The Holy Spirit has been prodding and convicting me the last few months about my knowledge of the Word of God. In Acts 2:42 we see that the birthing of the Church started with people devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching. There are other things listed in the passage but i believe that their devotion to true teaching was the fundamental because the fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers all flowed from an understanding, a mindset or worldview. If you disagree then examine the writings of the New Testament. It is full of correction and exhortation.
Ecclesiastes 12:11-13 says this, “The words of the wise are like goads, and the nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
This passage isn’t referring to anyone who thinks he is wise but rather the one Shepherd via the writers of what we know as the Bible. Proverbs 2:1-6 alludes to this in that wisdom and instruction and the words of insight are none other than the spoken Word of God, hence what is found and confirmed in the Holy Scriptures as revealed by the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 1:7 says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; and fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Our duty as christians is to be conformed to Truth who is Jesus Christ our Savior (Rom. 8:29) and in 2 Timothy 2:15 we see the working out of this. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” How are we to rightly handle what we do not even know or understand. Mankind since the fall has always wanted the benefit without the labor. How can someone who doesn’t know how to use a sickle be deemed a harvester? We all want to quote the great commission and in our zeal go out and see instant results but the great commission was given to disciples of Christ. Christians and disciples are the same thing however we call ourselves christians when we “accept Jesus into our heart”, in other words we adopt a title, but disciples had a much greater entrance exam, if you don’t believe me then go read Luke 14 starting in verse 25, heck go read anywhere in your Bible and you will be hard pressed to find anything that backs up that convenient theory. Wisdom is justified by her children. How can we go out and preach what we do not know and don’t even try and tell me that because you know John 3:16, Romans 3:23, and Romans 10:9 you know all you need to know. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that his desire is to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that was written to believers who were ignorantly dividing and creating their own doctrines and teachings.
Romans 10:2-4 speaks of an alarming situation where zeal is embraced without the tension of wisdom. “For I bear witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” We most definitely don’t want to find ourselves in this situation. The remedy upon recieving salvation is found in Ephesians 1:17 where Paul prays for the believers that the Father would give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. We like this because we improperly assume that all we are responsible for is to sit around and pray pray pray and ask ask ask for this wisdom, revelation, and knowledge. The truth is that these are gifts from God and cannot be manufactured by our own study or working however as we have come full circle again we see that as disciples (christians or the Church) we are to devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching.