THINKING WE KNOW

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.”