7/13/08 Knowledge

2 Pet. 1:5-7 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

We are in the process of working our way

through the progressive steps of growth

given to us by Peter

in II Peter chapter 1.

Building on our foundation of faith in Christ,

faith both in His death as total payment for our sins,

and faith daily in His commitment

to live within us

and express Himself through us,

Peter then tells us

that our walk with our King

begins by His building within us

both a knowledge of

and confidence in the moral framework

he reveals to us in His Word.

It is during this first phase of growth

that He rebuilds those areas in our lives

where we have broken down

our natural resistance to certain areas of immorality

and find ourselves powerless

to break the bondage of our sin-addictions

apart from the healing hand of our Lord.

The bondage of sin has so many faces -

with one person it may take the form of uncontrollable rage,

with another some perversion of God’s design for sex,

and with yet another the subtle but powerful addiction of trying to use gossip to meet our needs for intimacy and love.

All sin is ultimately destructive to the one who gives himself over to it.

Our Lord said it better -

John 8:34 ... "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

Maybe it’s best for us to just think of that level of moral excellence

as being that point in our growth

when our Lord is explaining to us

the protective boundaries of life -

revealing to us

how to live life in a way

that frees us to be totally and completely ourselves

without ever running the risk

of destroying ourselves through self-destructive attitudes or actions.

There is just simply no way to overestimate

the incredible advantage

God gives His people

through this moral framework He reveals to us in His Word.

We happen to have been dropped into history

at a point and time when no one around us

has any clear idea how life was designed to operate.

Our nation is filled with hurting people

painfully inching their way through

a trial-and-error effort

in an attempt to figure out what works in life

and what does not,

desperately hoping those guys who wrote the TV sitcoms

knew what they were talking about.

We are all victims

both of our own sins

and of the sins of others,

with most people living their entire lives

dazed,

discouraged,

and defeated,

wondering what in the world went wrong.

And into all of that confusion,

for those who have ears to hear,

our Lord says quite simply,

“Let Me share with you

the way things really are.

Let Me show you how life -

YOUR life was designed to be lived.”

It’s not easy learning, of course.

Sometimes it is extremely difficult,

even painful

because there are some places

where we have constructed large sections of our life

on very shaky foundations,

and places where we have invested

tremendous mental and emotional effort

into justifying some form of self-destructive behavior

because we desperately want to believe

it really can meet our needs.

Letting go of all of those thick layers of defenses

is very much like pulling the layers of dirty bandage

off of a badly infected wound.

It is a painful, messy business,

one that seems to make things worse

because it requires exposing

the most tender and painful areas of our lives

to the eyes and hands of our Lord.

But without it

there can be no real healing.

More pain killers

and more layers of bandage

will only ultimately doom us

to more intense pain from inner corruption.

It is no wonder that our Lord’s first major project

that He shares with us

in order to enable us to get to know Him as He really is

is the project of rebuilding our moral foundation

through establishing moral excellence into our lives.

And just to help keep this whole thing in perspective

let me share with you another statement of Peter’s

in which he uses this same Greek word

that we translate as “moral excellence” here in II Peter.

You see,

one of the great enemies of this moral reshaping process of our lives

is falling into the trap of believing

that these are changes WE are suppose to make by our own efforts FOR GOD.

We clean up our lives

so that we can then achieve greater security or acceptance with our Creator.

That is not what Peter is saying here at all.

And his comments in 1 Pet. 2:9-10 put this in the right perspective:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

That word ‟excellencies” where Peter says, ...that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light...,

that is exactly the same word

that Peter uses here in II Peter,

the word we translate as “moral excellence”.

You see,

it is not OUR moral excellence

that we are to add to our lives,

it’s HIS,

and it is not our moral excellence

we are called to display to the world,

it is HIS.

What Peter is saying here

is that it is our Lord who has the ability

to reshape and rebuild the moral foundations of our lives.

It is His life within us

that has the power to transform

the cheap, junky little lives we place into His hands

and transform them into lives that radiate

a strength of character

and a depth and quality

that causes our world to stand amazed.

He begins by giving us

a hunger and thirst for righteousness,

a longing to see our lives transformed.

Then, building from that hunger,

He brings the knowledge,

and the influences,

and the discipline,

and the tools,

and the experiences necessary to remake us from the inside out.

Every human being

who has ever shared in this reshaping process of God’s

finds himself saying with his words and with his attitudes

“I am what I am

because my Lord, Jesus Christ, has touched my life.”

The religious person looks at his life

and proclaims, “See what I have done for God.”

The Christian looks at his life

and proclaims, “See what my God has done in me.”

That’s what Peter is talking about when he says we are called to...proclaim the excellencies (the moral excellence) of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Then, from there Peter tells us

that we move on to what he calls “Knowledge” -

...to your faith supply moral excellence,

to your moral excellence, knowledge...

And just to get us going the right direction,

let me tell you that knowledge as Peter uses it here

is that process by which we begin to discover

the basic operating principles of life within the Body of Christ.

It’s not so much learning where the lines are

in the game of life,

as we do in moral excellence,

but rather it is the process of learning

the strategies for life,

those strategies that really make our lives effective

in the roles assigned to us by our King.

For those of you who have been here through most of this study

I need to clear up one important distinction with this word ‟knowledge”.

If you were here in the early weeks of our study

you’ll remember we spent quite a bit of time looking at the word ‟Knowledge” in II Pet 1:2-3 where he said,

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

And in that study I told you that the word Peter used for ‟knowledge” in those two verses

was the Greek word epignosis

which means full or complete knowledge.

And I suggested that Peter was talking about that process of building

that personal, intimate, living friendship with Christ,

that friendship that is the heart of all true spiritual growth.

OK, now, the word that Peter uses for ‟knowledge” here in this 2^nd growth step IS NOT epignosis,

it is the word gnosis,

the root word from which epignosis is formed.

If you would like a definition,

it means knowledge gained through hands-on experience.

It involves active interaction between the one knowing

and the thing being learned.

It is not simply the accumulation of facts.

It is not what most of us did

the night before the big test in school -

temporarily cramming bits of knowledge into our brain

with no desire and no intention of retaining any of it after the class ended.

This kind of knowledge is growth in understanding

as the result of getting in and doing it yourself.

A number of months ago I was helping a high school student

as he studied for a test in his Auto Mechanics class.

We went through the text book together,

studied diagrams and read descriptions of the various parts of a car.

Then, during the weeks we were studying the material,

the brakes on his own car went out.

One morning, rather than staring at more pages in the book,

we went out into my garage,

tore his brake system apart,

and put new rotors and pads on the front breaks.

What he gained in the garage was gnosis -

practical knowledge learned in real life experiences.

Maybe the best way I can try to explain the relationship between epignosis,

moral excellence,

and gnosis is by comparing it to basketball.

Epignosis is a term that is always used

by Peter to describe our friendship with Christ Himself -

knowing Him personally.

It would be like the friendship that a player would develop with his or her coach

in the best possible coaching situation,

the kind of coach/player relationship

in which the player’s strongest underlying motivation for everything he or she does

grows out of their relationship with their coach.

The process of growing in moral excellence, then,

is very much like that process

of learning the rules of the game.

What kind of moves are legal, which ones aren’t?

Where are the court boundaries?

What’s a foul and what are the consequences, etc.

We’re not talking about developing playing skills at this level of learning,

we’re talking about the stuff in the rule book that tells us how the game is actually played.

And if we can ever back off from our own personal battles for moral excellence

enough to see what’s really happening,

that is really what our Lord is doing

when He begins His efforts

to build moral excellence into our lives.

His efforts to restructure our lives

in the area of morals certainly has nothing to do with Him being ticked because we aren’t towing the line,

or slapping us up a bit

because we’re naughty little children

who are not behaving properly.

What He’s actually doing

is building into us an understanding

of the functioning rules of life.

He is teaching us and showing us

how to live in harmony

with the way He has designed us to live.

He is sharing with us

that protective moral framework

that allows us to function in total freedom in life

without ever having to fear

that we are going to be caught up

in self-destructive behavior.

As long as our basketball player

stays within the boundaries of the game

and follows the rules of the game

he never needs to fear hearing the whistle blow

and finding himself benched because of his conduct.

There is absolutely no way to overstate

the incredible advantage the Christian has in life

through the knowledge God provides for us

in the moral framework He offers us in His Word.

Before we ever get into the game

our coach begins by explaining to us

the basic rules of the game we are called to play.

Then, as this foundation becomes solid within us,

our Lord then moves us into the discovery of a whole new level of learning,

and in our basketball analogy

this is where we begin to learn the skills

and the techniques that allow us to really play the game effectively.

For the Christian

it is at this level that we begin learning

through hands-on experience

how the Christian life really operates.

It is the process of learning how our Lord

actually goes about getting things done

in this fascinating world

He has called us to be a part of.

In a very real sense

we begin to discover the secrets of the Kingdom of God,

the previously hidden principles

that, as we begin to apply them to our lives,

enable us to live lives of tremendous effectiveness

in whatever roles our Lord assigns to us.

And I need to tell you

it’s not at all like we think it is.

Anyone who has lived any length of time in the adult world

learns very quickly that there are certain rules of operation

if you want to get ahead.

Those rules might involve things like

getting to know the right people,

and learning how to dress

in the way that gives you the best advantage for the group you’re trying to succeed with.

It may involve developing a certain type of life style,

and learning a certain type of language,

and making the right kind of contacts,

and playing the game

in a way that keeps you one step ahead of the competition.

And we all do this, you know.

The kid living on the street

quickly learns exactly how to dress

and how to talk,

and even how to hold his body

in ways that guarantee his acceptance in his target group.

The home-school mother

learns and applies the language and communication skills

and even the political and religious connections

that give her status and credibility in the home-school world.

The avid hunter, or fisherman, or golfer, or educator, or banker, or preacher

all know what to wear,

and what to say,

and when to laugh,

and what jokes to tell to allow them to fit into their target group.

It’s how we survive in life.

Well, life with the King

has its own special way of doing things as well -

basic operating principles

for a truly effective walk with the King.

It is at this second level of ‟knowledge”

that we begin to develop that understanding.

Next week I’ll share with you

what some of those key principles

in the Christian life are

so that you can get a better idea what I’m talking about here.