Subject: parental responsibility and serving |
Bible Note: Dear saved... Thank you for the reply! Yes, when knowledge is only head knowledge, it isn't beneficial at all. Nevertheless, it is a Scriptural truth that God never bypasses the mind in accomplishing His eternal purpose in His own. Note that that is the case even in the instance you mentioned with your granddaughter. We certainly don't want to throw out the intellectual side of who we are. There were some heretics who were all about knowledge alone. Fascinating that Paul, in dealing with that heresy, prays that the believers would "increase in knowledge" (Colossians 1:9). The word their is Greek for a deep kind of knowledge. The kind of knowledge that effects not just our minds, but our hearts, our actions, and our words. Isn't that amazing? But we shouldn't be surprised by this. The Scripture is, indeed, the very words of God (Hebrews 1:1-2). Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). Paul points out that if we didn't understand those words, there could be no response (1 Corinthians 14:8). We are made in the image of God. Hence we think, we speak, we feel, we act, etc. As believers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we do all these things in a way that brings glory and honor to the Lord through a regenerate life. As you've pointed out, we must be diligent in seeking (searching), asking (inquiring), knocking (exerting the effort to enter in). We become worthy workmen through study (2 Timothy 2:15), growing up in our knowledge and skill in handling the Word. "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:12-14 ESV) "And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes." (Ephesians 4:11-14 ESV) Note that Bible does not promote intellectualism. It promotes the Godly use of the gift our intellect through the revelation of divine truth in lives transformed by the Holy Spirit. In Him, Doc |