Hear the words of James…
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.James 1:5-6
The wise writer tells us that wisdom comes when we ask God for it, and while the obvious lesson to learn from this text is “you have to ask God,” let’s not forget about the obvious other lesson: with God’s help, you can know things. Wisdom is attainable. You don’t have to wonder or guess or shrug and say “I don’t know” all the time. That doesn’t mean we’ll have all the answers, but it does mean when we’re lacking wisdom, it’s expected of us to ask God for help in attaining it.
Then what?
When a person has attained wisdom, what comes next? The simple answer is: Then the wise person knows what he didn’t know before. That’s a good thing, right? That should be our goal, right?
Yes!
So why is it that people with the confidence to say “no, I know that’s not true” or “yes, I know this is true” are often derided and looked-down upon by many of their peers? Our modern culture, almost by a rule, dislikes people who know things. The celebrity culture of the day absolutely holds up the ignorant as role models, while those who can answer questions are mocked and hated for being “know it alls.”
It’s okay to “know.”
We have to shake the idea that saying we “know” something means we are arrogant, or that we refuse to learn, or that we refuse to see that we might be wrong, etc. No no no. Christians can and should be wise. We can “know” God’s Word. We can “know” our faith is true. That’s not arrogance; that’s confidence in Scripture (Ephesians 4:5).
On the other hand, if I don’t have a clear understanding of what I believe (if I don’t know), then I would, as James says “be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine,” which, not coincidentally is a perfect description of our modern culture.
It is good to question, and to seek, and certainly to grow, so that we are settled enough in our faith to the point where we can defend it, and not just believe a hodgepodge of different ideas and teachings. We can know that we know that we know that we know Him…
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:3
And that’s not a bad thing; that should be our goal.
~ Matthew