Thursday, September 22, 2011

Do The Math, Part 2

This is a continuation of my last blog entitled, “Do The Math,” and it’s based on 2 Peter 1. We’ve already established that Peter is exhorting us to add virtue to our faith. Let's continue on with verse 5.


And then Peter says, “To your virtue, add knowledge.” Now this one intrigued me. When you think about knowledge, what comes to mind? Well, I’ll tell you that I immediately thought of the knowledge of the Word. As I began to research it in the Greek Concordance (Strong’s), I discovered that it wasn’t even talking about that.


The definition contained the words, “science” and “intelligence.” And I thought, “Lord, what does that mean?” And the Lord said, “It’s because I don’t want My people to be a bunch of idiots.” (That’s just the way He’ll talk to me sometimes.) We’re supposed to know something and have bright minds. We ought to be leading the way as the Jewish people that I referred to at the beginning of this blog series have done. We should be leading the way in the arts and in medicine, science, and astronomy. We ought to know more about the stars and the sea and the land, and simply be forerunners and influence the world!


So Peter’s not just talking about a knowledge of God or of the Word. That was my assumption. No, he’s saying, “Don’t be stupid!” Again, that’s how God puts it to me. Don’t be ignorant! Now we know that Apostle Paul said to not be ignorant concerning spiritual things, but here Peter is not only speaking about spiritual things, he’s also talking about practical matters. So God is saying through His Word: Get educated! Get smart! But in your getting smart, keep Christ the focus. In other words, don’t just assume something is accurate because men or professors tell you it is so. From what tree are they eating? Because if you’re eating the fruit from the same tree, then your thinking is going to be just as skewed as theirs is, and it won’t be long before you’re convinced that we came from monkeys.


At the same time, it does not mean that Christians should walk around ignorant. I think that we should have sharp minds; we should be intelligent; we should educate ourselves. I do a lot of reading, but I don’t just read to be reading. There was a time during my first few years of being saved, I mean if it wasn’t Christian, I didn’t listen to it and I didn’t read it. And I found out that, man, I’m missing out on some very important things. So several years ago, I began to read many of the classics, some of which I had even read while in high school. And I’ve read others, YES, secular books. I confess. God wants us to know what’s going on, and He has called us to lead the way!


It’s amazing and impressive to me how the Jewish culture has influenced the world, and they’ve been one of the most downtrodden people in the history of the world. Yet, they’ve led the way in economics, the arts, etc. It used to be there was a time in world history when Christians were leading the way. That’s what the Renaissance was about. Christians were leading the way by writing great literary works of art and composing the greatest symphonies. Now if we mention “symphony” in church, it’s like, “Man, forget that. I don’t do no classical, unless it’s classic rock." That’s our definition of classical these days, Led Zeppelin or Lynryd Skynyrd. Isn’t that classical music?


If you put a piece of sheet music in front of many of today’s musicians, chances are they wouldn’t know what to do with it. Much of the classical music was written by influential Christians of that time, just a couple hundred years ago. But we’ve been dumbed down . . . so dumbed down that we look down our arrogant noses at things that are truly intelligent, and we say, “We don’t need to know about that. What good does that do us?” And it’s having a profound impact on the Church. As a result, the Church is not having a profound impact upon the world. God has called us to be a people of great influence and lead the way.


In order to do that, we have to add to virtue, knowledge. Just be mindful of what tree we’re eating from. Verse 6 says that we’re to add self-control to knowledge. I like to talk about self-control; I don’t always like to practice it. I was eating pasta the other night. I had worked all day and my wife had made homemade sauce and pasta, and it smelled like Grandma’s house when I walked in the door. And I said, “Whoa, that smells like my grandmother’s house.” “Oh yeah, honey, I made pasta.” And of course, she piles my plate up nice and high, and I found “full” and just kept right on going.


I exercised no self-control whatsoever, none, zero, nada. All I could think about was how good it tasted. Come on! That’s the Christian way though, isn’t it? We love our food! I love my food! And the older I get, the more I love it, and the harder it is to get it off! But I love my food.


What is self-control? What is it? Control self! What is self: the carnal attributes of man that are contrary to God. Now we hear a lot of preaching about sinful lusts and sexual perversion, and that it’s wrong to drink, smoke, gamble, cuss, but when was the last time we heard a sermon about gluttony? You ever wonder why preachers don’t preach on gluttony? I suppose it’s because most of us are guilty. Man, we have that nicotine thing licked, we quit drinking, and we quit whoring around, but boy, we love our food!


Self-control is simply controlling self, the desires of the flesh. It speaks of discipline. How can you be a disciple and not exercise discipline? Explain that to me. And yet when we hear messages on discipline, the wall goes up, and we’re thinking “legalism.” We think, “law, rigidity,” well, we’re supposed to be “rigidly righteous.” That was a term I heard Bill Hammond use many years ago.


Exercising self-control. It involves restraint being exercised over our own impulses and emotions. It’s called, “Get a grip, honey.” You know when you’re losing it. So does everybody else. Get a grip on your emotions. “Well, I can’t help it.” Yes, you can! Stop it! Just stop it!


It’s obvious to me that God wants us to keep pursuing/adding virtue to our lives, and He has been diligent to point the way through His Word. I’ll continue in the next blog regarding this progression that Peter has spelled out for us through his letters.



~ pg

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