Thank you for joining us this week on cultivating growth and Jeremy and I are going to be discussing the topic of growing in knowledge. We're going to open up the Bible and allow God to speak to us about what he would have us to know. And the importance of growing in that knowledge as a follower of Christ.

With that, let's get right to it. 

Well, John, as we kind of begin to think about the idea of growing in our knowledge We think about that just in general. There really are just a few different ways that you can grow in knowledge of anything, right? I mean, there's just, you know, kind of a, just a few different ways you can kind of go about it because knowledge just doesn't happen.

It just doesn't kind of land on people. And so when we think about it in those kind of general ways, and we kind of Then translate that spiritually, where we'll be discussing over the next few minutes. A lot of those same principles hold true, right? I mean, if you're going to gain spiritual knowledge, it's going to come down to studying about something, experiencing something, or seeing, you know, an example of, of others.

And, you know, that's how we kind of gain knowledge in every aspect of life. And in a lot of ways, it's kind of how we gain knowledge spiritually about God as well. Yeah, I think there's a trap we could fall into, where we're We approach knowledge and knowledge of God's word and knowledge of God in general, and the way that we approach our bodies growing and developing, where we just kind of think over time, I'm going to get a little bit bigger over time.

I'm going to grow over time. I'm just going to become more and more mature. And that's just not the way that it works. To your point, thinking about knowledge and what we were talking at the beginning or before we began. That there's so many scriptures, even just in Proverbs alone, that talk about the importance of knowledge and growing in knowledge.

God is clearly making a point to us that this is something He wants us to be serious about. We are not to be lackadaisical when it comes to our approach. to the knowledge of the scriptures and to the knowledge of God and who he is and what he would have us to do. These are things that we need to take very, very seriously.

And so if we find ourselves with a Bible knowledge that is lacking, or that we feel is a little on the weak side, that's not something that we just kind of cast aside as, well, over time that will improve. It's something that should be a red flag for us and remind us that I need to be spending time in God's Word and around people who are in God's Word so that my knowledge can grow.

This is something that we should be taking very seriously as followers of his. Yeah, you know, my Bible's open to 2 Peter chapter 1. You know, in that, in that passage that we've read. We've used several times, you know, throughout this podcast, because it is a passage on growth. It is a passage on maturity.

And, you know, to your point, Peter uses the idea of the fact that we have to add these things to our faith. And then he begins to list off, you know, various things. And it's not, you know, Very long.  The second thing that he mentions, he says you need to add knowledge. And again, to your point, it's not just something that's going to automatically happen that growth, such as we do physically, we don't have to think much about growing physically.

But if we're to grow spiritually, if we are to gain and grow in our knowledge, we have to make the choice then, you know, to add that. I mean, listen, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament,  God rebukes his people at times for not growing in knowledge, for struggling in the knowledge capacity. I mean, he does it in the Old Testament multiple times.

Even in the New Testament, you have the Apostle Paul in writing specifically about that when it comes to your knowledge. You're not where you need to be. You need to be gaining and chewing on more of the meat, if you will, but yet you're still kind of languishing as newborn babes. And so he's painting the picture there that your knowledge isn't where you need to be.

And there's an admonishment then to grow. And even the parallel is used physically there, but it is, it is something that God calls his people to do. And it is something that he's disappointed in. Yeah. That if his people isn't, or we aren't growing when it comes to our knowledge. Well, you were in 2 Peter chapter 1 there, a letter written by Peter to Christians, people who are followers of Jesus, and really he bookends this letter with that admonition to grow in knowledge.

You read there in chapter 1, as Peter kind of begins the letter, including knowledge and a list of things that we should be growing in, but he ends the letter with it as well. In chapter three in verse 18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so there is this bookend that Peter uses to show just how important it is that even as Christians, people have already come to know Jesus and know his sacrifice and give their lives to him.

We need to be growing in our knowledge of him. And that really points to a lifelong endeavor. And it really points to the fact that there's always room for our knowledge to increase. And we're not seeking an increase in that knowledge just so we can answer all the questions right in Bible class. We're seeking an increase in that knowledge so that we can grow closer to God in that process, become more like Jesus.

In that process. And sometimes if we take the approach that I'm going to, I want to grow in my knowledge so that I can be really good at Bible trivia or so that I can prove to everyone else in the room, just how smart I am. Then we're missing the point of what Peter and other writers, as you pointed out.

are trying to help us to understand that this isn't about just having facts at the tip of our tongue whenever we need them. This is about growing closer to God. And when that's absent, then our relationship with God struggles. And our relationship with God can be severed because we aren't growing in knowledge.

That's why this admonition is given so many times in both the Old and the New Testaments. I have it written down, you know, here in front of me. That word that's used in 2 Peter chapter 1 is in And the Greek, by definition, means to be thoroughly acquainted with. And that really is a definition that I like, because when you start to think about God, and growing in our knowledge is growing in our acquaintance of who He is.

And to add that idea of being thoroughly acquainted goes to what you had just said about the fact of understanding that it's something that is a lifelong endeavor. It is constantly growing in these spiritual areas. As you know, It's interesting, if you look at a book like Ecclesiastes, where, you know, the writer there is doing a, you know, a compare and contrast from the physical endeavors versus the spiritual endeavors, and he'll include the endeavor of gaining and, uh, worldly wisdom or earthly knowledge, and how fleeting that certainly can be.

And the amount of effort and energy that people put into, even today, of spending all the time and energy of gaining in worldly knowledge. There's nothing wrong in doing that. It's important to have, you know, earthly knowledge.  But again, it shows the, you know, the goodness that comes from those same kind of endeavors and effort when it comes to our spiritual wisdom and knowledge.

And there's a really interesting contrast that the writer will put there, you know, specifically in the book of Ecclesiastes. Yeah, and the same is true in Proverbs. And, you know, I was looking at just chapter 1, for example, of Proverbs at the very beginning. Of this book of wisdom literature that Solomon pens for us.

The entirety of chapter one is dedicated to two things, growing in knowledge and growing in wisdom. And really that's his whole thesis for what he's going to write is you need to grow and seek. Wisdom and knowledge. He even says in verse number 7 of chapter 1 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

This is where it all starts. This understanding of who God is, and a healthy respect and fear of Him, and His power and His greatness, that's where knowledge begins for you. And that's so, Uh, that's so counterintuitive to the way that the world thinks of knowledge, because to your point, knowledge to the world is facts and figures and, and studying textbooks and learning worldly facts and things about this earth.

But God says knowledge begins with a fear of him. That's where all of this begins. And so when we think about growing in knowledge, we start here. A fear of the Lord, that's where it begins, and then we build on it from that point forward. As our faith grows, our knowledge of him grows, our love of the scriptures grow, we come to know him better and deeper than we ever had before.

Yeah, I mean, you think about a passage in, like, the beginning of the book of Colossians, as Paul is writing to his brethren, and he's talking specifically about specifically about what he's praying for them about. He says in Colossians 1 and verse 9 that he's praying that they be filled with the knowledge of his will, and in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

In the very next chapter, in Colossians chapter 2, when he talks about, you know, where this knowledge comes from, specifically in talking about Christ in chapter 2 and verse 3, he makes the point that this is where, uh, that hidden offering comes from. all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so if we, we have that understanding that we need it and we have an understanding of where it comes from and we, we have an understanding of value.

You may have mentioned the book of Proverbs. I mean, Proverbs chapter eight, you know, make the point that knowledge is to be valued as we value silver and gold. And so if we are valuing, if we value it highly, it then will be something that we'll search after. Yeah. You know, we've been talking a little bit.

About just kind of the contrast between earthly knowledge and spiritual knowledge. You and I are both parents and, you know, I value the earthly knowledge of my children. I want them to learn. They're being educated as they grow up and it's important for them to learn history and math. And English and art and music and all of these things that the world has to offer.

There's value in that. That's why I'm educating our children because I see value in that.  But as a parent, if I put more emphasis on that than I do on setting them on a trajectory of perpetual growth and their knowledge of God. Then I've failed if I, if I  overemphasize the worldly knowledge over that. If my children grow up and they don't know calculus, but they grow up to know God and to know his word, then I've done what God has asked me to do as a parent.

And far too often I think it's, it's easy to begin to overemphasize The importance of worldly knowledge in our children. And before too long, if we're not careful, we've started to raise young people turning into adults that see the knowledge that's placed in front of them from an earthly perspective is more important than that from a spiritual perspective.

And so we have to start young to make sure they understand just how important it is.  to grow in that knowledge from a young age and to continue to grow in that for the rest of their life. And certainly to understand the value, you know, in that. It's easy for us in this world to see the value of of earthly knowledge, you know, certainly from time to time, but to understand the value of spiritual knowledge over that of earthly knowledge is really important.

You know, sometimes, you know, in a lot of our episodes, kind of it, this is the point towards the end where we start to talk about, you know, kind of some, some practical things on how to go about, you know, growing, and we can certainly do some of that. But I think this is one of those areas where we're going to do ourself a disservice if we try to overcomplicate this early in any ways.

We kind of started, you know, the episode out with the acknowledgement that if we're looking to gain knowledge in any area, it really happens in some basic ways, and doesn't happen really outside of that, you know, in any capacity. We're either studying about it, we're reading or watching videos, or we're trying to take in the information, or we're watching other people do it, we're learning by example, or we're We're practicing that, you know, ourself.

I mean, those are the kind of ways. And when it comes to growing spiritually and growing about in our knowledge of God and who he is and what his will is, Really, those same  principles apply, even when it comes to our growing in spiritual knowledge. It is, and everybody understands that the best way to learn about someone or something is to go to the source.

Alright, the closer you can get to the original source of whatever it is you want to learn about, the better off you're going to be. And so for us, if our objective is to learn more about God and to grow in our knowledge of him, then go to the source, open up his word, spend time in it, read it. There's no wrong place to start.

There's no wrong place to read. Just to open up the Bible and let God speak to you, learn about him, learn about his story, learn about what he likes and doesn't like, learn about what makes him mad, learn about what makes him happy. All of these different things can be found in the source that God has preserved for us throughout time.

And so go to the source, spend time with it, don't overcomplicate it. I think you're right, right, uh, on saying that. If we overcomplicate this and try to turn it into something that is super complex, we are doing ourselves a disservice and God a disservice. Yeah, and He's looking. He's watching. He's looking for us to grow.

Let's close with a passage in Hosea chapter 4.  It really comes down as a rebuke to the people. God is looking at them, and much like we've talked about in this episode, He's looking for them to grow in their knowledge, and that just simply isn't happening. And so he calls them out for that, and it'll be a good reminder for us as well.

And so in Hosea chapter 4, in verse 6, he'll use some pretty strong language, and we'll close with this. It'll be a good thing for us to be thinking about as our week unfolds. Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 says this, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being a priest for me.

Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 

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Thanks again for joining us this week, and we'll talk to you again next week.