Lyth and Burder talked about four things that knowledge is. This devotion looks at the last two: experimental and practical.
Nuggets
- Knowledge facilitates growth by evaluating information we are given.
- Head knowledge is not going to cut it when heart knowledge is the goal.
In the last devotion, we started looking at what knowledge is. We said it is spiritual and supernatural.
We have two other areas at which to look. Let’s dive in.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
I used Lyth and Burder’s The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ as the foundation of the devotion.
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Let's Put It into Context #2
I realized we don’t have a definition of knowledge. (I know. Dictionary Chick is slipping.)
Knowledge is the product of observation and experience.
Knowledge Is Experimental
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (I Pet. 2: 2-3 NIV)
Knowledge facilitates growth by evaluating information we are given.
Wait! What?
How can our knowledge about God be experimental? That gives us the idea that we are looking at some preliminary information. It doesn’t seem tested or finalized.
I think I can see our knowledge of God as being experimental because we have a limited amount of it. We are never going to entirely know God in this lifetime — and I bet He continues to reveal Himself to us throughout eternity.
I think it is also experimental because we do have to test out the knowledge. We have to use it to be sanctified. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
Sanctification
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We’ve said before that talking about going from milk babies to steak adults is a way of describing sanctification — or working out our salvation. That goes along with this verse’s “Like newborn babies …” (I Pet. 2: 2 NIV).
We can also think about experimentation this way. Experimental has an element of try, fail, try again in it.
That is what we do as Christians. God knows we aren’t going to not sin once we become disciples. He knows we have to figure out how He is really calling us to live, what we have to work through to get to the point where we can do that, keep working until we get it figured out, and then do it.
To see this played out, watch The Chosen Season 1, Episode 1, and Season 2, Episodes 5 and 6. This is where Mary Magdalene leaves the group because of her insecurity. Jesus welcomes her back.
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No, there is no place in Scripture where it says this happens. But I this this portrays exactly the way God welcomes us back when we repent.
Jonathan Roumie as Jesus said in episode 6 that God just wants our hearts. It isn’t about doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts.
It is about getting God to the heart level. This applies to everyone. All need to be nourished by God’s Word so they can grow.
So, it is about growth. It is about going from only being in our sinful nature to truly seeking to grow our spiritual nature.
Leifchild explained how we grow. We begin understanding the parts of Scripture which we can understand. From there, he wrote, “It proceeds to those passages suited to an awakened and quickened state of feeling.
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That backs up something we’ve said before. God reveals enough in Scriptures so that we get the basics of Who He is. After we become children of God, He reveals more through passages that grow us.
We have to take our focus off the world and place it squarely onto God.
Bottom line is we have to have the desire within ourselves to grow spiritually. The want to has to be there.
Lillie made a great observation. We tend to think this growth should be quick. However, at times the growth does not even seem distinguishable.
We still haven’t crucified enough of the flesh to truly be the new creation.
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To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Glossary
Remember, this growth has to come from the point of salvation. We have to be regenerated in order to grow.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
Glossary
Have we wandered off our discussion of knowledge? Not really.
The knowledge provides the foundation on which virtues and morals are built. We grow as those virtues and morals shape us.
Knowledge Is Practical
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him” (I Jn. 2: 3-5 NIV)
Head knowledge is not going to cut it when heart knowledge is the goal.
God wants us all in when we follow Him. We won’t do that if we rely on head knowledge.
Head knowledge just gives us a surface understanding. It doesn’t really require anything from us.
Let’s go at it this way. I know the color of Pastor Steve’s eyes. I know how tall he is. That is all head knowledge.
But then I also know Pastor Steve’s favorite pizza. I know what causes him to worry. I know the biggest hurt of his life.
This is heart knowledge because I chose to pursue a friendship with him. I had to listen to him talk — after I had gained his trust. I had to ask questions.
Most importantly, I had to value the relationship we were building. I had to choose that there would be a relationship.
I had to choose to spend time with him and get to know him better so I would choose to continue the relationship. I had to choose to marry him.
We can apply this to our relationships with God. Knowing there is a God and that Jesus is His Son isn’t enough.
We have to choose to follow God’s laws and commandments. We have to choose to submit to Him.
Only then — when we get it to the heart level — do we have His truth within us.
It may seem a little odd that John called the ones who relied on head knowledge liars. We might say misinformed or misguided.
Let’s see what Candlish had to say. He wrote, “The keeping of His word is, as it were, the concentrated and condensed spirit and essence of the keeping of His commandments. The knowing ones [stigmatized] as liars pretended to know God, not as speaking, but simply as being; not by communication from Him, but by insight into Him; not by His word, but by their own wisdom. But you know Him by His word. And that word of His, when you keep it, perfects the good understanding, the covenant of love, between Him and you.
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Just being alive does not entitle us to any of God’s favor. Mankind was — and still is — disobedient to Him.
When we are disobedient to God, we follow Satan, who is a liar. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn. 8: 44 ESV).
We don’t want that.
We not only have to know Christ, but we also have to be in Christ and striving to abide in Him.
Glossary
We abide in Christ when we keep His commandments.
- “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14: 15 ESV).
- “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (Jn. 15: 10 ESV).
- “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (I Jn. 5: 3 ESV).
It isn’t just about knowing what God says we are do do and not do. We have to do it or not do it.
What we have to remember is that the laws and commandments are based on God’s character. When we follow them, we are exhibiting God’s character.
Making the Connections #1
Hulbert connected everything together. He wrote, “It is agreed that religion, subjectively considered, is life.”
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Religion — what we call our relationship with God because it is more than just doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts — has to be a growing relationship. If we don’t grow, our faith dies.
If our faith dies, our reward of eternal life is called into question. While those who make deathbed confessions aren’t sanctified, to me, that doesn’t mean passing on sanctification is an option.
Hulbert said it much better than I am. He wrote, “If a man has religion, it is life in him. But it is finite life, limited and dependent. It requires for its continuance outside support and supply.”
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Fire insurance isn’t good enough. Our relationship with God has to be a continuous, growing thing.
If our faith grows, we gain eternal life. There is no more – or better – life than that.
Making the Connections #2
Knowledge begins with the Word. The Word is Jesus.
- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1: 1 ESV).
- “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119: 11 NIV).
Jesus is the way.
How Do We Apply This?
- Remove worldly impediments by purifying our hearts.
- Act with humility.
- Express hope.
- Make sure our attitude toward God is right.
- Long for God to reveal more and more to us.
- Hunger for God’s Word and use it to grow.
- Remember what God has done for us.
- Lay aside our desire to do evil and do what God calls us to do.
- Grow from being spiritual babies to mature, perfect adults.
- Guard against temptations.
- Grow by seeking God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17)
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3)
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16)
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11)
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2)
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11)
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
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Father God. Lord, we accept Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer. We read about Him in Your Word and hide Him in our hearts. Amen.
What do you think?
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