"...always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth..." 2 Timothy 3:7.
While this scripture is speaking about ‘weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions’, there is a further principle here that I would like to discuss.
David always says, “You don’t know what you don’t know”. If my world is framed by the constant feeding on the familiar then I am simply enhancing and sharpening, my knowledge of the known; a good thing, but to truly grow into the fullness of Christ, (to come to the knowledge of truth) I must surround myself with new and different things with a WILLINGNESS to hear, to see and ultimately allow the Spirit of God to shape that into my heart with an understanding that bears great fruit in my life.
David is great about this; me, not so much. My initial reaction to new thoughts presented from the word are to say, Wait a minute, is that really what the word says? When I’m not seeing it like you are saying it requires a willingness on my part to embrace something different and unknown to me.
James exhorts us to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. Romans tells us that we are to be renewed by the transforming of our minds. We can’t begin to transform anything if we think we know everything AND believe that what we know is the fullness of truth. Rejecting a truth is simply another form of limitation that we set into our life and world.
We’ve just gotten home from a wonderful time with a group of ministers working through the processes of transitioning their churches. It was a great time of study, conversation and insights by the Spirit of God. It began with the Holy Spirit telling us He had seeds to sow that would bring forth greater fruit and revelation for us. He was rooting out and pulling down the limitations of our thought patterns to enlarge us for His greater capacity.
The Holy Spirit is always wanting to increase us with the increase of God. I know in part and as a part I can only add my part and MUST have the other parts to enlarge me. Where I am unwilling to see and hear, I am limited.
Jesus said to his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and blessed are your ears, because they hear.” We don’t need to be afraid of hearing new and different thoughts because we do have the ability to rightly discern by the Holy Spirit living in us. The word of God divides soul and spirit, and when preached the great teacher in us leads us and guides us into all truth through the word of God.
The word of God is profitable for instruction. I don’t know everything there is to know in it. I don’t see as clearly or as deeply as I need to. I want to be a lover of truth, willing to embrace truth and grow in the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ.
We are supposed to be ever learning with the end goal of coming to the knowledge of the truth.