At the beginning of Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Solomon takes a break from his extended discourse on wealth and oppression to make an important announcement. He wants his audience to lift our eyes from this dog-eat-dog world to consider our behavior before God.

In this passage, he emphasizes reverence for God as the ultimate authority of Heaven and Earth. While Christians have the privilege of an intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit (which Solomon could never have known), we must not lose sight of who He is. He is our loving Father, wonderful Savior, and dearest Friend, but He is also King of kings, Lord of lords, and Creator of the universe.

What does reverence for God — the fear of the Lord — look like in practice? First, set your heart to obey: Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to approach in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong (Ecc. 5:1, CSB).

These days, many people want to tell God what is right or wrong based on our current cultural norms. “The Bible’s ideas were for those times,” they say glibly, and replace simple obedience to the Word with society’s “progressive” ideas. Things that are clearly described as sinful in the Bible are now acceptable because “everyone is doing it.” Our many opinions and excuses for disobedience have become the sacrifice of fools, and God has no delight in them.

If you have submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, obedience is not an optional extra. It is the expression of genuine faith. We do not make the rules in God’s kingdom; we live by them. The kingdom of heaven is not a democracy; it is a theocracy where God’s Word is the unalterable law.

His next point is to fulfill our vows to God: When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed — better not to vow than to vow and not pay (Ecc. 5:4–5, NKJV).

At that time, one would vow to sacrifice or dedicate certain things or people to God if He answered particular prayers. For example, Hannah dedicated Samuel to God’s service because He answered her prayer for a child (1 Samuel 1). When we commit ourselves to Christ, we are effectively vowing to dedicate ourselves to Him because He has answered our prayer of repentance with forgiveness. This is why Jesus urged people to “count the cost” before becoming His disciple (Luke 14:25–33).

We need to keep these principles in mind when preaching the gospel. A gospel message that requires no obedience and no dedication to Christ is no gospel at all. Getting someone to accept Christ as a Friend, but not as Lord, is to lead them into a vow without ensuring that they understand its cost. These false vows are one of the reasons why people “deconstruct” their faith. It is indeed better not to vow than to vow and not pay.

You may be wondering how these serious warnings about God’s authority and our duty to Him fit in with Solomon’s discussion on wealth and oppression. Directly after telling his audience to fear God, he addresses corruption in human governments: If you see the oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them (Ecc. 5:8, CSB).

He seems to be drawing a direct line between the degree to which we acknowledge God’s ultimate authority and our propensity to abuse authority. The reason why we need democratic structures for human societies is that power corrupts. When people who do not fear God as their ultimate Judge gain positions of power that do not include tight checks and balances, corruption is inevitable.

Should we therefore spend our time and effort getting God-fearing men and women into positions of power and influence in our respective countries? It seems that for many Christians today, this is the goal of life. Yet Solomon does not end Ecclesiastes here. This is not the meaning of life that he set out to grasp at the beginning of the book. Instead of encouraging those that fear God to take over the officials’ positions to stamp out corruption, he says merely that we should not be surprised that human societies are corrupt.

Do not misunderstand the point here. Rooting out corruption is good for a nation, as he explains in the very next verse: Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field (Ecc. 5:9). As good citizens of any country, Christians should do our part to report corruption when we see it, keep it out of our businesses and lives, and vote against corrupt parties. But fighting corruption is not the meaning of life. Nor is getting Christians into powerful political positions in order to “Christianize” your nation through legislation.

Christians have a more important citizenship and allegiance than any earthly nation. No matter how much you love your country, or how patriotic you feel about it, it is not worthy to be compared with our heavenly country (Hebrews 11:13–16). As pilgrims and strangers on this earth, we are to fix our eyes on that better country while we live for the glory of our King.