Seek, seek again ! (3)

Thursday September 9, 2021

Seek, seek again ! (3)

John 13.17 - If you know these things, you are happy, as long as you do them.

We have seen these last days that God's people are perishing for lack of knowledge. Now, the Lord Jesus has just added an additional element : knowledge only makes people happy if it leads to putting them into practice. If you've done a bit of hermeneutics, you know that after observation and interpretation must come the application. What do I mean by that ?

When we read the Word of God, we can observe facts, we can "put them together" and seek to understand what God wants to tell us, what is the truth that He wants to teach us : this is the interpretation. But this knowledge only becomes effective when we know what behavior to adopt, what decision to make or what change to make in our daily life.

I take a picture : you can know a lot of things about a car ! How does a four-stroke engine work, what an abs is, the different components of the fuel, the role of the spark plugs, the battery, the shock absorbers, the camshaft... As long as you have not turned the key ignition and "engaged" the gear lever, you will not advance an inch !

We can learn a lot of things about God, about "doctrine", about fundamental truths... All of this is of little use, if not to say anything, if it does not change anything in our life. Knowledge must lead to action and experience !

The apostles could have transmitted the teaching of the Lord Jesus on the Holy Spirit, his role, the capacities that He gives, who He is... But their knowledge became effective and I would say blessed, on the day of Pentecost, when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. No need to explain glossolalia (speaking in tongues) with A plus B, they just had to demonstrate the veracity of the Word of Christ : "They will speak new tongues" (Mark 16.17) by practicing this wonderful gift !

My beloved : what interests God is not the knowledge that is in our head, but the experiential knowledge of his Word in our daily life.

Good reflection.

Source (Ezekiel 37 Ministries)