Ecclesiastes 12:13: fear God and keep his commandments

c. 368–369 · Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 7: Panegyric on His Brother Caesarius 19

I have seen all things, says the preacher, I have reviewed in thought all human things, wealth, pleasure, power, unstable glory, wisdom which evades us rather than is won; then pleasure again, wisdom again, often revolving the same objects, the pleasures of appetite, orchards, numbers of slaves, store of wealth, serving men and serving maids, singing men and singing women, arms, spearmen, subject nations, collected tributes, the pride of kings, all the necessaries and superfluities of life, in which I surpassed all the kings that were before me. And what does he say after all these things? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit, possibly meaning some unreasoning longing of the soul, and distraction of man condemned to this from the original fall: but hear, he says, the conclusion of the whole matter, Fear God. This is his stay in his perplexity, and this is thy only gain from life here below, to be guided through the disorder of the things which are seen and shaken, to the things which stand firm and are not moved.

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 1

“To fear God and keep his commandment,” is the whole of man, or is whole man; he is not a man but a beast, without observance of God. Religion is as requisite as reason to complete a man: he were not reasonable if he were not religious; because by neglecting religion, he neglects the chiefest dictate of reason.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes intro

Various opinions they had about it; but Solomon, in this book, determines the question, and assures us that to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole of man. He tried what satisfaction might be found in the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, and at last pronounced all vanity and vexation; yet multitudes will not take his word, but will make the same dangerous experiment, and it proves fatal to them. He, 1. Shows the vanity of those things in which men commonly look for happiness, as human learning and policy, sensual delight, honour and power, riches and great possessions. And then, 2. He prescribes remedies against the vexation of spirit that attends them. Though we cannot cure them of their vanity, we may prevent the trouble they give us, by sitting loose to them, enjoying them comfortable, but laying our expectations low from them, and acquiescing in the will of God concerning us in every event, especially by remembering God in the days of our youth, and continuing in his fear and service all our days, with an eye to the judgment to come.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12.13-14

The vast importance of it: This is the whole of man; it is all his business and all his blessedness; our whole duty is summed up in this and our whole comfort is bound up in this. It is the concern of every man, and ought to be his chief and continual care; it is the common concern of all men, of their whole time. It is nothing to a man whether he be rich or poor, high or low, but it is the main matter, it is all in all to a man, to fear God and do as he bids him.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12.13-14

Setting aside all matters of doubtful disputation, to be religious is to fear God and keep his commandments. 1. The root of religion is fear of God reigning in the heart, and a reverence of his majesty, a deference to his authority, and a dread of his wrath. Fear God, that is, worship God, give him the honour due to his name, in all the instances of true devotion, inward and outward. See Rev. xiv. 7. 2. The rule of religion is the law of God revealed in the scriptures. Our fear towards God must be taught by his commandments (Isa. xxix. 13), and those we must keep and carefully observe.

1726 · Joseph Butler, Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel 15

The same is said, and with the same connexion and context, in the conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes. Our ignorance, and the little we can know of other things, affords a reason why we should not perplex ourselves about them; but no way invalidates that which is the “conclusion of the whole matter, Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole concern of man.”

1771–1772 · George Whitefield, Selected Sermons 31

As David observes, that “the commandment of God is exceeding broad,” Psalm 119:96, so we may say of this one thing needful; or as Solomon very justly and emphatically expresses it, “to fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole duty of man,” Eccl. 12:13. His whole duty, and his whole interest; and every thing which is wise and rational does in its proper place and connection make a part of it. We should judge very ill concerning the nature of this care, if we imagined, that it consisted merely in acts of devotion, or religious contemplation; it comprehends all the lovely and harmonious band of social and human virtues. It requires a care of society, a care of our bodies, and of our temporal concerns; but then all is to be regulated, directed, and animated by proper regards to God, Christ, and immortality. Our food and our rest, our trades and our labors, are to be attended to, and all the offices of humanity performed in obedience to the will of God, for the glory of Christ, and in a view of improving the mind in a growing meekness for a state of complete perfection.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 8 179

“Let us (says he) hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” Religion is the great business and concernment of men in this world, because God will bring every man, and “every work into judgment, whether it be good or evil.”

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Ecclesiastes 12.13

Fear God—The antidote to following creature idols, and "vanities," whether self-righteousness (Ec 7:16, 18), or wicked oppression and other evils (Ec 8:12, 13), or mad mirth (Ec 2:2; 7:2-5), or self-mortifying avarice (Ec 8:13, 17), or youth spent without God (Ec 11:9; 12:1). this is the whole duty of man—literally, "this is the whole man," the full ideal of man, as originally contemplated, realized wholly by Jesus Christ alone; and, through Him, by saints now in part, hereafter perfectly (1Jo 3:22-24; Re 22:14).

1873 · W. T. Bullock, Notes on the Bible: Ecclesiastes 12.13

The whole duty of man - Rather, the whole man. To revere God and to obey Him is the whole man, constitutes man's whole being; that only is conceded to Man; all other things, as this book teaches again and again, are dependent on a Higher Incomprehensible Being.

1906 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 52 (1906) 3001

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Reverent walking before the Most High. Reconciliation to Him so that we can thus walk and thus live, and all this proved by a life of obedience to His commandments—"This is the whole duty of man." 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil Notice that expression, "every secret thing." It is not merely our public actions that God will judge, otherwise we might be more at our ease—but He takes account of our most private thoughts, words, deeds and intents. Who among us can endure that ordeal?

c. 240–270 · Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Metaphrase of the Book of Ecclesiastes 12

Neither do I counsel thee, my friend, to write down vain things about what is fitting, from which there is nothing to be gained but weary labour. But, in fine, I shall require to use some such conclusion as this: O men, behold, I charge you now expressly and shortly, that ye fear God, who is at once the Lord and the Overseer of all, and that ye keep also His commandments; and that ye believe that all shall be judged severally in the future, and that every man shall receive the just recompense for his deeds, whether they be good or whether they be evil.

1765 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Ecclesiastes intro

The design of it; which is, to describe man's true happiness, and the way leading to it. This he does both negatively, proving, that it is not to be found either in secular wisdom, or in sensual pleasures, or in worldly greatness and glory, or in abundance of riches, or in a vain profession of religion: and positively, shewing, that it is to be had only in the fear of God and obedience to his laws, which alone can give a man a chearful enjoyment of his present comforts, and an assurance of his everlasting happiness.

1796 · Jonathan Edwards, Remarks on Important Theological Controversies 2

As much as to say, after this life, nothing can be done, nothing invented or devised, in order to your happiness; no wisdom or art will serve you to any such purpose, if you neglect the time of the present life. It is unreasonable to suppose the wise man means only that we should in this life do all that we can in temporal concerns, and to promote our temporal interest, and that nothing can be done towards this after this life: not only as this would be an observation of very little importance, it being as flat and impertinent as if he had said, whatever your hand finds to do this year, do it with your might; for nothing that you do or devise the next year, will signify any thing to promote your interest and happiness this year: but also because the wise man himself, in the conclusion of this book, informs us, that his drift through the whole book is, to induce us to do a spiritual work; to fear God and keep his commandments, in order, not to happiness in this life, (which he tells us throughout the book is never to be expected,) but in order to a future happiness and retribution in consequence of a judgment to come; chap. xii. 13, 14. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God, and keep his commandments: For this is the whole” (i. e. the whole business, the whole concern) “of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Ecclesiastes 12.14

For God shall bring every work into judgment—The future judgment is the test of what is "vanity," what solid, as regards the chief good, the grand subject of the book.

1892 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 38 (1892) 2264

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His Commandments: for this is the duty of man. Or, "this is the whole of man." It makes a man of him when he fears God and keeps His Commandments—he has that which makes him "the whole man." 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil. Depend upon it that it will be so! At the Last Great Day, there will be a revealing of everything, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

1902 · Alexander Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: Colossians 8

The world has come, in the persons of its leading thinkers, to the position of proclaiming that all is dark beyond and above. “Behold! we know not anything,” is the dreary “end of the whole matter”—infinitely sadder than the old Ecclesiastes, which from “vanity of vanities” climbed to “fear God and keep His commandments,” as the sum of human thought and life.

1908 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12.1-14

The advice is further important, because it presents the only means of delivering life from the ‘vanity’ which the Preacher found in it all. Therefore he sets it at the close of his meditations. This is the practical outcome of them all. Forget God, and life is a desert. Remember Him, and ‘the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.’

1908 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3.11

Out of these two facts—says our text—man’s where and man’s what, his nature and his position, there rises a mist of perplexity and darkness that wraps the whole course of the divine actions—unless, indeed, we have reached that central height of vision above the mists, which this Book of Ecclesiastes puts forth at last as the conclusion of the whole matter—‘Fear God, and keep His commandments.’ If transitory things with their multitudinous and successive waves toss us to solid safety on the Rock of Ages, then all is well, and many mysteries will be clear. But if not, if we have not found, or rather followed, the one God-given way of harmonising these two sets of experiences—life in the transient, and longings for the eternal—then their antagonism darkens our thoughts of a wise and loving Providence, and we have lost the key to the confused riddle which the world then presents.

1908 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ecclesiastes 11.9

I am not going to travel beyond the limits of this present life with any words of mine, but as I read this final conclusion in this Book of Ecclesiastes, I think I can perceive that the doubts and the scepticisms about a future life, and the difference between a man and a beast which are spoken of in the earlier chapters, have all been overcome, and the clear conviction of the writer is expressed in these twofold great sayings: ‘The spirit shall return unto God who gave it, and the words with which He stamps all His message upon our hearts, the final words of His book’; ‘God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing.’ And I come to you and say, ‘I suppose you believe in a state of retribution beyond?’ I suppose that most of the young folk I am speaking to now at all events believe that ‘Thou wilt come to be our judge,’ as the Te Deum has it; and that it is this same personal self of mine that is to stand there who is sitting here? God shall bring thee into judgment.