ROMANS 10:2
“For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.”
Some things are just not understandable or relatable apart from first-hand experience. Take for example, I cannot explain to you fully the stench and odor of a pig pen. My Uncle Hugh Lee was a farmer and always had a few hundred pigs that he raised for the market and for butchering himself. One particular pen of pigs contained this great fishing pond, but you had to go through that pen to get to the pond. Try dodging pigs, pig mess and mud puddles created by pigs while carrying fishing poles and tackle. And doing that on a hot summer day in South Georgia only raised the stink level.
Now, why in the world would I bring that up? Well, I had to experience that myself to fully understand it. Paul’s verse today says the same thing about the Jews. Listen, they had head knowledge about God. They even had “zeal for God,” but they did not have that experiential knowledge of God through Jesus. To them God was like my father used to describe God – the old man upstairs. It wasn’t until my dad got saved at 80 years of age that he gained that knowledge of Jesus which framed his world his last four years.
APPLICATION
The word Paul uses here for “knowledge” is epignōsis. It “denotes an experiential, relational, and transforming knowledge. It is more than data acquisition; it embraces recognition, acknowledgment, and personal appropriation of truth revealed by God. In the New Testament it is always anchored in divine initiative and always bears moral and spiritual consequences.” (Topical Lexicon)
I love how Peter uses this word right after he goes through that long list of things you should apply to your life (2 Peter 1:5-7). In verse 8 he writes, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they do not make you useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The TRUE knowledge! That’s epignōsis. You can only gain true knowledge of Christ by getting to know Him personally and intimately. That was something the Jews were against.
In 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Timothy 2:25; 3:7 and Titus 1:1, Paul uses the phrase “the knowledge of the truth.” This is something we seek and will find. Matthew 7:7 promises that. Seek Him first! He wants to disclose such hidden truths to you, truths which the world cannot understand, and you cannot explain. Just like the stench of a pig pen cannot be put into words until it experienced firsthand, neither can the true knowledge of God until you yield to Him. Keep yielding.
Father God, You promise to disclose more and more to us through Your Word and Your Spirit as we give ourselves completely to You.
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