This is the seventh blog in the 2 Peter 1 series and the fourth lesson on the chain Peter lays out.
Faith was the foundation. Virtue was the first stair stacked on top of it, the moral excellence of Christ chiseled out of our daily life. Now Peter tells us where to stack the next step.
2 Peter 1:5, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”
Virtue without knowledge is dangerous. A man can have good intentions and zero direction, and good intentions without a Bible behind them have led plenty of sincere people right into a ditch. Peter says after you start living right, you have to start knowing right. The two go hand and hand. Virtue gives knowledge a clean place to land, and knowledge gives virtue a sure compass.
Webster 1828 Definition
Knowledge is a clear and certain perception of that which exists, or of truth and fact. It is learning. It is illumination of the mind.
The opposite of knowledge is ignorance.
The Picture of Knowledge: Ezra
If you want to see knowledge in action, look at Ezra. He was a scribe and a priest after the captivity, and his whole life was built around the Book.
Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”
Ezra did three things: prepared his heart, sought the Word, and then he taught it. His goal of learning was not to win an argument, but to obey and teach the Bible.
When Ezra read the law to the people in Nehemiah 8, the whole nation wept and turned. One man with a Bible and a heart prepared to obey it turned a generation. That is the power of knowledge in the right hands. Knowledge changes hearts and sets us free.
Climbing the Mountain
Knowing Christ is like climbing a tall mountain. When you stand at the bottom you see hardly anything. The mountain looks half as tall as it really is. You are stuck down in a little valley and all you can see are the small streams running into the river at the bottom. But the higher you climb, the more you see, and the bigger the mountain proves itself to be.
Knowing Christ works the same way. The man who has walked with Christ for forty years has been climbing all that time, and he sees more of who Christ is the higher he goes. Knowledge of Christ is a climb that takes a lifetime, and the view keeps opening up the higher you go. The Christian who thinks he has Christ figured out has not started climbing yet.
The Foundation of All Knowledge
Knowledge starts with the fear of the Lord and goes from there. Without that, a man can stack up degrees and diplomas and still be a fool in the eyes of God.
Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”
Proverbs 2:3-5, “Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”
A man who does not fear God will never really know anything that matters. He can know facts about the Bible without ever knowing the God of the Bible. The fear of the Lord is the door knowledge walks through.
God’s People Are Destroyed Without Knowledge
When God’s people lose their grip on the Word, they lose everything. Hosea preached to a generation that was perishing, not from lack of money or lack of effort, but from lack of knowing what God had said.
Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
The Bible does not say the world is destroyed for lack of knowledge. It says My people. The person, the church, the home, or the nation that quits reading the Bible is heading for trouble.
Growing in the Knowledge of Christ
Peter’s last words in his last letter were to grow in the knowledge of Christ.
2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
A Christian who quits growing in his knowledge of the Lord has quit growing altogether. There is no plateau: you are either climbing or you are sliding.
Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Paul counted everything else loss compared to knowing Christ. Our love for Christ should be so grand that the love we have for everything else looks like hate next to it. That is what Jesus meant when He said a man has to hate his father and mother to follow Him. Not literal hate, but a love for Christ so far above everything else that nothing else compares.
Colossians 1:9-10, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Paul prayed for the saints to be filled with knowledge so they could walk worthy and bear fruit. Knowledge is what directs the walk and the fruit.
The Heart of the Prudent Gets Knowledge
Knowledge is not for the lazy. The man who wants to know the Word has to dig for it, and Solomon says the prudent heart is the one that goes after it.
Proverbs 18:15, “The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.”
The heart and the ear. A man whose heart is right and whose ear is open is the man who gets knowledge. The man who is half-listening at church and half-reading at home will half-know the Word, and half-knowing the Word will not carry him when the storm hits.
Proverbs 15:14, “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.”
The wise man’s diet is knowledge. The fool feeds on foolishness. You become what you eat every day, and most people are living proof of whichever diet they are on.
The Source of Real Knowledge
Real knowledge comes from God’s Book. Every verse of it, breathed out by God, and profitable to make us complete.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be throughly furnished unto all good works.”
That is the fourfold work of the Word in the life of a Christian, and there is no shortcut.
- Doctrine to teach you what is right.
- Reproof to tell you what is wrong.
- Correction to put you back on the right track.
- Instruction in righteousness to keep you right.
The Bible does all four, every day, in the life of the man who will open it.
Knowledge Without Charity Puffs Up
Bible knowledge is meant to humble a man, but if a man is not careful, the very knowledge that should make him a servant ends up making him a snob.
1 Corinthians 8:1
“Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
Paul says knowledge can make a man big in his own eyes and small in his usefulness to God. A Christian with a lot of Bible knowledge and no love for others has missed the whole point. Knowledge is meant to be married to charity.
Living This Out
Knowledge is built one verse at a time, one day at a time. Read the Bible every day, cover to cover, and again and again. Memorize Scripture and hide the Word in your heart, because the verses you put in are the verses the Holy Ghost will bring back when you need them. Sit under preaching, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and midweek, and let the Word come at you from every angle.
Take notes when you read and when you listen. Ask questions when you do not understand. Study with pen and paper. Learn to cross-reference, and let Scripture explain Scripture. Pray before you read, and ask the Holy Ghost to teach you what you cannot see on your own.
Teach what you learn, because you learn more when you teach it to somebody else. And walk in what you know, because knowledge that is not obeyed leaves you. The man who hears the Word and does it builds his life on a rock. The man who hears it and does nothing with it built his on sand.
The Christian climbs the mountain one verse, one chapter, one obeyed truth at a time. The next blog stacks on the next step. Peter says to add to your knowledge temperance, and that is where we are going next.
