As he stepped out of bed, he bumped his knee into the night stand and let out a bit of a whimpering yell as not to wake his sleeping wife. A few steps later, the elderly man stepped on the dog's tale and caused it to bark and nip at the man's foot, nearly knocking him over. He finally got to the door to enter the hall, but he fumbled around for the doorknob and created a scratching ruckus loud enough to wake his wife.
"What are you doing, Edgar?" (His name is Edgar. I probably should have mentioned that sooner.)
"I'm going to the bathroom, but I can't find the door," Edgar responded. His name is Edgar. Did I tell you that?
"Well...have you got on your glasses?" Myrtle asked. Her name is Myrtle, but you don't really need to know that.
"Yes, of course I've got my glasses, Tabitha," he answered. I forgot. Her name is actually Tabitha.
"Is the doorknob still there, Edgar?" Myrtle came back.
"Yes, I'm sure the doorknob is still there. Where else would it be?" an impatient Edgar snapped.
"Did you bother to turn the light on?"
I wear glasses. Many people wear glasses. Those who are insecure enough in their appearance wear contact lenses or go around blind. Glasses are great for making your vision clearer and letting you see better either at a distance or closer up. That's fantastic, I think. You know what else glasses are great for? Making a fashion statement, which you wouldn't know if you wear contacts or had wimp laser surgery done.
The point I'm getting at, though, is that glasses can do some things well and others not so much. Unless your glasses are of the night-vision variety, they will not help you see in the dark. That's just not something that normal eyeglasses can do. For that, it's best that you just turn on the lights.
Edgar had forgotten that crucial step, and he ended up causing some problems. A lot of us have the same problem when it comes to our spiritual lives. We're real clear on what we think of Jesus, but we don't really have Jesus.
It's great that you spend time in the Bible reading about Jesus. That's fantastic. It's wonderful that you read message boards and supporting materials to see what people have to say about Christ and our relationship with God. Cool! Do that. I love it that you want to have deep, religious conversations with people and pick their brains about who Jesus is to them and what He means when he says this or that. Good! But y'all...there is so much more than that.
When we take care of the intellectual aspects of religion, we're putting on glasses in the dark. It makes the picture clearer, sure, but you still can't really see the picture, can you, because it's still shrouded in darkness. There's no such thing as a saving knowledge.
Don't misunderstand me. Our knowledge of Christ and our Biblical IQ can lead to a saving faith, sure, but that intellect alone will never be enough. You're just seeing the dark more clearly.
John 5:39 (NLT)
"You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me!
It is great if people want to know who Jesus is and what He did, but knowing is just half the battle. It all comes down to faith, and faith is far more active than knowledge. Faith requires sacrifice. And action. And doing stuff. Which is action.
But before I get to action, let's talk about those Scriptures I referenced up there...with Scriptures. (Cue Inception button) I fully believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that we should take it at it's Word. If we do not, we are essentially calling God a liar, in my opinion.
I've heard people say that they admire the teachings of Christ but they do not see Him as God. Some people go so far as to say that perhaps there is a grand conspiracy that Jesus' political followers made him out to be more than He said He was later on so that their movement would gain traction.
Interesting theory, really. However, it has a few flaws. The primary flaw is this. If you say that you like what Jesus said and you like his political movement, but not the statements about Him being God, then how can you trust the political statements in the Bible? How do you know they're really what God said?
That is why we have to ask ourselves if we trust the Bible's claims of God fully or not. If we do not, then we have no business claiming Christ in any way, shape or form, whether religiously or politically. If we do, then we must take Him at His full Word. Fully.
The reason I branch off into this tangent is because if we are going to approach the idea of Faith in God through intellectual knowledge about God, then we have to understand what exactly that intellectual knowledge of God indicates. If our knowledge of God is flawed, then our Faith will never be fully realized. Again, consider the story of Edgar and Mary. Or Maybelle. Whatever her name was. You have buttons. Scroll up and read it again. Seriously, that story couldn't take you more than thirty-seconds to read. I'll wait.
So consider the story of Ed and Willamena once more. Had he turned on the lights, but not put on his glasses, his vision would still be obscured. Now we know that our knowledge of Christ will never be complete in this life, but that doesn't mean we should not strive to know God more, and if the light is on, then the picture really will become clearer the more we know of Jesus Christ and who He is.
When you pair the two together, knowledge and faith, you get a brilliant picture of who God is, and that is an image that nobody should half experience.
The story that John 5 tells is one that is common in the gospels. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of the day, very intelligent men, just after performing a great many miracles. These guys don't like Jesus very much, and He rebukes them for it. Go read John 5 and see how Jesus talks to them. He says that Moses will judge them because Moses wrote about Jesus long before any of these things had happened, but they would not believe. They had no faith in Jesus.
Let's jump ahead, though. Look to John 18, specifically v. 10-11. While Jesus is being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Simon Peter cuts off a dude's ear with a sword. I'm not sure if that's the worst aim ever or the best aim ever, because it can't be easy to cut off an ear, but he was probably aiming for the middle of this guy's head. So...yeah.
Anyway, look at what Jesus says to Simon Peter. He tells Simon Peter that He must go do what He is supposed to do. Jesus tells Peter that these things must happen. Peter didn't know what Jesus was going to do. Peter lacked knowledge, but man, did he have some faith, or what? Not necessarily the right faith, maybe, but his love and his passion for Christ was so great that he was willing to attack a servant of the high priest. That's pretty serious, y'all.
So that's what happens when we pair faith and belief with ignorance. We get action without direction and results. We get action without compassion. I think that right there describes so much of what the Christian culture is about these days: we act without concern for consequences. We're chopping off ears left and right because we're trying to defend Christ.
Had Peter known what the purpose of this arrest would ultimately be, I doubt he would have been so eager to chop off a man's ear. Or head. Either way. But Peter had no idear. (Ha. I didn't even mean to type that, but I did, and now I'm leaving it because I like puns.)
To review: knowledge without faith is darkness, but faith without knowledge is dangerous. When we do not know and understand Christ's capacity for love, we act without thinking or loving people. We fail to realize just how much God loves people, even those who do not know Him. Yes, we are absolutely called to minister to the lost and share Christ's message with them, but we cannot do so at the cost of everything we're working for. If we chop off people's ears, how will they hear that God truly loves them?
So what happens when faith and knowledge come together? Stephen.
Go read Acts 7. In Acts 7, Stephen becomes "the first martyr." More importantly, he schools the Sanhedrin. He recounts their entire history and their religion, but he does so while proclaiming Christ. He knows that this will get him killed most likely, but Stephen has the faith to follow Christ's calling to the end. Stephen uses the knowledge he has of Christ and the Jewish faith to spread the Word.
"I don't think God's going to call me to share the gospel with the Sanhedrin, Adam." Yeah. You're probably right. I think they've disbanded by now (speaking of which...did you hear about Motley Crue?), but that doesn't mean you can't put your knowledge and faith to action. I have a hard time believing that Stephen's first time speaking up was in front of those guys. Oh. That's right. He was there specifically because he had been caught sharing with people about Jesus, along with a little good'ol fashioned courtroom lying.
When our faith and our knowledge of Christ come together, we can do incredible things. Not just for others, but also for ourselves. Like I said, I want you to read your Bible. I want you to be in the Word. Great! Do those things. But do them with the light of Jesus guiding your reading. Do them with the knowledge of Christ guiding you closer to Him.
Please. Turn on the Light. If you do, people will see it.
Also, put your glasses on. Don't step on the poor dog's tail.
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