For me, there are certain concepts that I highly value. ‘Know’ is one of them. When I first was saved, there was soooo much I wanted to know. But… could I really know? And though I realize this is very sophomoric, but what is ‘know’?
I believe there are two critical components to knowing… the first is that it requires effort on our part. To know is not waving a magic wand and expecting to know and to understand everything by a kind of effortless osmosis. To know requires study and learning, building knowing upon learning upon knowing upon….
The other component is that you are always responsible for what you know. If you know then your behavior has to encompass that knowledge. This sometimes is a difficult thing to do because knowledge is NOT compromise-able. I suspect the argument could be made that knowledge is relative, but it isn’t.
Using scripture as my foundation ‘to know’ I eventually got to my favorite book of knowledge – Ephesians, and I came across 3:19. It wasn’t that I hadn’t read ‘to know’ before, but suddenly it was in capital letters with neon lights. Verse 14 (to 21) begins a powerful prayer by Paul and in the middle I read, “…to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;…” If Paul was praying that we would know then it is something we can know.
In this particular passage Paul is talking about knowing the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Passes knowledge! But it is also something one can know. I still have problems getting my head around this. This is a lifelong learning, a lifelong quest. But…. if you want to know……..
