ECCLESIASTES 12.13-14

13. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man [duty of every man, the whole duty of man].

14. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

After all his years of wearisome study and writing, Solomon arrives at a simple conclusion – namely that the whole of man, or whole duty of every man, is to fear God and keep his commandments.

Fearing God and keeping his commandments, Solomon is saying, is man’s prime duty, and should be the top priority, of every human being. By flouting those commandments, whole nations have self-destructed into abject poverty and degradation, as our newspapers make clear.

Jesus repeats this same duty in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says, Quote: “Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Here, then, is the major life goal under which every other human objective should be subsumed.

Notice that Jesus repeats the message once again in reply to a rich young man who asks him what he must do to enter into eternal life, saying, Quote: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).

Although the young man then claimed to have kept the commandments since childhood, he must have know intuitively that he was far from perfect in his heart and in his attitudes, and so inquired, Quote: “What do I still lack?” (verse 20).

Money unlocks attitudes, and Jesus, no doubt discerning that there stood before him an archetypical Acquirer, quietly informed the young man that if he disposed of his great wealth and gave to the poor, he would lay up treasure in heaven (verse 21) The young man then went away very sad, because he had great wealth.

The message seems to be that God requires us to keep the spirit of the law, not just the minimum letter, not only, for example, not to kill, but not even to despise or hate other people or even call them fools – which is why James points out that the intent of that law is that we actually live lives of loving our fellow man as much as we love ourselves (James 2:8), a point also made by Jesus earlier when he tells his disciples that he has not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill or “fully fill” its intent (Matthew 5:17-30).

As already noted, Christianity is a “religionless religion” – a God-centred way of life demonstrated by Jesus that has nothing to do with candles, stone buildings and stained glass windows, backward collars and funny old robes, obscure terminology and pious voices, or hymns and holiday festivals borrowed from paganism

Notice, finally, that God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing. Again, Jesus appears to repeat the inspired message of Solomon verbatim when he says, Quote: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (Matthew 10:26), and also: “I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Matthew 12:36).

And yet again, James also appears to have the words of Solomon in mind when he warns those he has just encouraged to love their neighbor as themselves, Quote: “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law” (James 2:13).

Judgment may sound like a fearful affair, but, as James is at pains to point out in the verse that follows, God will judge us by the precise standards we use to judge other people – showing great mercy those who have been merciful, but showing little mercy to those who have been unmerciful.

We can live with that!