When Knowing Becomes a Substitute for Following

A companion study inspired by What Are You Seeking?

I have continued thinking about Sunday’s message, particularly the idea that we can mistake the growth of our knowledge for the growth of our soul. When I said it, I meant it, but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why we so easily make this mistake

Knowledge gives us visible evidence of progress. There are many passages that I understand today that would have confused me several years ago. There are doctrines I once struggled to articulate, just flow form my lips today. And most importantly I can recognize bad interpretations of Scripture more quickly than I once could.

This is proof that growth is taking place, as it should because scripture repeatedly encourages us to grow in knowledge. (2 Peter 3:18) and to study to show yourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:25)

But I am beginning to see that knowledge and spiritual maturity are not necessarily the same thing.

Paul's warns us about knowledge for the sake of knowledge 1 Corinthians 8:1 he says “Knowledge makes one conceited, but love edifies.” Paul was not attacking knowledge. He was addressing Christians who were growing in knowledge but not in their Christian walk.

It means I can be a bible scholar and still be a immature Christian.

I can understand forgiveness without ever forgiving anyone in my life. I can develop a sophisticated understanding of grace, and never be gracious toward anyone. I can study obedience and live my life in rebellion.

That makes spiritual growth much harder to measure than I sometimes want it to be. Perhaps the This is powerful because what it says is that we don’t measure Christian maturity bye how much scripture we know, but by how much scripture has authority over our lives.

And that brought me to something else from Sunday that I have been trying to work out.

What gives Jesus the right to ask for everything?

When Jesus calls people to follow Him, His demands can sound extreme. Luke records Jesus telling the crowds that anyone who comes to Him must place loyalty to Him, above (the NASB says must hate) father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even his own life. He tells them to carry their cross. (or be willing to die) Then He concludes by saying that a person cannot be His disciple without giving up all his possessions.

I understand why someone would read that and ask, “What gives Jesus the right to ask so much of me?”

My immediate answer is that Jesus is Lord. If He is truly God, He already possesses authority over everything He created, including us. That answer is biblically sufficient.

But after Sunday, I started wondering whether the cross gives us another way of seeing the question.

Jesus asks for everything after giving everything.

That changes the way I hear His demand.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:15 that Christ “died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.”

I had read that verse many times, but it connects surrender directly to the cross in a way I had not fully considered. Paul does not merely say Christ died so that we could live. He says Christ died so that those who live would no longer live for themselves.

The cross therefore does more than secure forgiveness. It establishes a new claim upon the life that has been rescued.

That thought becomes even stronger in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, where Paul says, “you are not your own” because “you have been bought for a price.”

That is uncomfortable language in a culture where personal autonomy is almost sacred. We naturally think of our lives as belonging to us. My career. My money. My relationships. My plans. My future.

But Paul seems to understand the cross differently. If Christ purchased my redemption with His own blood, then Christianity cannot simply mean adding Jesus to the life I already intended to live.

I belong to Him.

And suddenly Jesus asking for everything does not seem disconnected from the gospel. It seems like one of its consequences.

Maybe the question is value

This also made me think again about the illustration we discussed concerning price and value.

Ten thousand dollars for a hamburger sounds ridiculous. Ten thousand dollars for a house sounds unbelievable.

The amount never changed.

What changed was the value of what was being received.

Perhaps surrender works similarly.

If I concentrate entirely on what Jesus asks me to surrender, discipleship can appear unbearably expensive. Career, security, relationships, possessions, plans, even life itself. Jesus never pretended those things were worthless.

But perhaps the real question is whether I have correctly understood the value of Christ.

Paul said he counted everything as loss “because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” in Philippians 3:8. That sounds very different from someone reluctantly surrendering valuable things because Christianity demands it. Paul had discovered something he considered more valuable.

I think that is where these two thoughts from Sunday finally meet.

Knowledge can tell me that Jesus is worth everything.

But discipleship begins when I actually believe He is.

And perhaps that is why growing in knowledge and growing in soul are not necessarily the same thing. One teaches me the value of Christ.

The other changes what I am willing to surrender because I have discovered His value for myself.

To watch the full sermon or follow the series  click the link below

FireSpeaks

Watch the full sermon here:
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