First of all, it is imperative to understand that without
knowledge of the word of God, nothing else matters. If we are ignorant of just
what it is that God wants, what he is working to accomplish in the world and
what our role as his servants is, then everything that follows will likely go
astray. As I heard a preacher recently put it “if we don’t have the right
belief on the right person, nothing else matters.” No amount of good works,
charity, compassion and the like will make up for a lack of knowledge about God
and his will. Many are the people of the world who do a great many good deeds
day after day. That, however, does them little good simply because they do not
have the knowledge of God and the fact that it is only through Christ that
salvation can be found.
You will often read in the New Testament where the writers command
their readers to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 3:18). Paul, in one of the prayers recorded for us in the NT, prays
for the Philippians to have “an increase in your knowledge and understanding
and that the eyes of your heart may be opened so that you may be found
blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus and may abound in fruitfulness to the
glory of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). Thus, we are enjoined to pursue knowledge
as the first step in the service that we are to provide our God.
Do not, however, miss the fact that all that knowledge leads
somewhere. Unfortunately, all too often many treat knowledge as the proverbial
bridge to nowhere. They have a tremendous amount of intellectual understanding
of the Bible, doctrine, dogma and the like, but all that understanding leads to
very little action. Knowledge and its pursuit become end in themselves much
like being a professional student. As James would put it “these things ought
not to be.” As we see in the prayer of Paul, he not only prays that his readers
will increase in knowledge and understanding, but he does so in order for them
to be something and to do something. Fruitfulness is the ultimate end of our
studies. In order for the work we put into our studies to be fruitful, those
studies must lead to our action, not only in our own lives, but also in the
lives of others.
With the emergence of the seeker friendly movement, however, the
coin has been flipped and the emphasis on doing things and having programs have
become the end all and be all of the church. Members are constantly being
pushed to be loving and good, but that comes at the expense of a solid
foundation of teaching as to what that love and goodness is supposed to
accomplish and from where it should flow. The proverbial cart has been placed
before the horse in that, with little knowledge and understanding of God’s
word, we go out to conquer the world by attempting to give people what they
want. One seeker friendly church pastor put it this way in describing why he
doesn’t engage in deep biblical teaching: “most Christians are educated way
beyond their level of obedience anyway.” As the saying goes, what you win
people with is what you win them to, and if what we’re winning people with is a
sense of self-fulfillment and good feelings, then that’s what they’ll expect
the church to be.
The answer lies, as it always does, in God’s revealed will. The
New Testament, when properly studied and when preached by faithful men,
contains all we need for a godly and fruitful life (2 Peter 1:3). There are
many churches where the word is preached unashamedly and completely. It is
unfortunate that the preaching of God’s word has taken a back seat to the
feel-good methodology of our current generation. Rather than being the
centerpiece of our worship, it has become a second-tier activity that, when
practiced at all, is often geared toward making people feel comfortable and
increasing their self-esteem. On the contrary, the preaching of the word should
make us uncomfortable as we realize that we are not what we ought to be and
that only through God’s grace have we received forgiveness of sins. That
knowledge will propel us to share the word and live the word as a grateful attitude
to the God who saved us from the pit. With that as our motivation, our actions
will become what God wants them to be.
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