Over the last two posts I’ve explained that the Christian is a man with the saving knowledge of God and, further, that he applies that knowledge. Are you such a man as that? Here are some helps to being such a man, helps to living in the light of the knowledge of God.
One, don’t rest in your beginnings (Heb 6.1). In Col 1.9-10 Paul encourages the Colossians to move beyond their beginnings in the faith. They had begun well, but Paul wouldn’t have them stay where they are. He’d have them go on to maturity by not only being filled with the knowledge of God (v.9) but by increasing in it as well (v.10). It’s well enough if they’ve started well, but they’ll lose all the joy and praise of a good start unless they run well in order to finish well.
Many of us need to apply this to our own lives. Many of us had bright beginnings in the Christian life. We had a radical and transformative conversion experience in which God got ahold of us and completely turned our life around. We can still remember how much of a game-changer it was for us and how hungry we were to learn as much of God through His Word as we could. But how many of us are still riding that first wave? Is that the only thing going for our assurance of salvation, that we had a radical spiritual awakening?
Have we been to the living fountain now so many times now and are our vessels still not full to overflowing? Are our hearts still not purged of a love for the world and still short of being captivated with the altogether lovely Saviour and the glorious God above? After all this time are we still double-minded? Are we still treading water in the Christian life when the treasure chests lay at the bottom of the ocean open to those who dive like a Berean into the things of God?
The Christian life is more than a conversion experience more than an emotional prayer that sent goose-bumps down our arms. The Christian life is a rebirth, a coming to life by the power of the Spirit of the living God who enlightens our minds with the truth of God’s Word in order to set us on a course of living for God according to His revealed will in the Bible. It’s a life lived in light of the truth that God used to save us and yet a life which also grows in the truth so that it can grow in living by it.
Be honest. Does your life reveal a growing knowledge of God or have you never gotten beyond your first lesson in the ABC’s of Christianity? Are you like those who have as many doors for the knowledge of God as they have ears, a front door by which the truths of God enter and a back door by which the truths of God exit? Or, does God implant His Word into your open heart and bring about the fruit of it in your obedience?
Two, admit your ignorance. One of the greatest hindrances to our growing in the knowledge of God is the proud mindset that we either know it all already or that we know enough to get by. Besides what Paul says in 1Cor 8.2 that if anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know, there’s the point he makes so clearly in 1Cor 13.12, that for all that we know in this life, we not only know in part, but our knowing is ever dim this side of Heaven. It’s not that we don’t know truly, because trusting God’s Word is always safe; it’s simply that we don’t know fully.
Three, grow in the knowledge of Christ, 2Pet 3.18. We enter into the family of God no different than we enter into our parent’s family, i.e. as infants. We matriculate as babes into the school of Christ and won’t graduate as scholars clothed in honor until we leave this earth and appear before God in heaven. This means we’re to grow in knowledge. As Paul shows here in Col 1.9-10 progress in knowledge is the rule of the Christian life (1Pet 2.2; 1Cor 13.11). None of us was born a spiritual father or mother in the faith, and yet that’s what God calls us to pursue and to be.
To help you grow in the knowledge of Christ: 1) be diligent in the use of the private means of grace (Ps 4.4); 2) be just as diligent in the use of the public means of grace (Isa 58.13-14); 3) be cautious about the company you keep and the friendships you form (1Cor 15.33; Js 4.4); 4) maintain regular and habitual communion with God.
Finally, see that you put your knowledge of God’s will into practice. The glory of a branch is its fruit, and so the glory of a student of Christ’s knowledge is his practice. Conformity to Jesus is the goal of the Christian life (Rom 8.29). The life of Jesus is the dial by which every Christian should set his watch. Peter said He left us an example that we should walk in His footsteps (1Pet 2.21). This conformity can never be reached without aiming at it, and the way to aim at it is to strive to put all our knowledge of God’s will into actual practice.
Don’t be as those who know so much but do so little, as those who are all head and no hand, because a man who carries a good book in his hand, even the Bible itself, but hasn’t a single lesson of it in his heart or life is a fool still. Therefore remember that in the eyes of God a man knows no more than he does. And remember what Jesus said in Jn 10.25 how His works testified about him. Your works should testify who and whose you are.
So does your life manifest a healthy relationship between what you know of God and how you live? Is a life so filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding that you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord who saved you (Col 1.9-10)? May the Lord make it so if it’s not; and where it is, may He make it more so.
Have a blessed Lord’s Day.
