Why We Need To Know All That
My previous article mentioned the dangers of a believer having a cavalier attitude toward knowledge and intellectual development. It noted how faith should be a starting point and motivation to seek understanding, and the need to be careful so that our engagement in diverse Christian services does not distract from our Christian education.
But why do we need this knowledge and understanding?
The reason is multifaceted. At the most basic level, learning is a universal need. Our unique intellectual capacity as humans is largely neutral, and what we do with it significantly depends on how we are nurtured, instructed, or influenced, directly or indirectly. As the sage said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, NKJV). While there is always the possibility of coming to know better and charting a new course later in life, the teaching we receive, especially in our formative years, goes a long way in molding our character, worldview, mindset, and pursuits.
When we come to Christ through faith, we are spiritually reborn (2 Corinthians 5:17). As spiritual children, we need to be appropriately instructed on the values and issues of our new life, which are often different from those of the larger world in which we live and our natural inclinations (Jeremiah 17:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17). Like when we were naturally born, our spiritual sensibilities after our rebirth are exposed to diverse spiritual perversions and religious corruption in the world. We need proper Christian education to get our spiritual bearings right.
That is why Scripture urges us, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:2–3). It is sound Word-based teaching that enables us to “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (see Colossians 3:8–11). It helps us to “put to death the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13), conditions us to “seek those things which are above” (Colossians 3:1), and empowers us to “walk worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10).
In other words, our Christian education should impact and remold every aspect of our lives, including our values, worldview, methods, lifestyle, priorities, and aspirations. And the effects should be observable to us and those around us (Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 13:5). Through this operation, we are able to serve the Lord in a way that is effective and acceptable to him, as opposed to what is convenient for us or expected by the world around us (Romans 12:2).
To be sure, the life of a believer should generally be approvable by those who do not know God (1 Timothy 3:7). However, the larger world has its priorities and aspirations, and as long as they remain unsubmitted to God, even our good works will be expected to serve their interest and purpose. Without proper education, we may unwittingly adopt their standards and begin to strive to please them at the expense of God, through action or inaction.
As a “special people” of God, we need a clear “knowledge of his will,” a “spiritual understanding” of who we are and what we have been called to do, and we should intentionally prioritize these things as we seek to serve and impact the world for Christ (Colossians 1:9; 1 Peter 2:9). We should use every opportunity to serve others, but we should also bear in mind that service without spiritual value or impact has no eternal value or reward (1 Corinthians 3:12–15).
This need to get our Christian bearings right through proper knowledge and understanding is a theme of Ephesians 4. As the passage reveals, our Christian education is provided through five types of ministers that Christ has appointed to equip the members of his church — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The objective of their ministry is for the disciples of Christ to “come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (see Ephesians 4:11–14).
But there are other more consequential and far-reaching reasons why Christian knowledge and understanding are crucial to us.
(To be continued.)
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