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Do You Know Too Much or Not Enough?by Steve Cox,
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In the final chapter of Ecclesiastes we are told, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12). This was one of our favorite sayings when my wife and I were in college. We definitely felt we had too many books, and too much knowledge that we were trying to cram into our heads, just to pass the next test. In my devotions recently, I have been reading and praying through the later epistles. As I read Peter’s urgings to remind us of things we should know, John’s exhortations that we have godly knowledge, and James’s challenge that we live up to what we know, it has caused me to consider our current world’s fascination with knowledge. U.S. book publishers reported that there were 275,232 new titles and
editions published in 2009. This does not even include the 285,394 new
“on-demand” and “short-run” book titles that were
published in 2009. King Solomon certainly knew what he was talking about
regarding the making of many books. We Christians are caught up in this
quest for knowledge as well. The website Christianbook.com reports that
they currently have 85,682 different Christian book titles for sale.
If you’re looking to get caught up this summer on everything you
think you should read, you’d better start right now. The main question I have is, am I gaining the right knowledge, that which the Lord specifically wants me to grow in? My main concern is, what am I doing with the knowledge I am gaining? Am I putting it to use as the Lord intends? Regarding the right knowledge, obviously God’s Word is our source of perfect wisdom and knowledge, and our reference point for evaluating all other sources of knowledge (Psalm 19:7-11). But one of my frustrations is that even as I focus on gaining knowledge from the Bible and from quality Christian books that seek to expand on scriptural principles, I can get easily overwhelmed with the number of things I should know and apply to my life. Putting it another way, I know the Scriptures place great emphasis on us growing more to be like Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29, II Corinthians 3:18). The challenge for me sometimes is the more I know Jesus, the more I realize how much further I really am from being like him. Sometimes the more we know, the more we realize we are further away from our objective than we thought. This struggle flows right into the concern I mentioned above, regarding what I am doing with the knowledge I gain. The Apostle Paul warns us: “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know” (I Corinthians 8:1-2). James builds on this same point by stating: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). Paul and James caution us it is easy to let our desire for knowledge outpace our growth in applying that knowledge to our lives in ways that transform us to live and be more like Jesus Christ. If we focus too much on gaining knowledge without seeking to let that knowledge change us, we will be, in a sense, out of balance and move to one of two extremes. We will either become discouraged because we are not living up to what we are learning or we will become proud thinking that we are such knowledgeable Christians. My tendency is to slip into the former, the discouragement that I am not living up to what I know. As I have been reading and studying the epistles lately, one of the main messages the Lord has been pressing on me at this time is to shift my focus and simplify things a bit. He is encouraging me to give more attention to applying the more simple and basic aspects of love, grace, hope, and joy to how I think, feel, and live. One of the things that is extremely helpful for me in gaining and keeping a right perspective on gaining knowledge versus applying knowledge to my life is gathering with other believers to work through these simple truths together. If you are not meeting regularly with other believers I encourage you to join one of our Adult Bible Fellowships or Open Groups. If you do have a group of believers you regularly meet with, I encourage you to discuss with one another how well each of you balances the gaining of knowledge with applying this knowledge to transform your life. “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy
of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every
good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10).
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