Understanding

I came away from church this past Sunday with the distinct impression that we (the corporate church in the world) do not really understand. It wasn’t “church” that was disappointing... it was the bible teaching, but I’ll confess, I could be cynical, or I’m naïve and only think I’m cynical.

So, it wasn’t bible “study” it was bible “teaching.” That’s what most churches do in their bible “study” times. One man (or God forbid one woman) tells everybody else what they believe about a certain passage with no opportunity for differing interpretations (arguments). To be fair, some churches admit that this is a time of “sharing” ...sharing (one) interpretation, sharing (one) opinion, sharing what the “one” has learned. The problem is, they could be wrong. Being wrong is bad, and there is way too much of that in churches. A bible teacher should KNOW  more than anyone else in the room ...or be willing to accept “discussion”.

Our problem (the church in the world)
is the same as the Jews to whom Paul is writing in the Letter to the Hebrews. My belief... my “presumption” is, we don’t understand the GODHEAD...
God the Father,  God the Son, 
God the Holy Spirit. We cannot truly understand Paul’s letter to the Hebrews (or the whole New Testament) until we have a better (perfect) understanding of the GODHEAD!


And understanding the GODHEAD is made more difficult by the questions... Where is Christ in the trinity? Where is the Son of God in the triune GODHEAD? Where is Jesus before time? Can flesh and blood be pre-existent? NO! The words “trinity” and “triune” basically mean “consisting of three.” So how can we discuss and teach about FIVE personalities being God in a union of THREE?

On the other hand, how can we not understand these things when we say we are IN Christ and Christ in us (Col. 1:27)? And being baptized in or of the Holy Spirit, how do we not know what He tries to teach us? Actually, 1 Cor. 12:13 says, For BY one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. “ONE BODY” refers to the Body of Christ... the TRUE Church in the world. Is there too much carnal interpretation in the scriptures we read? We should stop patting ourselves on the back and ask, "Where am I failing?

I am reminded of the verse in Luke 13:34... O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not!

That word “not” is an absolute negative in the Greek; literally “NO WAY!” I am reminded of “No Way” because I went through a discussion of differing “opinions” with someone who, even after being shown the definition in the original Greek, refused to accept the truth of the matter. So, we must be very careful and diligent to not refuse the revelations that God wants us to know.

Col. 1:9-10 says, We (Paul and company) do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Are we so ignorant, or stubborn that we don’t understand the word “FILLED” in that verse?

Paul had to deal with the Gnostics who thought they had “knowledge” (Greek: gnosis). But Paul was teaching and revealing “full-knowledge” ...epignosis; which we have a lack of today. But we tell ourselves we understand what we read in scripture and know what God is saying to us because it makes us feel so good. We should remember 1 Cor. 8:2, If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. The revelations of the mysteries veiled in the Old Testament were revealed to only Paul and yet, we veil ourselves with the Old Testament.

It’s knowledge vs full knowledge; carnal vs spiritual; earthly vs heavenly; dead vs “quickened.” So, believing that I know nothing yet as I should, how can I stop studying AND seeking out the BEST teachers? How many of us would have graduated high school if our teachers didn’t teach what we needed to know to pass the tests? The natural man has heard of God (knowledge), but WE see the glory. And although we do not yet have full knowledge, our inward man is being renewed and perfected day by day, even though our outward man is perishing, 2 Cor. 4:16... and the inward man is being renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator, Colossians 3:10. Let us be careful to NOT satisfy ourselves with a “better religion” than the sects because all we will have is religion. Oh, we (corporate church) might be saved, but that is the Lord’s work... but are we growing into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Eph. 4:13?