Thank you God for this title! It perfectly fits the half a dozen or so things I want to say :-).
1) "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."
This has been resounding through my head & my life lately... (why do I choose the bondage??? Rom 7:15)
"You shall know"~
There are two verbs for 'to know' in Spanish. I wish we had two too ( :-) ). 'Saber' (sa-bear) implies 'to know about, to know facts' as in "I know the president." 'Conocer' implies personal, experiential knowledge, as in "I know my mom." Guess which one this 'know' is...? That's right: conocer. We've got to "know it in our knower," as somebody used to say, for the truth to have any effect.
"You shall know the truth"~
And even more than the truth, we need to know The Truth, Jesus Christ Himself, to be free.
"And the truth shall set you free"~
But what is freedom?
2) Freedom is the ability to do right. Freedom will never again be the ability to do whatever we want (if it ever was). We had that once and it was in Eden and we used it ever-so-badly! Now, Biblically, we are, sans God, slaves to sin, incapable of doing right. In Christ we are free-
Of the 15 or so references to freedom in this sense in the New Testament, all but two or three are closely followed by injunctions such as these: "free, yet not as using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God" (1 Pet 2:16) "beware lest your liberty become a stumbling block for those who are weak" (1 Cor 8:9) and "having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness" (Rom 6:18). The world likes to kick and scream and say "That's not freedom!"* but it is! The ability to do right is such a privilege, if only we can see it!
3) One truth that The Truth is consistently trying to get me to realize is the truth of who I am in Him, or, better yet- who He is in me. One implication of this I just realized:
I wrote in my journal awhile back, "Because I feel emotion, I distrust my judgement. Because I don't feel emotion, I distrust the validity of my experience. I can never 'do it right!'" This is especially true, for one case, in worship. In pursuit of worship in spirit and truth, I usually worship in one or the other (or neither!) because in too much thought I often lose the joy, in losing myself in joy I feel like I am losing the truth. I need to make sure that these emotions are grounded in truth and aren't just the vagaries of a whirlwind heart 'tossed to and fro and carried about' by wind and wave of music and swelling words. Here is the glorious truth I've just been learning: any emotion of joy and praise is perfectly legitimate because it is grounded in the truth of my new nature in Christ. Jesus' heart always swells in joy and thanksgiving and love - I can be free to let my heart do the same whenever it can begin to see. It is not cheap emotionalism because it is rooted in and nourished by truth in truth. What freedom and glory there is in that!
*And anyway, there's some duplicity involved here. After all, does our society really want to give everyone the prerogative to steal, murder, rape, pillage, torch, etc (ie 'do whatever they want')? The laws of God are built on similar principles. In some ways, God allows us to do anything that doesn't hurt anyone (general societal standard) - He just includes ourselves on the list of 'anyone.'
1 comment:
1) "you shall know" well, technically, we do have two words. =) Not as neatly differentiable as Spanish, but...
When we say we know something(as you will commonly hear a child say after his/her mother tells her not to do something for the nth time: "I know, mom, I know."), we refer to knowing the facts, in most cases. True, there is an aspect of "know" that refers to "personal, experiential knowledge"; however it is less used.
More often, when we wish to refer to that type of knowledge, we will say we understand. "I understand" implies a deeper, often experiential knowledge with the subject mentioned.
Understand vs. know--much like the "listen" vs. "hear" type of thing if you ask me. =)
But back to the topic--you are quite right! To truly know the truth, one must understand it. It cannot be something simply acknowledged, but instead lived out. For to simply "know" is not enough. Even atheists "know" God like that! What I would add has already been said--by James, actually. "Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!"(2:19)
Faith that is not lived out is dead--it is the equivalent of not having that faith, you see. For faith not lived out is simply to "saber" God--but even the demons "saber" God! But "conocer" is to understand--experiential knowledge--to not only believe in but live out one's faith in God--it is the relationship with Him that makes all the difference. Know the Truth, and He shall set you free; free from bondage to sin and freedom to obey Him--oh, what joy!
2) I recall one way this was explained to me some time ago...it was: Freedom gained in God is the ability to do whatever we want. /However/, what we want in Christ is far different from what our sinful nature desires. In Christ, we have the freedom to do what we want /in Him/--the freedom to act according to what God asks of us.
Of course, you said it in not so many words(and probably better). =) "Freedom is the ability to do right"--indeed. =)
3) "The right word"--quite--you have said it. =) Ahaha, for that fits exactly with what I was dealing with some time ago. =) An encouragement to you: this thought of yours in particular helped me a lot with my struggle to worship. After considering your words, though, God taught me some valuable lessons which greatly aided me in beginning to worshiping in both spirit and truth. =) So thanks. ^_^
*No, our society only wants to give the prerogative for themselves to have those "freedoms". After all, sin nature puts oneself at the highest point. If you know what I mean...to try to explain: say for example someone wants to be able to take out his anger at a bad work situation. He may want the ability to kill his boss, take over and become dictator for the entire company to "make things right", but he would loathe having anybody else able to do that very same thing...
I do love the way you put it though: "In some ways, God allows us to do anything that doesn't hurt anyone (general societal standard) - He just includes ourselves on the list of 'anyone.'"
Praise Him!
--Josiah C.
Post a Comment