Knowledge In All Judgement

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1: 9-11)

Look at what Paul is praying for. Paul is praying that your love for Christ will be directed towards learning about Him and proper discernment with Him. Too many Christians remain in the spiritual side of Christ with no real practical knowledge of Him. The danger of the spiritual only is that they lack understanding and discernment. The spirit evokes emotions in man. But a spirit charged emotion that is ignorant to Christ is a very dangerous thing. Emotions minus knowledge leads to bad decisions. The emotion of love without the knowledge and discernment of Christ or even what that emotion is, will inevitably lead to sin. Love, without knowledge and discernment of Christ and His word tends to permit and excuse the sin of a loved one. This is not forgiveness but rather a death sentence for the loved one.

Now some folks will take this to the other extreme. Neither I nor Paul are suggesting that the spiritual relationship with Christ needs to be abandoned. That’s foolishness for it is the Holy Ghost that quickens our spirit in the first place (Romans 8:11). What is being prayed for is expansion. To expand past the spiritual alone and “abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment”. Learn of things ethical and divine. Head knowledge of the spirit isn’t a bad thing. For some reason many Christians think that it is. They think that through some divine metamorphic process that they will gain knowledge and discernment of Christ. Let me be the first to inform you if you believe that. You have to open your Bible and read it. You have to study its finer points and understand.

Remember, one of the very first things the devil did was to quiz Jesus about the word (See Matthew 4:1-11). The devil even twisted God’s word a little bit to see if Jesus would fall for it (Matthew 4:6 is a mutilation of Psalm 91:11).

How did Jesus respond each time to the devils test questions? Jesus responded with, “It is written….”

Now I have a question for you. How are you going to know what is written if you haven’t first read it? How are you going to apply and do what is written if you don’t understand it?

When the devil tempted Jesus it wasn’t a spiritual matter, for it was well established that He was the Son of God. The devil tempted Jesus with the word. He tempted the knowledge and discernment of Christ. The devil was trying to find out if Jesus could, “approve things that are excellent”, which means to understand and discern the truth.

Guess what? The devil is doing the same thing with you and me.

It was quite common for Paul to pray for Christians to funnel their love and spirit in the direction of knowledge and discernment.

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17)

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;” (Colossians 1:9)

“That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” (Philemon 1:6)

We are “filled with the fruits of righteousness”. Our spirit has been quickened by the Holy Ghost (Romans 8:11). But it is our responsibility to learn. We do this through diligent study of His word. The literal translation of the word “Theologian” means the study of God. We as spirit filled children of God must be ardent students of God, for a spirit with no knowledge or discernment will surely fall. And yes, there will be a test, a devil administered test. Will you be able to answer with, “It is written…”?

Bill Hitchcock