Reverence is a feeling or attitude of deep respect, love, and awe.

In our day the word awesome is so overused, to describe things like tee-shirts or movies, that we have lost a very powerful word. Nevertheless, the word awe really means something like this: a mixed feeling of reverence, fear, and wonder, caused by something majestic or sublime. Awe is a fearful or profound respect or wonder that is inspired by greatness, superiority, or grandeur.

As Christian people, we are to have a profound respect and reverence for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is what it is to fear the Lord.

Lev. 19:30 You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.

Ps. 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him.

Heb. 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

Ps. 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Ps. 33:8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

Ps. 34:9 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!

1 Pet. 2:17 Fear God.

We cultivate a fear of God by obeying His commands, by worshiping Him carefully on the Lord’s Day, by not speaking lightly of Him, or singing little ditties about Him. He is the Lord. He is a consuming fire. He is not to be patronized by silliness or levity. We are to be awestruck and filled with wonder at His majesty. We are not to treat Him, His worship, or His commands lightly. If we are wise, we will not approach him in a breezy manner, but humbly and with awe.

Just like all God’s commands, when we obey Him, our souls flourish and we are blessed, happy. A reverent demeanor is to be extended to our relationships with one another. Deacons, deacons’ wives, older men, older women, bishops and bishop’s wives, wives in general, and children are all to be reverent, and reverent all the time. The opposite of this kind of reverence would be seen when there is a lot of silliness, a loose tongue, a flippant attitude, a lack of discretion and humility.

Prov. 28:14 Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

1 Tim. 3:8-11 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience……likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Titus 2:2-3…that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in the faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things….

1 Tim. 3:2-4 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to much wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)

Ephesians 5:33…and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

The church is a community of families, and the family is a community in itself. When we revere God and treat one another with respect and honor, amazing things happen. God is honored, the family is strong, the community thrives. The individuals in the community feel blessed. When a community has little regard for the Lord, for His day, for His Word and commandments, it is no wonder that they treat one another like dirt. All our our self-respect derives from our reverence for God. We are made in His image and we should treat one another respectfully out of reverence for that image, no matter how faint it has become through sin.