A VBC Perspective: Friendship and The Idol of Knowledge
VBC Perspectives are reflections on Faith, Scripture and the Christian life from within our own Valley Bible Church family. If you would like to offer a submission to the VBC Perspectives series, contact Nate Baird.
If you are like me, you may previously have pursued (or are currently attempting to pursue) relationship with God through knowledge about God. I spent a large portion of my life as a follower of Jesus seeking to know every detail of who God truly is. This may not seem like a bad thing at first glance; but over time, sermon after sermon, religious debate after debate, and podcast after podcast, I found myself worshiping the idol of the knowledge of God. Unwittingly, I had made a grave mistake in my pursuit of the Savior.
The issue was that I had traded my fellowship with the Savior for the pursuit and accumulation of knowledge. In an attempt to paint a portrait of accurate theology and doctrine on the canvas of my mind, I missed out on an intimate relationship with the God I was trying to paint! I believed my capacity to love God and be loved by Him was contingent on the accuracy of my knowledge about Him.
But I was wrong.
Jesus does not require us to perfectly understand Him to enjoy relationship with Him or to follow Him. In fact, if that were the case, no one would ever enter into a relationship with God.
Paul writes in Romans 11:33:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
Yahweh is so vast that it’s simply not possible to grasp all there is to know about Him. Yet, profoundly, this infinite God has chosen us and called us friends. Speaking to His disciples, Jesus told them,
“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:14-15).
Jesus has called us His “friends.” In this passage, Jesus gives no prerequisite of perfect knowledge, nor a requirement of fully understanding His call or His character to be a friend of the Savior. Only one command is given to the friends of Christ, in verse 12, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” As the Father loves the Son, Jesus has loved us and called us to love each other with this same love.
Coming to understand the type of relationship I’ve been called to destroyed the idol of knowledge. Friendship with God is not one of tirelessly searching the unsearchable, but a relationship of love. Jesus loves His friends, and there is no greater gift than being called into an everlasting friendship with Him.
I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to let the love of Christ move you to love Him more, and to love His people well. Don’t become ensnared in pursuing knowledge of the Savior as the sole means of your relationship with the Savior. Instead, be confident that Jesus has made known to you “all that [He has] heard from [His] Father” and peacefully abide in His love for you. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).
— Joel Udoutch, May 19th, 2020