SWTRBC-Week 6 Knowledge

2 Peter 1:5 NET

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge;

SWTRBC_Week 6

To Excellence Knowledge

Intro

Last Week we started looking at the List of Virtues that Peter is laying out for us to consume. These are Virtues that we are to be pursuing in Costly-Cooperation with Holy Spirit, adding these to our Spiritual Diet and Supplementing the Gift of Faith that we have have been given by God through Jesus our Lord.

The First course served was Excellence, course two is Knowledge - Gnosis -

Once again, the table is set and by now I hope you can

SMELL WHAT THE ROCK”S BEEN COOKING!!

Welcome to Week 6 of Lessons from the Rock Apostle Himself - Simeon Peter

Opening

Welcome to the show everybody and Week 6 of Smell What the Rock’s been Cooking | lessons with the Rock Apostle Simeon Peter.

I do want to take a quick minute to acknowledge my female listeners today.

I started this podcast with a heart for men that were struggling to learn how to do life with Jesus and I understand these men because, Well...I was that guy for a LONG time.

Lately, however I’ve been getting feedback from some Sisters who are enjoying the content and I just wanted to acknowledge them and say thank you.

Your prayers and your support mean a great deal to me.

Jesus knew and understood the power and importance of having strong women around him and his ministry and as a man who strives models his life on Jesus, I know the importance of this as well.

So..Welcome to all you amazing Daughters of God and my much loved Sister. I am so glad you are here.

Ok, let’s pull up to the table and see what the Apostle is serving up for us today.

Thought One

Peter tells us in verse 5 that we are to add Knowledge to Excellence.

In verse 2 he mentions the Epi-gnosis, the Rich Knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

if you remember, the prefix Epi-means on top or over and above...like Epi-Deramis is you skin.

In verse 5 however the word is gnosis which is the word for Common Knowledge, which was always a Hot topic on the lips of the Stoics and some of the false teachers that Peter likes taking literary Jabs at in his letters.

The supplement Peter is suggesting we add to excellence is knowledge..but what kind of knowledge is this?

Most scholars agree that the use of gnosis usually denotes Practical Wisdom, or what we refer to as Common Sense in these parts.

A daily wisdom and understanding that gives the one who possesses such knowledge the ability to accurately distinguish between Good and Evil, right and wrong.

You might think that those distinctions would be obvious but their society had its share a deep corruption just like ours and cultural norms of the day worked to take acts that would be considered immoral , destructive or degrading into something that was celebrated.

Not unlike our society today where we see a constant desensitizing of our hearts and minds to evil?

I mean things that 50 years ago would have been clearly seen as immoral or evil today are often celebrated under the banner of inclusiveness or diversity of thought.

Common Sense around Good and Evil is a line that in my short time here on Earth, I have watched get significantly blurred.

Peter is Jew who is addressing both Jews and Gentiles BTW if you didn’t know a gentile was basically anybody that is not Jewish.

Both the Jews and the Gentiles of Peter’s days were for most Hellenized, which means that we are influence by the cultural of Rome.

As a Jew, Peter’s concept of Knowledge would have been different than that of Hellenized greeks.

For a Jew, Knowledge was rooted and grounded in experience.

That is, knowledge was viewed as a relational understanding of the present based on an experiential understanding of the past.

Kinda like the Farmer’s Insurance Commercial “We know a thing or two, because we seen s thing or two”

That’s experiential knowledge

Passages like Proverbs 1:7 coupled with a 3 year life on life experience of learning from our Lord Jesus first hand would be foundational in Peter’s concept of Knowledge.

Proverbs 1:7 NET

Fearing the Lord is the beginning of moral knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 9:10 NET

The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding.

So for Peter, Knowledge is a theory, its rooted in a real relationship with God’s Word made Flesh, Jesus and through Christ the Father and Holy Spirit.

Greeks on the other hand view knowledge as being rooted in Human Reasoning and Philosophy.

I’ll grant you that the Knowledge and Wisdom that the Greek Philosophers and Stoics held up has appeal to the human heart and mind.

The Philosophers would teach things like

“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.” – Marcus Aurelius

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.” – Marcus Aurelius

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca

“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” – Seneca

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…” – Epictetus

There is common wisdom in these teachings and you can see how this would appeal to a human heart.

It feeds the need for moral understanding and practical advise that one could choose to allow to influence his thinking.

You will find truth in the sayings of those who don’t preach Christ ....but it is a truth that does not acknowledge God. it’s truth that fails to acknowledge the hopeless condition of the human heart apart from a regenerate work of Holy Spirit

It is a grossly incomplete and partial knowledge that cannot produce Life.

Every great lie has as thread of truth in it and a partial truth is still a whole lie.

Sadly, I watch as men build there lives on lies like this every day. And I often look like the religious fool who has bought into some sort of fairy tale about a risen King.

Often, knowledge like that shared by the Stoics and even the religious knowledge of Scripture and God can carry with it a destructive power.

in 1 Cor 8:1-3 the Apostle Paul says this

We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by him. 1

1 Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Co 8:1–3.

Leon Morris from his Commentary on 1 Cor says this

Paul agrees. Knowledge is important and he associates himself with his readers in its exercise. The use of all may be a gentle reminder that the knowledge on which the Corinthians prided themselves was by no means unusual, but the common possession of Christians everywhere.

But love is more important. because it build up.

Knowledge puffs up (see note on ‘take pride’ in 4:6). Knowledge is so often accompanied by pride, which is the very antithesis of the genuine Christian spirit.

1 Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 123.

I love how Paul draws attention to the fact that any knowledge that the Corinthians were proud of was partial and incomplete at best so why in the world would they be puffing out their chest like they have some sort of Special Insight?

That sort of attitude around knowledge was to be avoided as far as the Apostles were concerned.

Because is doesn’t build others up. It’s not enough the just strip a man of his false understanding of things with some resemblance of superior knowledge.

It’s all about the heart that the knowledge is shared in.

I have groups of men that I meet with regularly where I coach and mentor this men. I tell them that the environment they are entering into IN NOT A SAFE SPACE....IT IS PLACE OF HONOR AND RESPECT, but it is not a safe place.

it’s a place where Iron Sharpens Iron and in that Environment, Sparks must fly, friction must be applied. You cannot take dull weapon and sharpen it to a keen edge unless spark and friction are a part of the process.

The difference is..is the friction designed to produce a keen edge or is it simply abrasiveness for the sake of being abrasive.

Simple abrasiveness destroys an edge quickly. Sharpening is a more intentional a focused process.

Knowledge Shared in Love sharpens and equips...it builds up and strengthens.

Knowledge shared to feed the ego of the sharer of build an audience will always teardown.

I like what the Theologian

W. Kay said about this “Knowledge is proud that it knows so much, Wisdom is humbled that is knows no more”

The Knowledge that Peter wants us to pursue is rooted and ground in a real, loving relationship with Jesus.

It’s founded in the truth that we Know God or Rather have become known By God Gal 4:9

In 1 Cor 13:1-2 the famous love chapter the Apostle Paul says

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.1

1 Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), 1 Co 13:1–2.

Hmmm,

Knowledge dispensed in the absent of Love being obnoxious to the hearer and worthless.

Jesus help me to learn this lesson please

The Apostle Peter, using a common word for common knowledge draws his readers attention the fact that true knowledge, which should a part of our every day lives and experiences is rooted and grounded in the Rich Knowledge of the Person of Jesus Christ.

Knowledge that supplements faith cannot be separated from the Author of all Knowledge and Wisdom. It cannot be sourced from any other fountain than Christ.

For years of my life I suffered from knowledge that puffed up and made me arrogant.

I’ve got a degree in Theology. I’ve been a Bible nerd for decades : But

If I’m being completely honest, I had no idea that in the 21st century a Man could have a true, conversational walk with Jesus.

By conversational, I mean a real interactive, life on life relationship with the risen Savior.

To me Jesus was in the Heavens a Million Miles away from me.

Intellectually, I understood the person and presence of Holy Spirit, but

the concept of Holy Spirit being closer than a brother, being right by my side every single day was a concept I had yet to grasp ....much less enjoy.

I’d never once been taught that this sort of relationship was even possible, that it was something a man could pursue or how a man would pursue it if it were possible.

It was the work that Christ did through my dear brother John Eldredge that opened my eyes to the possibility.

I began a process of seeking Jesus with my whole heart in prayer each day. I used a template that John included in his Book ‘Wild at Heart” for a daily prayer to guide me in the process.

Eventually I tailored that daily prayer into something that is very personal between me and Jesus and I still use it as part of my pursuit of my King today.

Knowledge that changes and transforms a man, isn’t found apart from the personal knowledge of Jesus himself.

When we can say that you know him, like we know our best friend.

When we can sense his heart without a word even being spoken, when we don’t have ask ourselves ‘What would Jesus do?” because we know the man well enough that the answer to that question is apparent, then.... we have begun to walk in the sort of knowledge that Peter is inviting us into.

Peter truly knew Jesus and what I didn’t know for so long in my Christian walk was that I could know Jesus much in that same way that Peter did. No...I have walked physically side by side with Jesus, I haven’t sit down to a meal with him but I have had my life completely transformed by him and he is constantly speaking to and working in my heart.

I know Jesus and once you know Jesus like this, you can never go back to who you were before.

Maybe like me, you have no concept of this level of relationship with Jesus. Faith for you has just been about going to church, paying your tithes, helping with Sunday School or VBS or Community Outreaches.

But, having a conversational, real friendship with Jesus...that wasn’t on the menu you got handed.

I here to bear witness to the truth. This sort of relationship is REAL and you can have it, if you are ready to pursue it with your whole heart.

In the show notes and in the transcript, I’ll place a link to John Eldredge’s Daily pray.

It was a great launch pad for me and I challenge you to take 30 days to prayer through this prayer.

Use this as a first step in pursuing a real, conversational relationship with Jesus and as practical way to pursue the sort of knowledge that builds up. When you are built in up in Christ, all the world around you changes because how you interact with that world changes.

Take the challenge, Be Intentional, Pursue Christ this Week

https://wildatheart.org/prayer/daily-prayer

Blessing

Until next week

24 ‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

25 May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

26 May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.’