knowledge
Beyond Knowledge
By Linda Rex
January 28, 2024, 4th Sunday | Epiphany—One of the things I had to learn early on as a fledgling pastor was the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. What I mean is, when speaking to the congregation, my purpose was not to inform them about a topic so much as it was to inspire them to follow Christ with greater depth and faithfulness. Fresh from my seminary classes, I was bubbling over with a lot of great information, but what was needed was not simply more theological information, but the living Word of God speaking a word through me that would touch the heart, that the Spirit could use to convict and transform the inner being of those who were listening.
In my family, as we grew up, one of the values that was important was knowing things or being well-informed on about every subject. This may be why I’ve always been fascinated by the newest discoveries in science, especially since reading Thomas F. Torrance’s books on the interrelation between science and theology. Science and theology, I once heard Dr. McKenna say, are intended to inform one another, to work together in unity for the betterment of humankind. Often, sad to say, this is not what happens.
Today, our scientific knowledge is constantly reaching new heights. I’m inevitably amazed by the new things we are finding out about our cosmos. Lately my interest has been in quantum theory—of which I know very little, but from what I can see, seems to echo the divine three-in-oneness of the Trinity. All this new science is fascinating and challenging, but from what I have seen historically, every advancement in science needs to be tempered by other-centered, self-giving love, or it presents the possibility for destruction and catastrophe.
This brings me to the passage for this Sunday, 1 Corinthians 8:1–13, in which the apostle Paul addresses some questions regarding whether believers should eat food offered to idols. Even though some believers knew and understood that idols had no real life in themselves, and meat offered to idols really was just, in the end, meat that could be eaten, there were believers who had, for many years, sacrificed meat to idols. Even though they had abandoned paganism and its practices when they came to faith in Christ, their conscience and understanding were not yet at the place where eating meat offered to idols was clearly okay. They still had questions and concerns, and were vulnerable to falling back into their old belief systems and practices.
So, the apostle Paul reminded believers that more important than the believers’ knowledge about meat offered to idols was their love and concern for their brothers and sisters. In other words, love trumps knowledge. Being knowledgeable can become a source of pride to us, and when we are not careful with it and insist on being able to do what we have a right to do or the freedom to do, we can severely injure others. Instead of trying to prove how knowledgeable we are or how free we are, Paul writes, we need to being concerned for the welfare of others, and do our best not to cause unnecessary harm.
Looking back over my brief years as a pastor, I see times when I was more interested in proving how much I knew and how right I was than I was concerned for the wellbeing of those I was ministering to. I was caught up in expressing my freedom in Christ—which is a good thing—but it was not always beneficial to those around me. If there are any who were wounded by this, I sincerely ask forgiveness, for I realize now that what I was doing was not always for the wellbeing of others.
Recently on Our Life in the Trinity, I talked about our sacred oneness, and my focus was on our human body, and the covenant relationship we have with God, and with our spouse. Our sacred oneness also involves our participation in the Body of Christ, the Church, for we are bound together by the Spirit to be of one mind and heart, for the sake of others. As brothers and sisters in Christ, united to God and one another by the Spirit, we are meant to live together, serve others, and testify to the love and grace of God in Christ, in sacred oneness.
Whatever the cost to ourselves today in caring for one another within and without the Body of Christ, it is nothing compared with the self-offering of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that we may live. When any one of us insists upon our rights at the expense of others, or expressing our freedom in Christ in spite of its affect on others, we violate the sacred oneness of the Body of Christ. In fact, we violate Christ himself. We’re all on this journey together, growing up in Christ, but some of us are at different places along the journey. Rather than hindering one another’s progress, we want to be careful to edify or build up one another instead. Because, when all is said and done, what will last on into eternity won’t be “knowledge”, but other-centered, self-giving, serving love (1 Cor. 13).
Heavenly Father, you are the one from whom are all things and for whom we exist. Lord Jesus, you are the one by whom are all things and through whom we exist. Grant us the grace to always be careful not to injure or wound the conscience of others by our freedom in Christ. Fill us, by your Spirit, with other-centered self-giving love, and let it ever flow through us to others for their well-being, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” 1 Corinthians 8:1–13 NASB
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Confirming the Testimony of Christ
By Linda Rex
December 3, 2023, 1st Sunday in Advent—I was reminded this morning of the blessing and gift we have been given of fellowship in our Lord Jesus Christ. Last Tuesday when I woke up, I was greatly challenged with being able to write and post this blog and to provide Sunday’s sermon on video, because I was very sick and my head was filled more with congestion that it was with any coherent thought.
I put out a prayer request for those who participate with me in Our Life in the Trinity, and was so blessed to have the Lord’s mercies in clearing up by noon almost completely the congestion and fuzziness of brain I had been experiencing. I was able to post both the blog and the video by evening, and I can give no credit anywhere but to the Lord Jesus Christ, and my gratitude to the believers for their faithful prayers on my behalf.
I believe this is what the apostle Paul was describing in his passage for this week, 1 Corinthians 1:3–9. I do give thanks to God concerning every one of you who support me in this ministry, for the grace of God has not been without effect, and the testimony of Jesus has been confirmed over and over in all of you. As Paul reminds us, this is the work of our God, who is faithful, and who has called us together into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ.
Paul was wise enough to realize that whatever gifts he had been given of speech and knowledge were gifts of the Spirit from our Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that the believers in Corinth valued skills of human rhetoric or speech and knowledge, but what Paul focused on in his letter was fellowship with our Lord. The Spirit generously showers spiritual gifts upon us, but it is Jesus who confirms in us the grace of God by his Spirit, making us blameless. Our identity is in Jesus Christ and as we trust in him, dying in his death and rising in his resurrection and ascension, we participate in his own face-to-face intimate fellowship with his Father in the Spirit.
This is meant to be most evident within the context of spiritual community, where those who trust in Christ are joined together in the fellowship of the Spirit, sharing in their common faith in our Lord Jesus. The gifts of the Spirit showered upon the Body of Christ are not meant for personal glory or aggrandizement, but for the equipping of the saints, to aid in our growing up into the fulness of Christ. Together, we live as those who trust in Christ, reflecting the divine perichoresis or koinonia in our relationships with one another. This is evident testimony to the reality of our living Lord Jesus Christ by his Spirit at work in and through us.
As the psalmist says, apart from what God has done, is doing, and will do through our Lord Jesus Christ and by his Spirit, we are at the mercy of our sins and brokenness (Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19). The prophet Isaiah reminds us that apart from the mercy and compassionate intervention of God, we are not able to live out the covenant life God has called us into (Isaiah 64:1–9). But God is, by nature, merciful and compassionate, so he did not leave any of us in the state of bondage to evil, sin, and death. No, in Christ, he has set us free, and invites us to participate in that freedom by faith in Jesus.
The good news is that, as God in human flesh, Jesus lives in face-to-face relationship with our Father in the Spirit, and he enables us to share in this union and communion by faith in Christ. It’s not all up to us, thankfully, but all up to him, even though he honors our personhood and allows us to say ‘No’ to his ‘Yes’ in Christ. Our Triune God’s ‘Yes’ to us stands in spite of our ‘No’, but if we insist, in spite of and in the face of the consuming fire of his love, we will experience the results of that resistance to God’s love. It is hard for me to imagine someone so forcibly resisting God’s love, but we are persons who at times can be quite stubborn in our resistance against what is beautiful, loving and good. I am grateful, as ever, that it’s not up to me to decide any of this, but up to our loving, gracious Lord Jesus, who is both the judged and the Judge. May his Name be praised evermore!
Our loving, heavenly Father, thank you for your faithfulness by which we are saved and brought, in your Son, into face-to-face fellowship with you in the Spirit. Grant us the grace to allow you to finish what you have begun in us, by fully participating in your saving work, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:3–9 NASB
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Where Death Reigns, Grace Triumphs
by Linda Rex
February 26, 2023, 1st Sunday in Preparation for Easter | Lent—I’ve been pondering the way in which we as human beings so often trade in our relationships with God and others for things that ultimately don’t satisfy. I believe this began in the garden of Eden, in that conversation Eve had with the serpent who deceived her. He told her that when she ate the forbidden fruit, her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, knowing good from evil.
When reading over that part of the creation story, we often miss the subtle detail of what Adam and Eve turned their back on when they chose to disregard God’s instruction to leave alone the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What we fail to see and appreciate is the magnitude of what Adam and Eve had from the beginning—a personal relationship with the God who created them, a warm fellowship characterized by walking and talking together, sharing life in union and communion with Father, Son, and Spirit.
It is instructive that the serpent or Satan told Eve, and she believed it, that being “like God” meant that she would know good and evil. The knowing that she and Adam were created for was not this kind of knowing, but that which involved both the knowledge of who God was, but also knowing God in an intimate and personal way. Walking and talking with God, living in face-to-face relationship, is what humans were created for, and Adam and Eve traded this in for the knowledge of good and evil.
When their eyes were “opened,” what they saw wasn’t the truth any longer. Sin had entered their existence, and with it, death, and when they encountered God again in the garden, they couldn’t face him anymore. So, they hid. And human beings have been hiding from God ever since. Shame, guilt, and blindness kept them from seeing that God had not changed at all—they were the ones who were so alienated in their minds that they could no longer see the truth.
What the apostle Paul shares in the New Testament reading for this Sunday, Romans 5:12–19, is the lengths to which God went to make this whole situation right. Because of the one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and therefore death entered the world. Adam set the course of humanity on the path to death and destruction—returning back to the nothingness out of which God had made everything. But God, being God, was not content to allow this to happen without doing what was needed to restore and renew all things.
In the garden of Eden story, following their rebellion, God walks into the garden looking for Adam and Eve, but they are hiding. What does God do? He seeks them out and calls them back into relationship with himself. When he sees they are uncomfortable with their nakedness, he, through the shedding of animal blood, clothes them. He tells them the consequence of their choices—the result of sin, but then offers them hope in his promise of a redeemer.
In the fullness of time, God kept that promise, in the person of Jesus Christ. Here, a human being, who was the Son of God in human flesh, came to live a genuinely human life in face to face relationship with Father in the Spirit. Jesus did what Adam did not do. In the gospel reading for this Sunday, Matthew 4:1-11, we learn about the new Adam, Jesus Christ, and his encounter with “the serpent” Satan during his time of testing in the wilderness after forty days of fasting.
During this spiritual battle, Satan challenged Jesus in three ways, what the apostle John calls “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16 NIV). Looking back to Eden, we find these same temptations are a common occurrence in our human flesh. The consequence of our yielding to them in sin is and has been death. When we try to resolve these on our own, through law keeping or even ignoring them, we find ourselves even more enslaved by sin. It is only in Christ that we have any hope of redemption.
The wonder of what God has done to resolve what occurred in Adam, is seen in the one man Jesus Christ, in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and even in the sending of the Spirit by which all of us can individually participate in his intimate relationship with Father in the Spirit. We, by faith, can now experience the union and communion we were created for—coming to know not just about God, but to know him personally and relationally as his adopted children. We can live now and forever triumphant over evil, sin, and death because of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ’s obedience in the face of profound temptation from the evil one has undone Adam’s, and therefore humanity’s, disobedience and sin. Jesus’ righteousness, or right relationship with God, has become our own righteousness. Jesus’ justification has undone our injustice and rebellion, restoring us and making us one with God. Death itself has been defeated, such that we participate now and forever in the eternal life Jesus spoke of, that of knowing the Father, and him whom he sent (John 17:3). Every one of us is invited to live this out, as we trust in Jesus’ perfect work in our place and on our behalf, and receive his gift of the Spirit of life everlasting, embracing our place as beloved children of our Father.
Thank you, Father, for your great love and faithfulness. Thank you, Jesus, for coming for us, facing temptation, and triumphing over evil, sin, and death. As we live in face-to-face relationship with you, dear God, may your heavenly Spirit, manifest anew in and through us all the righteousness and goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:12–19 NASB
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The Subtlety of Unbelief
By Linda Rex
On Wednesday evenings at our discussion group we have been addressing the topic of hell. One of the concerns which was raised this week was how we determine whether or not we are getting off track in our reading and studying. This is a really good question.
Sometimes we can be so afraid of being deceived or getting off track we become afraid of reading anything other than the Bible. We can take this fear even to the place where we restrict our reading of the Bible to only one translation, or we only use a Bible put out by our particular denomination, rejecting all others as heretical.
At other times we may believe only one particular Bible teacher has the truth about God’s Word. We read everything this person writes, listen only to this person speaking, and we believe they are the only ones who really know the truth about God’s Word. We refuse to listen to what anyone else may have to say about the Bible or what to believe because we do not trust them to be telling the truth.
Unfortunately, our approach to learning about God and about the Bible may end up being governed by fear and mistrust rather than by the faith, hope, and love God gives to us in Christ by the Spirit. Instead of resting in Jesus Christ and trusting he will keep us in the center of his will, we anxiously work to make sure we don’t accidentally wander off the path of holiness.
The Scriptures say God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth as we trust in Christ and allow him to lead us. Yes, it is important to ground ourselves in the Word of God, but only as we allow the living Word of God to take precedence in all things, and allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of where we may be getting off track.
This whole process of studying the written Word of God and seeking to know the truth which will set us free is a relational effort—a participation with Christ by the Spirit in listening to, hearing, and acting upon what the Father is saying to us in the Scriptures. The question is, do we trust God to keep us on the right track, and if we wander off somewhere, to bring us back to the Truth who is Jesus Christ?
How do we gauge if a teaching or a translation is off track? How do we know if what someone is teaching doesn’t agree with the truth presented to us in Christ? And this is the key: Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our living relationship with our Abba, and he gives his Spirit to us to lead us into all truth. He is the center.
When we begin to look at difficult topics such as hell, we begin with the appropriate lens. That lens is the Lord Jesus Christ and who he is as God in human flesh, and what he teaches us about the Father, himself, and the Spirit, and what he teaches us about ourselves. This grounds us and enables us to see more clearly the difference between truth and error. Looking through this lens also involves comprehending, believing, and receiving the reality of God’s love expressed to us in the giving of his Son and his Spirit for salvation and redemption.
We need to stay centered in the incomprehensible reality God willed not to be God without us: he chose before time began to include us in his life and love, and so he ordained before time began to send his Son in human flesh to draw us up into life in himself. Understanding and believing in the truth of this reality enables us to begin to read the Scriptures with greater clarity and less confusion. We are less likely to be swept aside by false concepts of God and eschatology (any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.).
What God did for us in Jesus wasn’t an afterthought or a reaction to what humanity did, but rather what he intended all along. It was not an outflow of his anger against humanity or the rejection of his Son, but rather an embracing of all of us as lost, broken, rebellious children in need of redemption. That God, in his freedom to be the God he is, would do something new—not only creating creatures to share life with, but also joining them to himself forever—is an amazing and wonderful thing.
It is equally amazing that he who lived ever and always in love, joy, and peace, was willing to reconcile suffering, sorrow, and evil with himself in such a way it would be forever nullified and transformed into the very thing which binds us to himself in love.
Jesus is God’s judgment on sin, evil, and death. This judgment (or krisis) each of us encounters is not something or Someone which we should fear, but the Person which we should embrace in faith, trusting Christ is for us all we need in the face of our sin, brokenness, and depravity. Jesus Christ, who is God in human flesh, is the perfect answer or response to God for each one of us, no matter our situation or history or failure.
For this reason, we have nothing to fear when it comes to seeking to know God more fully and completely. Christ has gone ahead of us and has sent his Spirit so we might know which direction to go.
Yes, we have the responsibility to choose our teachers wisely. They need to coincide in their teaching and life with what we know about who Jesus Christ is as the God/man, and who he reveals God to be in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and in the sending of the Spirit. Our teachers need to be willing to submit to being taught and to sit humbly under the mentorship of those with greater spiritual depth, maturity, and knowledge. The Spirit in them will resonate with the Spirit in us, and we will begin to see with greater clarity the magnitude and depth of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ in their teaching.
One of the healthiest things we can do to keep ourselves on the right track is to find other believers who are well-grounded in Christ and to study the Word of God with them. As we pray together, listen to the written Word of God together, and wrestle with our questions and thoughts about what we are learning, the Holy Spirit brings us into a deeper knowledge and understanding of the truth. As we are open to it, we have brothers and sisters who can point out when we are drifting away from our center in Christ. And at the same time, we by the Spirit are growing into a deeper fellowship with God and one another.
Are there times when we may wander off the path? No doubt. But this is why it is essential to walk by faith, not by sight. We trust in the perfect work of Christ and in the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We hold all we read, hear, and see up against the mirror of the living Word of God as revealed in the written Word of God, and we ask ourselves, does this agree with the truth revealed to us in Jesus Christ? Does this diminish Christ or magnify him? And we go from there—it’s a walk of faith.
Thank you, Abba, for the gift of your Son the living Word, and for the gift of your precious Spirit. Keep us on the narrow path of faith, and free us from fear and anxiety about missing the mark. When we wander here and there, please bring us back to our center in Christ. We thank you that you are faithful and dependable, and that you will not leave us as orphans, lost or without direction. Open your written Word to our understanding, and transform our hearts by faith, we pray, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:1-6 NASB
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