BibleScribbler

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Knowledge and Love

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Doesn’t it seem weird that we approach our relationship with God so differently than our approach to our relationship with our girlfriend, bros, or any inanimate object?

What I mean specifically: in regards to inanimate objects – my sons bought some AstroJax.

They are super cool and amazing things. When they brought them home, we didn’t look into books and books of the history of juggling, string, plastic, spheres, and toys. We watched a single video of people using them, and then we went for it. We went for it for hours.

They carried them in their pockets every time we went out of the house.

They wore the stings down.

They dropped them.

They tangled them.

They used them like crazy.

When this cute girl that I know became my girlfriend, I didn’t research the history of the Scandinavian and Danish people. I didn’t learn all about Ivy Tech (where she went to school) and North High School and map out the neighborhoods where she grew up and the fashion design industry that she was interested in.

I hung out with her.

I spent every moment I could with her.

If she was working, I would sit at the bookstore where she worked and I would read.

If she was on her dinner break in the evening I’d bring her Arby’s.

If she had a Saturday off we would walk around Audobon park and kick gumballs.

How much more so should we look at Christianity like this! Some would say it is shallow and emotional. That faith like that relies too much on feelings and not on knowledge.

It is not because of knowing about my girlfriend that I made a life-long covenant to be with her! We have now been married for 13 years and have 5 children!

If we compare the local church to a person, she may have made herself rather fat as far as attendance (though overall church attendance is dropping nationwide) but she’s not typically birthing out more churches.

I’m curious as to what would happen if we treated our faith more as a love affair than an intellectual pursuit.

1 Corinthians 8:1

All of us possess knowledge. This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

What would happen if we went after the immeasurable and risky love of God that is beyond all knowledge? I think it would be awesome.

Jesus sees WITH the Father and Pharisees hear FROM their father

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John 8.38 “I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard l from your father.”

This statement wraps up one of the biggest differences there is between the children of the world and of God. God is WITH us. The Greek rootword is para, which can mean beside, near, etc.
I remember when I watched The Clone Wars and was thinking about the Jedi Master/Padawan relationship. In that world, every Jedi is paired with a Master, who teaches them everything they know as they go on adventures together. The student sees the master in every setting, and learns in every scenario what a Jedi Master would do.
On the other side, the Sith work very differently. The Sith master is not with his apprentice, and only communicates over a radio. He gives orders followed by threats, and is never there with the apprentice to help out.
How much the same is the rip-off of the world and the children of the world. Distant threats of what a person should and shouldn’t do, and no companionship whatsoever. Then the devil brings condemnation and guilt and shame when the student of the world fails.
HOW DIFFERENT is GOD THE FATHER! Jesus says right here, He speaks about what He has seen WITH the Father, not FROM the Father or ABOUT the father. He talks about life and reality that He sees while He is with the Father.
The Pharisees talk about the life and reality that they are ripped off into as they are in the world and lied to by their father.
This takes me back to the same thing I’ve been talking about every day lately…That there is more to the Christian life that involves KNOWING God than KNOWING ABOUT God. The Pharisees know a lot about the history of God, but Jesus knew God.