My time with God continued my exploration of Paul’s reference to “the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left”[1] in relation to Peter’s teaching on supplementing our faith with expressions of righteousness.[2] Peter began with, “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,” and then, “and (make every effort to supplement your) virtue with knowledge”.
I have summarized the definition of virtue as, “the moral excellence of being like Jesus”, and of knowledge as, “to know what is true by experience or endowment.” Now the question is, how do we supplement our Christlike virtue with the knowledge that is distinct to being born again?
I looked up a whole collection of scriptures that revolved around the connection between knowledge and truth. I will just share the first one where Paul told Timothy about “…God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”[3]
This shows us God’s heart. He is God. He is the Savior who saves people “out of darkness” and brings them “into his marvelous light.”[4] His heart is for people “to be saved” in this salvation he has provided. And a distinctive component of salvation is that we would “come to the knowledge of the truth.”
I am always mindful of how personal knowledge is to God. This comes across very clearly in Jesus’ description of “eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”[5] To be alive in Christ is about knowing God. Knowledge of the truth is to know God the way a child has knowledge of his or her parents. It isn’t how much they know about their parents, but that they are alive to know them. In a loving home, this knowing of one another can keep growing in healthy and maturing ways.
I was reminded that the reason there is such a sharp contrast between what God’s children know and what worldlings know is because we are alive and they are dead. We also have our eyes wide-open to see while worldlings’ eyes are blind to God. Paul expressed the contrast like this, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”,[6] and, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[7]
This reminded me of a phrase that I had to look up for context: “He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’”[8] It struck me that a man who was blind but now could see had a knowledge through sight that he simply didn’t have when he was blind. It wasn’t about how much he suddenly knew, but that he suddenly knew! He could immediately know what was going on around him by seeing in a way that was not possible in his blindness.
When I read the context of this miracle, it all began with such a simple description of Jesus: “As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.”[9] What stood out was the wonder of Jesus seeing someone. It reminded me of lil’ ol’ Zacchaeus climbing the Sycamore tree to see Jesus and discovering that Jesus saw him and had already planned to have dinner at his house![10] There is something amazing about having our eyes opened and discovering Jesus seeing us that is nothing like the pompous arrogance of the blind who are leading the blind and cannot see the Savior even when they are staring him in the face!
My take-away right now is to begin with the knowledge of God about me bringing me into the knowledge from God about him. And because eternal life is “to know God”, supplementing our faith with virtue, and supplementing our virtue with knowledge, means that our faith keeps growing us to be more like Jesus while we continually get to know God better than we have ever known him before.
And, when I understand it like this, or “know” it as
true and real, I am encouraged in my oldish age that supplementing a Christlike
faith with knowledge is what will keep me growing and improving for the rest of
my life because my eyes are now wide-open-alive to knowing God my Father
through faith in Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.
© 2023
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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