What Identifies A True Christian?
The Danger of Knowledge
Religion and vast amounts of knowledge though it works to produce good external behavior, it does not transform hearts. Religion and knowledge can blind us to personal depravity. Even though we may understand that knowing about God is not the same as knowing from God, it is easy to blur that distinction. The Pharisees knew the Word of God extremely well, the same as many of us do today, as Tom Hovestol comments:
"The Pharisees know the middle verse and letter, had counted all the commands, and no doubt some had memorized all 613 of them. (In contrast, few people today can recite the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.) The Pharisees were insistent on the correct interpretation of the Scriptures. Moreover, the Pharisees were not content, as frequently we are, to simply know the content of God's Word. They desired to obey it as well. So they aided its application by devising religious rules. But for all their Bible knowledge about God, many of them did not know God and therefore did not recognize God incarnate. Why?
Their right doctrine had produced wretchedness, instead of righteousness. Proper doctrine is essential, yet even today it can give a false sense of spiritual security and superiority without true spiritual reality. Bible knowledge can calcify rather than tenderize the hearer. It can blind and bind.
How can that be? bible instruction can easily be diverted from its God intended purpose: love of God and fellow human beings. In its place is a new, lesser purpose; the bible as an object of curiosity and fruitless spiritual debate (1 Timothy 1:3-11). The Bible can become an end in itself instead of the means to an end. Subtly almost everything of God can and will be counterfeited by appearance of goodness with a hidden dark side. The ultimate danger of being people of the Book is that we can acquire knowledge about God without actually coming to know God." (3a)
Like us, the Pharisees had the knowledge of the letter of the Word; however, some did not understand or incarnate
| Academic Knowledge Vs. Spiritual Intimacy |
| "Shortly after my conversion I went out preaching in the villages. I had had a good education and was well-versed in the Scriptures, so I considered myself thoroughly capable of instructing the village folk, among whom were quite a number of illiterate women. But after several visits I discovered that, despite their illiteracy, those women had an intimate knowledge of the Lord. I knew the Book they haltingly read; they knew the One of whom the Book spoke. I had much in myself; they had much in the Spirit. How many Christian teachers today are teaching others as I was then, very largely in the strength of their carnal equipment!" - Watchman Nee (4) |
Knowledge can also become a source of pride rather than humility. Charles Swindoll asserts:
"Knowledge can be dangerous when it isn't balanced by love and grace. Such knowledge results in arrogance, which leads to an intolerant spirit, an exclusive mindset." (3b)
Knowledge can also cause focus on the letter of the law and miss the Spirit of the law, to know the word of God, but not the God of the word. John White in The Fight wrote,
Knowledge, especially biblical knowledge has the same effect as wine when it goes to your head. You become dizzily exalted. But Bible study should be conducted not with a view to knowing about Christ but to knowing him personally." (3c)
"This means everlasting life, to know (have knowledge of - not about) the only true God and the one that you sent forth Jesus Christ" - John 17:3
In John chapter 17, Jesus raises his eyes to heaven and speaks to his Father, saying, "the time has come for you to glorify your son, that he may glorify you." Jesus who was one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man, gave up his glory that he had "before the founding of the world," to become a mortal man, to sacrifice himself for man and pay the penalty of sin, buying back mankind in favor with God, reconciling man, the price being his blood. Jesus did all this, so mankind could have everlasting life and receive the very same glory Jesus had. Jesus is the everlasting life, the way and the truth. This means everlasting life, knowing (having knowledge of) the Father and the Son, Jesus. To know (have knowledge of) God is to know him intimately, personally, from him, experiencing him. This was not knowing about him, nor learning academic theology, but rather an intimate spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ and the Father. In turn, this would mean everlasting life. Knowing God is not knowing the bible, nor theology but knowing God is knowing the person. Scriptural knowledge is God's way of getting to know him, the person.
Jesus requests of his Father,
"And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." John 17:5-17
We are not to be taken out of the world but to be watched over by God, to be protected and sanctified by God's word, the truth. Jesus prays for us to be protected. He has obtained his glory through us. His prayer asks the Father that we who know him, may be one in complete unity with all others who know him intimately, which in turn is knowing the father personally on an intimate level.
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will." Ephesians 1:4-5
The knowledge of God does not come through simply a bible study. No question and hour sessions, written reviews, nor the attachment to others who claim to be in union with Christ brings one to know God. Rather the knowledge of God is a 'oneness' that can only be obtained by knowing from God, not about God, by knowing him intimately as his Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that is, spirit touches spirit. No theological orthodoxy, numerical calculations, nor detailed prophetic explanations can come between him, us and all others who have an intimate and personal relationship of Spirit with Christ and the Father. We are to be one, as Jesus and the Father are one. Our glory has been "chosen by God to be in union with Christ before the founding of the world, foreordained to the adoption through Jesus Christ as sons to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
There are two ways to know God: We can know about God and we can know from God. We can know about God through theology, preaching, teaching, meeting attendance, book studies, through many doctrinal ministries, from reading the bible and conversing with other people who know about him. This can be very beneficial and truly help a person in many ways. However, in order to really know God, we must know from God.
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3
The only way to intimately know God is learn from him. This can only be achieved with his Spirit. This Spirit must enter us and anoint us or we cannot truly know God. Neither can we walk with the Spirit, without it. For no matter what are actions are, if we are not "born again" with God's Spirit, "dwelling inside" us, then we are walking according to the flesh. We simply cannot be without God's Spirit inside of us and be a follower of Christ. We cannot walk according the Spirit without it "bearing witness to our spirit, crying 'Abba, father,' confirming that we are God's children." If we fail to have God's Spirit anoint us, then we do not truly know him, nor do walk in the Spirit, but walk according to the flesh.
"And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." Romans 8:9
To intimately know God, to obtain the "love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge," to truly gain both the intellectual and the intimacy, we need God's Spirit inside of us. We can never truly "love our fellow man as ourselves," without God's Spirit dwelling inside of us. Even the deep secret intellectual knowledge, which comes secondary to love, requires God's Spirit to comprehend.
Jesus spoke about the condition of the heart. He likened it to the soil of the earth, the ground where plants grow.