"I Know... I Don't know!"

    We must all admit the difficult and disturbing fact that inaccuracies exist in our understanding of God, ourselves, people, the world, and our lives.

    "Search me, o God, and know my heart.  Try me and know my thoughts.  See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

    "Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse Thou me from secret faults" (Psalm 19:12).

    This does not mean that we cannot consistently and increasingly "walk in truth" (III John 1:4).  We can, and our determined purpose must involve seeking to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Scriptures as well as possible.  Perfection of understanding, however, does not offer itself to us in our present lives.  "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (I Corinthians 8:2).  We require both growth and change in our thinking, a limitation that will be with us until that day Beyond when "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2).   The reality presses us to a deep humility as we maintain solidly based convictions based on Scripture, while frequently acknowledging the reality of "nothing yet as we ought to know."

    The nature of God Himself offers a prime example of our condition and need.  No simpler Biblical truth exists than the plainly stated doctrine that "there is one God" (I Timothy 2:5).  Unless… the Bible also teaches that one God also exists in three persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Galatians 1:3; Hebrews 1:8; Job 26:13).  In such transcendent light, the simplest truth becomes profound beyond all imagining, especially to our finite understanding.  We can know the triune God well enough to love the Father, trust the Son, and respond to the Holy Spirit, while also believing and affirming "the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4).  We nevertheless acknowledge that mystery remains in the nature of God, the joyful enigma that thrills us with the reality that we will never fully plumb the depths of our wondrous Lord.  As the poet exulted, "Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?  Thine own eternity is round Thee!  Majesty Divine!"

    Every truth presents itself in the same illumination and mystery as this simple, but most complex reality of God's nature.  "I know… I don't know!"  Born again believers confess both facts regarding our understanding.  Indeed, the more we realize the former, the more we discover the latter.   All truth, rightly received and assimilated, establishes conviction even as it bears witness to our need for further growth and change.  May we ever walk in the encouragement and challenge thereof.

O send out Thy light and Thy truth.  Let them lead me."

(Psalm 43:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

   The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

(Proverbs 1:7)