Knowledge (1)

(From a devotional study of 2 Peter 1:5-7)

"...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge..." 2 Peter 1:5

"...Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." -Colossians 2:3

The New testament word "knowledge" that is used here is roughly equivalent to its English usage. It means to perceive something intellectually, and to ascertain facts. It can also be relational to its object; in that case we call in "understanding." A simple definition would be "the comprehension of facts."

But knowledge is not static. Because God is infinite, our knowledge of Him continues to grow, and that knowledge often increases through crises and the stresses of change. Theologian Jim Jordan once referred to these shifts as "stage conversions." A child may have a true knowledge of Jesus, but as he hits his teen years he enters into a spiritual crisis, both because he is encountering emotional and physical change, but also because he is jettisoning anything he considers childish, including a child's God. The emotional teen-age phase evolves into the intellectual consciousness of the late teens and early twenties (this is the age at which members often turn away from the church), and the college age phase moves into the "I have a job and 2.5 children and too many responsibilities to either feel or think" phase. This process renews about every ten years in the American Christian, who only moves safely through these crises by allowing his knowledge of God to grow and match his own inner expansion.

Aside from the secret, inner work of the Holy Spirit, there are two ways that knowledge of God increases in the Christian. They both require a certain amount of self-discipline. The first is the study of the Scriptures. There is some controversy about this today because of the multiplicity of interpretations about what the Bible says. I would suggest a couple of starting points. One is the practice of contextualization, answering the questions, "Why did the author write this?" "How did his readers understand it?" "How does it apply to contemporary life?" The problem for most of us is that contextualization requires work. The other is the practice of humility. Ultimately God has to open our minds to His Word, and we cannot approach the Bible without a sense of wonder and an awareness of our own capacity to misunderstand. The writer of Psalm 119 said, "I will run in the way of Thy commandments when Thou enlargest my understanding." Bible study is more like mining for gold with an experienced mentor. The Word plus the Spirit equals Life.

The second way that our knowledge of God increases is through other people, primarily the local church. The study of the Bible is a group effort. People with different gifts will bring different perspectives. Don't forget to include old dead guys either. Most biblical truth has been exposited in the past, and stated better and more accurately than modern writers do. This includes reading Christians from other traditions. This of course, requires work.

Next time: how knowledge and virtue relate.