Are you still growing in Christ? In the eighties, a popular book came out titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I mean no disrespect to that book, but a similarly titled book ought never be written about Christianity, All I Really Need to Know About God I Learned in Sunday School. We are to be continuously growing in our knowledge of God. This was the prayer of Paul for the Christians in Colossae: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you will the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives… (Colossians 1:9).” “Knowledge of his will” does not refer to God’s personal will for our lives in this context, but God’s redemptive will, which has been ongoing since the beginning of history and has been recorded in his Word.
Knowledge has consequences. What we know and believe has an impact on how we live. A sad example of this is John T. Earnest. No one saw him going bad. He had parents who taught him to shun evil and show love. His dad was an elder at a Presbyterian church in San Diego where the family attended services. He had a 4.31 GPA. Yet, he entered the Poway Synagogue and shot four people, leaving one dead.
Earnest left behind a seven-page manifesto. The manifesto largely represents teachings and conspiracies posted on websites like 4chan, 8chan, and reddit. However, as Julie Zaumer of the Washington Post pointed out, Earnest did at times reference an alleged Christian theology in his manifesto – albeit incorrectly.
In a world where we have more information at our fingertips than any other point in time, there is a great need to grow in our knowledge of God’s redemptive will. Such knowledge will have an impact in our lives. If we want to live a life worthy of the Lord, our knowledge needs to grow.
What are you doing to continue to grow in your knowledge of Christ? While most American households have a Bible, statistics tell us that few open and read it. Are you involved in a Bible study? Do you have a daily habit of devotional time? In this age of digital information, we need to anchor ourselves to the knowledge of God’s will now more than ever.