“What we don’t know won’t hurt us.” Have we ever heard or said those words? It’s an idiomatic expression used to justify denying or concealing an issue. “If you do not know about a problem or a misdeed, you will not be able to make yourself unhappy by worrying about it.”[1] Have we said it ourselves? “What we don’t know won’t hurt us.”
So, for example, what if we don’t know we have cancer? Would it help us? Or, would it hurt us? Would it be okay to be ignorant of your medical condition? Of course not! What we don’t know would hurt us. What we know would help us.
I thought of those words when I read our passage, 2 Peter 1:5-7. “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.”[2] Last time, I spoke on adding to our faith virtue or moral excellence. This morning we will look into making every effort to supplement virtue with knowledge. In our spiritual growth, what we don’t know would hurt us. What we know would help us.
The question is, “What knowledge was the Apostle Peter talking about?” How I wish Peter was talking about Bible study! How I hope that it is as simple as attending Sunday school, listening to sermons or reading books! Whether personal or group study, I believe Bible study is important. It has a part in adding knowledge to virtue. But that’s not the whole picture. Even if we know a lot about the Bible, it does not automatically mean that we have already added knowledge to virtue. So, what knowledge was Peter talking about?
In verses 2 to 3 we read, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence”. Then, in verse 5 we read that, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge”. How are those verses connected? Was the “knowledge” in verses 2 to 3 the same as the “knowledge” in verse 5?
Let’s do some digging. “Peter uses two related but distinct Greek words for ‘knowledge’.”[3] The Greek word for “knowledge” [4] used in verses 2 and 3 has a different emphasis from the Greek word for “knowledge” [5] used in verse 5. In verses 2 and 3, “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” and “the knowledge of him” refer to saving knowledge. According to the Bible Speaks Today commentary, “It has the sense of ‘personal knowledge’, the knowledge of a husband or wife or good friend that goes beyond knowing things about them and actually knows them. Knowing God is so momentous that Peter uses the word almost with the meaning of being converted. This is an essential foundation, for if we don’t know Christ himself, then it is empty to know about him.”[6] Simply put, “knowledge” in verses 2 to 3 talks about knowing our Lord Jesus as Savior. It is about putting our trust in Him for eternal life. Do we really know Christ? Have we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior?
Verses 2 to 3 refer to saving knowledge while verse 5 refers to growing in that knowledge. 2 Peter 3:18 commands us, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The word “knowledge” here in 3:18 is the same Greek word for the “knowledge” that we add to virtue in 1:5. Saving knowledge is the foundation. Growing in that knowledge is building on that foundation. What Peter was saying is that now that we know our Lord Jesus as Savior, we are to keep on knowing Him or grow in our knowledge of Him. Now that we know Christ, we are to know Him more!
So, how do we know that we are growing in our knowledge of Jesus? How do we add knowledge to virtue? Let’s now dig into the word “knowledge” here in verse 5. According to the Bible Exposition Commentary, “The word used here suggests practical knowledge or discernment. It refers to the ability to handle life successfully… This kind of knowledge does not come automatically. It comes from obedience to the will of God”.[7] Peter was talking about experiential knowledge. That’s why to know is TO OBEY. That’s the reason why I said that knowing a lot about the Bible is not enough. We have to obey what we already know. We don’t really know it until and unless we obey it. Note that it says that the knowledge we add to virtue is “the ability to handle life successfully”. Obedience spells the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful life.
As far as the Bible is concerned, the opposite of knowledge is DISOBEDIENCE. Peter calls unbelief as ignorance: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance”.[8] But note that here Peter used the word “ignorance” not just to refer to lack of knowledge. In the New Living Translation, “So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.” Here we see that Peter used the word “ignorance” to refer also to disobedience. An ignorant person is a disobedient person.
In Ephesians 4:17-18, the Apostle Paul also connected ignorance with disobedience. “As a follower of the Lord, I order you to stop living like stupid, godless people. Their minds are in the dark, and they are stubborn and ignorant and have missed out on the life that comes from God.”[9] Here we see that the words “stupid” and “godless” go together. Also, Paul joined the words “stubborn” and “ignorant.” So, to be stupid is to be godless. To be ignorant is to be stubborn.
To know is to obey. When we disobey, we don’t really know. If ignorance means unbelief, knowledge is belief. So, we don’t really believe when we disobey. We truly believe when we obey. For example, according to Ephesians 4:25, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” But, even if we say we know that we are to be honest, when we cheat on our income tax returns, we don’t really know how it is to be honest, no matter what we say to the contrary. When we lie to our parents about our whereabouts, when we make excuses that we don’t have a cell signal or we used up our load already or our cell batteries went dead, then we don’t really believe in honesty even if we say we do believe in telling the truth. When at the end of the day our work does not match our wages, that our efforts do not justify our salary, then we are not really being honest. When we gossip, when we listen to rumors and we pass on to others that juicy information even when we didn’t even verify it, we are spreading lies and we are not truly honest. So, to know is to obey. Are we really knowledgeable or are we actually ignorant? Are we really obedient or are we actually disobedient? That’s how we add knowledge to virtue.
When we obey, we are adding experiential knowledge to virtue. Hebrews 5:13-14 illustrate it for us: “Anyone who has to drink milk is still a child, without any experience in the matter of right and wrong. Solid food, on the other hand, is for adults, who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil.”[10] Note that an immature person is someone who doesn’t know how to distinguish between matters of right and wrong. On the other hand, a mature person is someone who knows how to distinguish between good and evil. Note the words “without any experience” and “through practice.” According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary, “It is not so much that a spiritual ‘infant’ lacks information—though at first he obviously does—but rather that he has not yet learned to put ‘the teaching about righteousness’ to effective use. He lacks the skill which goes with maturity and which results in the ability to make appropriate moral choices.”[11] In short, when we obey we will have the experience or we will have the skill to decide between right and wrong and between what is good, better and best. We will not only ask, “What is the right thing to do?” We will also learn to ask, “What’s the wise thing to do?” That’s the ability to handle life successfully. That’s adding knowledge to virtue.
So, the key when we hear the truth is to make sure that we obey it. I encourage all of us after listening to a message or reading a book to write down practical steps on how we could apply what we have learned. We should ask questions such as “What are the things to start?”, “What are the things to stop?” and “What are the things to continue?” Immediately think of ways to apply the lessons within one week. The warning that “If we don’t use it, we lose it” is very applicable here. The more we obey, the more we become skillful in obeying the Lord. Let’s say that we are struggling with too much worry. We know that the Bible commands us not to worry but instead we are to pray. Philippians 4:6 tells us, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” But still we worry a lot. For us, it makes more sense to worry than to pray. We are told, “Why worry when you can pray?” But we keep on saying, “Why pray when we can worry?” So, what we can do for example is that whenever we worry, we use that as a reminder to pray. So, when we worry, we pray. At first, it’s hard to focus. But the more we pray, the less we worry.
Brothers and sisters, to know is to obey. So, are we growing in our obedience to the Lord? Next week, we will continue our study on adding knowledge to virtue. Let us pray…
[1]http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/What+you+don't+know+won't+hurt+you.
[2]All Bible verses are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
[3]Dick Lucas and Christopher Green, “The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of 2 Peter & Jude.”
[4]ἐπίγνωσις (epignosis)
[5]γνῶσις (gnosis)
[6]Lucas.
[7]Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. 2 Pe 1:5
[8]1 Peter 1:14.
[9]Contemporary English Version.
[10]Good News Bible.
[11]Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:793
