“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” — Ecclesiastes 12:13
Have you ever stopped to think about what’s really important in life? If you have ever asked what the most important thing in life is — what the purpose of life is, or what your own purpose in life is meant to be — the Bible gives a direct answer, and it comes from a man who was uniquely placed to search for it. Ecclesiastes is the account of a man who had the means to try everything, and did. Solomon chased wisdom, pleasure, laughter, wine, great works, houses, vineyards, gardens, silver and gold, singers and every delight — and wrote the verdict over all of it: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher … all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Not that these things are evil, but that none of them, chased for its own sake, can fill or last. “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought … and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
The conclusion of the whole matter
After all of it, the book lands in one place. Strip everything away, and what remains is small enough to carry and large enough to live by: “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Not part of it — the whole of it. Reverence for God, worked out in obedience, is the one thing that holds when every other pursuit has proved to be chasing the wind.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning
This same note runs all through the wisdom books, and it is always placed at the start: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10); “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). This fear is not cringing terror but reverent awe — taking God seriously as God. It is the doorway; you do not become wise and then, optionally, add God. You begin with Him, and wisdom grows from there. Cleverness without it never ripens into understanding.
And Jesus fixed that fear on its proper object — not people, not circumstances, but God Himself: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). The fear He commends is reverent, not cringing, but it is real; it is aimed at the One who holds eternity in His hand. Rightly placed, this single fear frees us from a hundred smaller ones.
Keep the main thing the main thing
Jesus said it in the language of priority: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Notice He does not despise “all these things” — food, clothing, the ordinary needs of life — He simply puts them in their place, after the kingdom. And when asked for the greatest commandment He answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38). First and great. That is what it means to keep the main thing the main thing: everything else in life ordered underneath the one thing that matters most.
Why it holds weight
The Preacher does not stop at good advice; he gives the reason it is not optional: “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Life is not a vapour that simply vanishes; it is lived before God and answered to Him. That is exactly why the whole duty of man is not a heavy burden but a mercy — it tells you, plainly, what actually counts.
Begin now
And so the Preacher’s appeal is not to wait until the searching and the striving have worn you out, as they wore him: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). The whole duty of man is also the whole peace of man: to fear God, to keep His commandments, and to let everything else fall into its rightful, lighter place beneath.
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