Extend, O Lord, Your Mercy, unto those who know You.
Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we too, believe, and so we speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4: 13-15
Knowledge is power. If someone has no knowledge of something, it has not only no power for them, but little relevance either. For instance, someone who has no knowledge of quantum physics (like me) will not enjoy a conversation or a book about it. If someone emailed me a scientific equation, it wouldn’t do anything for me. But for someone who works in that particular field, such correspondence would be intriguing, interesting, useful, even “fun.”
It’s hard to explain nuances of the Bible with someone who has never read the Bible. It’s hard to appreciate the power of Jesus Christ to change one’s life if a person has no knowledge of Christ.
Of course, knowledge for the sake of knowledge does not generate power. For instance, when a child learns the letters of the alphabet, this knowledge by itself doesn’t accomplish much. When letters are turned into words, and words turned into sentences, this is where knowledge comes alive. The ability to read and write sentences opens up the possibility of exchanging ideas, for us to read and learn, and to write and share. Learning the alphabet is a steppingstone in this journey but it is just a stepping stone, it is not a destination.
When we teach little children about Jesus, it is enough to teach them that “God is good,” or that “God loves you.” This amount of knowledge is meaningful to a little child. For someone who is older, who has grappled with illness or misfortune, saying that “God is good” might actually be hurtful. More mature topics like why bad things happen to good people, or the permissive will of God are more appropriate when dealing with these heavy subjects. However, one can’t talk about the permissive will of God or more focused nuances if one has never heard the name of God.
As with just about everything, the more we understand and know about Jesus Christ, the more power and relevance that He has in our lives. There is also a difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them. I can tell you a lot about President Biden, or President-Elect Trump or LeBron James, or Michael Jordan. I have read a lot about all of them. I’ve never been in a room with any of them, never had lunch with them, never spoken to any of them one-on-one. I know about all of them. I know none of them.
There are plenty of people who talk a lot about Christ but who don’t actually know Him. There are plenty of people who have impressive displays of icons, who wear beautiful crosses around their necks, who don’t know Christ at all. We have a large Bible that has been in our family for many generations. It is a beautiful family heirloom. But all it does is collect dust on the shelf if it is never opened and read.
Today’s reflection is an encouragement to KNOW Jesus Christ, and not just be content with knowing ABOUT Him. As we are winding down our discussion on the Doxology, hopefully we have learned a lot about our Lord and our theology. Because God is inexhaustible and incomprehensible, we will never exhaust our knowledge of God and our pursuit of that knowledge. The more we know God, the more powerful He is in our lives. And even if He is a very powerful force in our lives, He can become even more powerful, the more we know of Him.
The more we understand Jesus Christ, the more we want to know about Him. The more we know, the more we can apply, and the more we apply, the more Christ-centered life we will live. If we know about the mercy of God, as an example, and then we apply this knowledge and show mercy to others, then we become more merciful, we actually become more like God. There are so many Christ-like attributes that we are called to exhibit—love, mercy, forgiveness, patience, etc.—the more we know about these things, the more we will be motivated to demonstrate them. Part of our judgment before Christ will be based on our application of the knowledge we have acquired about Him, not merely the knowledge itself.
We do need to start with basics—God is good. Jesus loves us. However, we must progress to more advanced topics, like why did Christ have to die for us, and that we’ve each been blessed with a talent. We have to understand that salvation is for those whom Christ judges worthy of it, that there is an accounting before a judgment seat, so that working backwards from there, we realize that what we do today is actually important. Saint Paul writes in I Timothy 2:4, that God desires all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. God does not want to hide truth from us. Nor does God want us to fall into the contemporary trap of “living my truth.” In John 14:6, Jesus says “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by Me.” Jesus is not “a truth” but “THE truth.” And God desires that all people should be saved, and an important step in our path to salvation is both our knowledge and application of THE truth, God’s truth. We come to the knowledge and application of the Truth the more time we spend learning and the more time we spend applying what we’ve learned. Which then makes the key component to knowledge and application to be desire and time. This is the prayer for today, to deepen our desire and devote more of our time, so that we acquire more knowledge of God, apply what we’ve acquired in our lives, so that knowledge and application become more powerful forces in our lives, and in turn, in the lives of others.
Lord, thank You for what I know of You to this point in my life. Kindle in my the desire for more knowledge of You. Put in my the desire to pray, to read, to learn, to spend time with You, to talk with others about You. Surround me with people who will encourage my pursuit of these things. Help me to desire to apply what I’ve learned. Present opportunities to serve and give me eyes to see these opportunities. My Your power ever grow in me, and may I always desire more knowledge of THE truth, which is You. Amen.
Make it a goal each day to learn something about the Lord through prayer and Scripture reading. Make it a goal to apply what you’ve learned through service. In doing these two things, we yet again show our obedience to the two great commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor.
