Confessions Of A Pastor, Part IV

You don’t need more revelation, understanding, or knowledge.

I love all the above. I love the experience of receiving a “new” revelation about God. I love the feeling of the light bulb turning on when things add up and begin to make sense about a specific topic. I love learning more and more…

I hear it all the time from well-meaning believers but for most of us “church goers,” we don’t need more of it. What we need is to apply what we already know. 

Jesus is God.
Jesus is the Word.
Jesus reveals who God is.
Jesus reveals what God is like.
Jesus is the full representation of God.

And if God is love, and Jesus shows us exactly how to love, then we don’t need more revelation, understanding, or knowledge. We just need to be more like Nike and just do it! 

Revelation, understanding, and knowledge are great things but can often distract us from doing the simple things love requires us to do. Don’t make the mistake of doing the easy thing like closing yourself in a room to experience “more” of God than doing the hard thing like walking across the street and loving on your neighbor. 

James 1:22 - Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is says...
James 1:22 (The Message) - Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! 

And what are we to act on?
John 13:34 - Love as Christ has loved us.
And how do we know what love looks like?
1 John 3:16 - This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for each other.
Or in other words…
1 John 3:16 (The Message) - This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.