Growing in the Knowledge of God

Hey everyone

I am continuing to look at Col. 1, where we can see how to please God in every way.  Today we will look at scriptures about how we can grow in the knowledge of God. 

Now, I'm going to begin by telling you a story.  My good friend Angelo, has an identical twin named Lorenzo.  Lorenzo is an acquaintance, while Angelo is a good friend.  One day at a cookout, they tried to trick me, as each acted like they were the other one.  But I didn't fall for it, because I knew Angelo well enough to know the subtle differences between the two.  How did I come to know Angelo so well.  We had spend a lot of time together.  We had eaten together, prayed together, spend time in the Word together, even been to the Emergency Room together.  I had grown in my knowledge of Angelo.  OK, so the principal is the same here.  If you want to grow in your knowledge of God, you have spend time with Him, reading and studying his Word and praying.

Here are a few other things to think about is we strive to grow in our knowledge of God.  In the book of Ezekiel, God says 55 times, "you will know that I am the Lord," or "they will know that I am the Lord."  One thing that God wants us the know about him is that he is the Lord.  His word is supreme and we need to do what he says.

Now, while we need to understand Lordship, at the same time we need to understand love.  I John 4:7-12 tells us that "God is love," and that we should love one another.  Verse 8 says that if we do not love, we do not know God.  So in our effort to grow in the knowledge of God, we can do so by submitting to his lordship, but also by loving each other.

One last thought.  John 1:18 tells us that no one has ever seen God, but that Jesus has made him known. So we can know God as we look at Jesus.  With that, we see in Colossians 1:28-29, Paul says that Jesus is the one that we "proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone."  He says that they do this to "present everyone fully mature in Christ."  As we strive to grow in our knowledge of God, we help each other become mature (or grow), as we share about Jesus.  Education theory tells us that the best way to learn something is to teach about it.  You retain more.  As we teach others about Jesus, they benefit, but so do we.      

Tom