THINKING WE KNOW
1 Corinthians 8:2 KJV
“And if any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know.”
All natural perceptions
of God and His word are limited. Our mental capacities are attuned to things within
the dimension of time, space, and matter. When it comes to spiritual knowledge God
must activate our spiritual sensitivity and has by giving us His, “engrafted
word which is able to save your souls.” James 1:21. To intellectually comprehend what we are made
spiritually aware of we are forced to rearrange those spiritual perceptions into
mental concepts.
For that reason any codified spiritually based belief system
(doctrine, dogma, or ideology) that claims to be incontrovertibly accurate is automatically
disqualified as true. Even the Holy
Bible, which is intended as spiritual food, when filtered through these or
other intellectual constructs become suitable for cerebral consumption only. These rational devices hide spiritual communication
behind an intellectual screen. The same type
of carnal screen Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry countering.
Paul in first Corinthians eight, verse one through three, goes
so far as to say if you even think you know something about God and His word you
have missed the point. Human beings endowed
with an integrated system of brain and spirit must try to make sense out of spiritual
perceptions. But God has not called
mankind to build a growing body of thoughts and concepts about Him but rather to
know Him and experience a mutual recognition…Spirit to spirit.
Even though our knowledge of God is frustrated we can be
certain God knows us. The knowledge we
should seek is an awareness of God and His word living within us. This moment by moment relational “knowledge
of God” is the kind of knowledge He calls us to. A type of knowledge He wants us to have. A recognition that provides “everything we
need for life and godliness…” 2 Peter 1:3.
It is an intuitively sensed and spiritually discerned awareness the
Bible describes as the “knowledge of God”.
Let us have no doubt that our carefully construct doctrines,
rigidly held beliefs, most reliable convictions, and unquestioned dogmas are all
less than one hundred percent accurate. For
that reason it is foolish to suppose we can ever capture, understand, and
adhere to the “knowledge of God” He desires for us by correctly codifying any doctrine
or dogma. It is most certainly an error
to insist that doctrine trumps the voice of God within. So I plead with my brothers and sisters to resist
the interference of institutional or personal, socio-political or ideological, “knowledge”.
How we know that we know Him is the
subject for another blog discussion focusing on 1 John 4:7. Guard your spiritual sensitivity to,
recognition of, and submission to the word of God spoken in your heart. It is far better to be aware of God spiritually
then to know Him intellectually. After
all, that is what we ought to know. “And if any man thinks that he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”