill that we choose to sin and fall short of the glory of God. It is because of our sin that we create a gap between us and God. However, you can renew your relationship with God simply by accepting the mercy and truth of God.
Just because you proclaim to be a Christian and publically announce so that the entire world hears that Jesus Christ is your Savior, it does not mean that you have departed from your evil ways. You can have a person who is overweight who proclaims to the world that they are fat and that they are going to go on a diet. However, just because you proclaim that you are going onto a diet, it does not mean that you are on a diet let alone that you are going to lose any weight.
The same is true regarding your relationship with God. You can proclaim your reliance upon the mercy and truth of God every day for the rest of your life, but until you start adding the fear of the Lord to your life and you start departing from evil, your life really has not changed. It is by the fear of the Lord that you will depart from evil.
Everyone will do that which is right in their own eyes. The fear of the Lord however brings accountability to your life. This means that you understand that God is in control and that HE has established certain rules by which you must live by. You understand that God will judge you one day and you do not want to disappoint HIM. When you fear the Lord, you start living your life by a different standard. Instead of doing what is right in your own eyes, you start doing what is right in the eyes of God.
Imagine a little boy who is told by his father that if he back talks to his mother, then he will be punished as soon as he gets home. The little boy has a choice, he can back talk his mother during the day, but if he knows that his father is a man of his word and he will be punished, most likely, the boy will think twice before he disobeys his father.
The problem with most Christians is that they have a mistaken understanding of God. They have heard so much about the mercy of God that they fail to understand the truth of God. Christians today do not seem to understand HIS judgment. Just because the father punishes his son for disobeying him, it does not mean that the father no longer loves his child. The reverse is also true, just because God loves us, it does not mean that we are not punished. The fear that a child has for the paddle should be the same fear that you have of God when it comes to making your own decisions. The fear of the paddle is what causes a child to often obey and it is the fear of the Lord that should cause you to depart from evil.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. It is knowledge of the ways of God that will cause you to understand how God desires you to live. If you daily add knowledge of the ways of God to your life, then you will have the understanding of how God desires you to live and thus will make it easier for you to depart from evil.