KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is
indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God
has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut
ourselves off from many of the riches of God’s grace.
Knowledge,
not improved and well employed, will only increase our condemnation at the last
day.
J.C. Ryle
Commentary, Matthew 7.
Seek not to
grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to
dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls.
Jonathan Edwards
If we do not know who God is and how He thinks and what
He does, we have no grounds for joy, no reason to
celebrate, no basis for finding satisfaction in God. Delight in God cannot
occur in an intellectual vacuum. Our joy is the fruit of what we know and
believe to be true of God. Emotional heat (i.e., joy, delight, gladness of
heart) apart from intellectual light (knowledge of God) is useless. Worse
still, it is dangerous, for it inevitably leads to fanaticism and idolatry.
Sam
Storms
The Ultimate Aim of Theology, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
Just as we
cannot believe and love Him of whom we have not heard, so we cannot grow in our
faith and love of Him if we do not learn more about Him. We will not grow
much in Godliness if we do not know much of what it means to be Godly. We will
not become more like Christ if we don’t know more of what Christ is like.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 227, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
Christians
must realize that just as a fire cannot blaze without fuel, so burning hearts
are not kindled by brainless heads. We
must not be content to have zeal without knowledge… To follow Christ and become
more like Him, we must engage in the Spiritual Discipline of learning.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 224, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com, All
rights reserved. For more information
please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
There is no
such thing as genuine knowledge of God that does not show itself in obedience
to His Word and will. The person who wants to know God but who has no heart to obey
Him will never enter the sacred courts where God reveals Himself to the soul of
man. God does not give divine knowledge to those who have no desire to glorify
Him.
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 10, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
Wisdom is the
right of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and
are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing
fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
C.H. Spurgeon
The knowledge
of God is the great hope of sinners. Oh, if you knew Him better, you would fly
to Him! If you understood how gracious He is, you would seek Him. If you could
have any idea of His holiness, you would loathe your self-righteousness. If you
knew anything of His power, you would not venture to contend with Him. If you
knew anything of His grace, you would not hesitate to yield yourself to Him.
C.H. Spurgeon
37.566
Prayer and
praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the
knowledge of Christ.
C.H. Spurgeon
Sermon #1935, delivered at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle, Newington, on Thursday evening, October 7th, 1886.
Exultation
that does not flow from education, affections that do not flow from knowing,
savoring that does not flow from seeing, feeling that does not flow from
thinking – are hollow and rootless – noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. And God
is not glorified by artificial and empty passions. True delight is rooted in
true doctrine. God-centered Exultation is rooted in God-centered Education.
John Piper
Education for Exaltation, Psalm 100,
May 19, 2002, www.DesiringGod.org,
Used by Permission.
Some desire to know merely for the sake of knowing, and
that is shameful curiosity. Some desire to know that they may sell their knowledge, and that too is shameful. Some desire to know for
reputation’s sake, and that is shameful vanity. But
there are some who desire to know that they may edify others, and that is
praiseworthy; and there are some who desire to know that they themselves may be
edified, and that is wise.
Bernard of Clairvaux
The end of
all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him.
John Milton
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 164.
He that knows
nothing will believe anything.
Thomas Fuller
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 193.
In spiritual
graces let us study to be great, and not to know it.
Thomas Adams
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 148.
God has made
us with a harmony of heart and head, of thought and action… The more we know
Him the more we are able to love Him. The more we love Him the more we seek to
know Him. To be central in our hearts He must be foremost in our minds.
Religious thought is the prerequisite to religious affection and obedient
action.
R.C. Sproul
Knowledge of
facts is important. Knowledge of truth
is essential. Yet our Lord’s concern goes beyond mere head knowledge. He wants
us not only to know the truth but also to obey the truth. He wants us to live
the truth, practice the truth, and be conformed to and transformed by that
truth.
Wayne A. Mack
Strengthening Your Marriage, P & R
Publishing, 1977, p. 151. Used by
Permission.
Head
knowledge is not evil in and of itself. Most of our Reformed and Puritan
forefathers were highly educated. The Reformers never tired of stressing the
value of Christian education. But this education must be empowered by the Holy
Spirit and applied to the heart. Head knowledge is insufficient without the
Spirit’s application to the inward man.
Joel R. Beeke
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 110.
Whenever evangelicals have an experience of direct,
personal access to God, we are tempted to think or act as if we can dispense
with doctrine, sacraments, history, and all the other “superfluous
paraphernalia” of the Church and make our experience the sum and soul of our
faith. We are still attracted to movements that replace thinking and theology
by other emphases relational, therapeutic, charismatic, and managerial (as in
church growth). Whatever the other virtues of these movements and the
unquestionable importance of piety, we must courageously repudiate
anti-intellectualism for the sin it is.
Os Guinness
There is a
tendency in spiritual circles to think that others (and therefore, God) should
be impressed by how much we know. Information equals godliness and spiritual
value. We might not say it in those terms, but this terse message is preached
loudly by how we live… But (this message in itself is not) affirmed by the
Bible. In fact, it is quite the opposite. James tells us that we should prove
ourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers “who delude themselves.” In
layman’s terms, knowledge alone deludes us or deceives us into thinking we are
spiritual because of how much we know instead of how we live.
Eddie Rasnake
The Book of Ephesians, AMG Publishers, 2003,
p. 118.
[We] must
understand that Christianity is not served by mindlessness, but by the
knowledge of God through the Word of God. Such knowledge engages our minds,
stirs our hearts, and transforms our lives. This knowledge is personal. How is
it fostered? By listening to what He says (the priority of preaching), by
engaging Him in conversation (the emphasis on prayer), by spending time in His
company (the need for a devotional life), and by being with others who know Him
too (the need for gathered worship). This knowledge is progressive and dynamic,
not static. At the end of our journey, we should still be exclaiming with
Paul: “I want to know Christ” (1
Corinthians 2:2).
Alistair Begg
Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 22.
Believers who have most knowledge, are not
therefore necessarily the most spiritual.
John
Newton
Knowledge is
proud that she knows so much; wisdom is humble that she knows no more.
William Cowper
Knowledge
without repentance will be but a torch to light men to hell.
Thomas Watson
Knowledge
without love inflates the ego and deceives the mind. It can lead to
intellectual snobbery, an attitude of mockery and making fun of other’s views,
a spirit of contempt for those with lesser knowledge, and a demeaning way of
dealing with people who disagree.
Alexander Strauch
Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 11, Used by
Permission.
The
endless cycle of idea and action, endless invention, endless experiment, brings
knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; knowledge of speech, but not of
silence; knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge
brings us nearer to our ignorance, all our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
but nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of
Heaven in twenty centuries bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
T.S.
Eliot
We cannot
pursue biblical knowledge just to grow in knowledge. Understanding doctrine
isn’t the goal. Loving God and living in a way that pleases Him need to be our
aims. Knowledge tends to puff us up (1 Cor. 8:1-2), but a genuine relationship
with God with a true knowledge of His character and love will keep us humble
(Isa. 6:5; Ps. 8:3-4).
Karl Graustein
Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 147. Used by Permission.
Someone has
defined knowledge as “the process of passing from the unconscious state of
ignorance to the conscious state of ignorance.” Ignorance does not know that it
does not know. True knowledge does not know and knows it.
John MacArthur
1 Corinthians, Moody, 1984, p. 192.
Truth renews
the mind. Indeed, the truth which would affect the heart, which moves the
heart, which changes the heart, must first enter through the vestibule of the
mind if it would enter the sanctuary of the heart. The intention of truth
preached is to affect the emotions and the will and the heart and the whole of
our humanity…and thus preaching must come first through the mind. It makes its
appeal through the mind; it enters through the mind – but it doesn’t simply
stop with the mind.
John Armstrong
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 168-169.
If knowledge
is the accumulation of facts, intelligence the development of reason, wisdom is
heavenly discernment. It is insight into the heart of things. Wisdom involves knowing
God and the subtleties of the human heart. More than knowledge, it is the right
application of knowledge in moral and spiritual matters, in handling dilemmas,
in negotiating complex relationships.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 57.
If knowledge
comes by study, wisdom comes by Holy Spirit filling.
Oswald Sanders
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 57.
Knowledge and
wisdom, far from being one, have often no connection. Knowledge dwells in heads
replete with thoughts of other men: Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much, Wisdom is humble, that he knows
no more.
Author Unknown
Knowledge
humbles the great man, astonishes the common man, puffs up the little man.
Author Unknown
Quoted by Curtis C. Thomas, Practical
Wisdom for Pastors, Crossway Books, 2001, p. 60.