10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
What does it mean, “knowledge of the holy is understanding?”
I looked up different translations of the verse above, and I think we were on the right track yesterday; the best kind of knowledge is the knowledge of He who is Holy and True: Jesus Christ.
There is a lot of knowledge to gain in this world, and there is a lot of knowledge to gain as a Christian. So much so, that we can become easily overwhelmed by it all. I know I have been.
As Christians, we know that there is beneficial knowledge in this world and there is knowledge of the world that calls evil good and good evil, so we want to steer clear of that. That is a good discussion to have, but for now I want to focus on Christian knowledge.
There are so many Christian teachings to learn.
There are the lessons of Jesus, then there are the different ways that man has interpreted His teachings. There are many Christian denominations and traditional churches. There are tons of online ministries, many of which oppose traditional Christianity. How can a person find the truth in the midst of all this chaos?
How can a person find the knowledge that matters most: the knowledge of the Holy One when there are so many conflicting ideas about who He is and what He teaches?
I look back over the massive amount of Christian information and knowledge I have sifted through, and I wonder, what would I tell myself at the beginning? What would help other people short-cut through all the garbage I had to go through?
In all my learning, it is just this simple:
Put your trust (faith) in Jesus.
However, a lot goes into trusting Jesus. Our Christian faith means that we learn to:
- Trust that Jesus died for the forgiveness of your sins, and trust that His mercy is for you.
- Trust that Jesus rose from the dead, and that means He will return and gather His chosen to Him, so they too will rise from the dead.
- Trust that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into the world, so that we can learn of Jesus and grow in Him.
- Trust that our salvation is His work from start to finish, so trust in His perfect timing and methods for your life.
- Trust that though hard times are necessary for our growth, all things are working together for our good, even if it does not seem so at the time; trust that Jesus will get you through it.
- Trust that though this world will come against you, Jesus will not leave you.
- Trust that God is not mocked, so if we claim the blood of the Son, we should take our faith seriously because we will give an account for what we did with the faith we were given; trust that we will grow in faithfulness because Jesus never loses a single person that belongs to Him.
- Trust that Jesus said there would be corruption within the faith, but God ordained it and He will deal with it; trust that this too is for our good and we should not succumb to temptations that corrupt our walk with the Lord.
- Trust that the word of God is true, and we can learn a lot about how to live a Christian life if we immerse ourselves and respect both the written word and Jesus who is the Word.
- Trust that the Holy Spirit will cause us to understand scripture if we place knowing Jesus above knowing the traditions of mankind.
- Trust that all knowledge in the scripture is profitable, and all Christian doctrines have a place, but the most important lessons are those that teach us how to love God and love others effectively.
- Trust that we are all limited in our knowledge of the Lord, and Jesus is merciful towards our misunderstandings and disagreements if we love Him and love each other.
- Trust that one day Jesus will return and set all things right, and we will not suffer in this present world anymore; we have an everlasting inheritance and all the work we have done to honor Him and all the suffering we did for Him will be rewarded.
These are simple truths, but there is a lot of depth to each of them also, and it is not so simple to live these things out. I know I have room to grow in all these things, but I trust in Jesus and I am learning to trust in Him better. I hope that any who reads this will also consider. How can you trust in Jesus better?
***Side Note: Sometimes I think about what I wrote and I regret not considering who might read this and how something I wrote could be misinterpreted. I want to say that I have benefited from good Christian teaching online and offline. Not all was “garbage.” ***
Do you have a testimony to share about how trusting Jesus changed your life for the better? Do you have a struggle with trust that you want to talk about? Do you want to discuss any of the above bullets in more detail? Leave a comment or send me a private message or email. I’d be so happy to hear from you.
Jesus Alone 