On the Job Training

Who doesn’t want to know God better? I certainly do. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the time, or the aptitude, to pursue advanced degrees in theology or Biblical studies. And even if we did, I think we can all recognize that knowing about someone is not the same thing as knowing them.

Thanks to our modern education system, most of us tend to think that we have to learn something before we can go out and do it. That’s how we teach children, and for many subjects it seems to work. But when it comes to the things of God, the order is reversed; it’s by doing that we come to understand. Being a follower of Jesus is not a classroom; it’s an apprenticeship. Our education is on the job.

The apostle Paul was a very knowledgeable man, a trait that comes through in all of his letters. But on the subject of knowing “the mystery of God,” he wrote:

I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:1-3)

Added to Paul’s earlier prayer in the same letter, that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in order that they may live lives worthy of him (Colossians 1:9-10), he here makes it his goal that they – and all who have not met him personally (including you and me) – would be encouraged and united, so that they might have “the full riches of complete understanding.”

Growing in the knowledge of Christ, according to this passage, is the result of being encouraged and “united in love.” In other words, love does not come from understanding, but understanding comes from love. It’s by loving our brothers and sisters, and treating them as brothers and sisters, that we come to fully understand just what God has done in Christ. Put another way, we begin to understand who Jesus is when we start acting like him.

Jesus said, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” (John 7:17) and “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21) and also “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:14-15)

Knowledge comes through obedience. Which is also to say that it comes through faith, when I trust Jesus enough to do what he commands, without first understanding why or how it’s all supposed to work. And what does he command? “that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12). It is by loving each other that we come to understand who God is. “All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are ours when we are united with our brothers and sisters in love.