True Knowledge Leads to Worthy Walking
By Michael Kelley
Throughout the ages, philosophers have considered knowledge to be valuable and important, but they have disagreed on the purpose of knowledge. Socrates said that knowledge was the only true good. To him, virtue IS knowledge, and the purpose of knowledge was moral education and the pursuit of a virtuous life. Plato thought that knowledge was the key to finding meaning and ordering the soul. Through knowledge, a person could transcend the physical world of shadows to reach the stable, universal truths of the universe. Aristotle stated that “all men by nature desire to know.” He categorized knowledge into three purposes: some knowledge is theoretical, and its purpose is for its own sake. Some knowledge is practical, and you gained it for the sake of action and ethical living. Some knowledge is productive, and you gain it for the purpose of making or creating things.
Though they all had slightly different variations, they all agreed on this - that knowledge DOES have a purpose, even if they didn’t agree on what that purpose precisely was. Paul the apostle would also agree. He wasn’t against the pursuit of knowledge or a well-informed faith. In fact, that’s one of the things he prayed for the Colossian believers:
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him… (Col. 1:9-10).
The knowledge Paul prayed for wasn’t the kind of general knowledge the philosophers above might have been thinking about. Rather, it was the specific knowledge of God’s will. But that knowledge of God’s will had a purpose. Paul wants the Colossians - and us - to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will that we will live our lives in such a way that we are worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him.
Put another way, true knowledge leads to worthy walking.
This is a helpful reminder for us, as Christians, today. We live in a day and time in which knowledge has never been more accessible. With just a few keystrokes, we can hear sermons, study words, dig into context, and examine the Bible to a greater degree and depth than anyone has gone before. But in light of the wealth of information and knowledge at our disposal, we would do well to ask: To what end?
To what end are we learning?
To what end are we dissecting?
To what end are we accumulating all this knowledge?
It is certainly not to purely have it. Rather, we are filled with knowledge that we might live lives worthy of the Lord.
But let’s be careful here, too, lest we misunderstand the meaning of “worthy.” We might be tempted to think that living “worthy” means garnering enough merit to deserve respect. And we know there are at least two problems with that. First of all, we know that we will never be worthy of the Lord, no matter how hard we try. But secondly, we know that as Christians, we shouldn’t even try! That’s because our worthiness comes not from the way we live, but instead because of the merit of Christ. So what do we do with that?
We recognize that the word translated as “worthy” does not carry a sense of merit with it; instead, it carries a sense of consistency. It means that we must live in a manner consistent with the fact that we carry a name with us. Because we do.
It’s a name that we’ve been given, not because we earned it, but because we were adopted into a family. It’s a name that defines who we are. And it’s a name we already have, not one we are trying to earn. It’s the name that is above every name, and the name at which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. We are Christians. And we must live in a manner consistent with that name.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
