Useless Biblical Knowledge
by Greg May, reposted from Greg’s Watering Hole and used by permission.
A while back a guy, upon finding out I was a Believer, said to me: “I didn’t know you were religious.” Nowadays that word “religious” doesn’t necessarily mean “Jesus follower” to me. Yet I knew what he meant and I was disappointed in myself that I had been around this fellow for so long and he had no idea of my faith. That said something about my lack of living it out in front of him.
Anyway, that’s another blog. The topic of the short conversation that ensued about the Bible led me to tell him of a Men’s group I have had at my house. He was interested and told me to let him know if I had another group because he wanted to study the Bible. I said I would and explained that we studied the Word and how to apply it in our lives. He informed me that he didn’t care about the application part, he just wanted to study the Bible to gain knowledge.
The Bible tells us to seek out and gain knowledge. It also tells us the reason for gaining knowledge is to apply it in our lives. Jesus taught His disciples and others who heard Him teach how to apply the Word in their daily lives. Knowledge should be gained and then applied or it is useless! What good is unapplied knowledge? The Bible may as well be a paper weight on our coffee table if we won’t apply the knowledge gained from it to our lives.
I installed a laminate floor in my living room a week or so ago. I’m a pretty handy guy but I had never installed flooring. I read the instructions first to gain the knowledge I would need. I ask plenty of questions of people experienced in actually installing laminate. There is a lot of info and instruction that I received that made the project go much smoother than it might have gone otherwise.
Life can be so much smoother if we will just take the time to gain knowledge by “reading the instructions” and listening to an instructor that’s “been there and done that.”
In life we need knowledge. Then we need to know how to apply that knowledge. We have the Word of God (His instructions) for knowledge. Whenever possible we need to seek out those who can help us apply that knowledge in our lives. The disciples had Jesus in the flesh to teach them how to apply the things of God to their lives. Timothy had Paul, and all through the Bible people had teachers prophets, leaders and family members who taught them how to apply the knowledge they had gained.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of Godmay be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22)
We should read the Word to gain knowledge. We should also seek out someone who has applied that Biblical knowledge to their own lives to guide us in applying it in ours.
Drop me a line,
Greg
