Theory and Practice

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We can know truth of God in theory, but not very well in actual practise and this shows up in how we live. It is what we actually believe about God and have experienced about truth in God and God Himself.

In the Bible, Job, knew God and God was blessing Him. Life was going well and he was prosperous, but when God took away everything including his children, his prosperity and even his own health, he was to say the least struggling. God allowed Satan to bring on this hardship. However, it was all in God’s plan to assist Job to grow in actual knowledge and experience of God and to know him beyond circumstances and blessings, to know God in practise and to move drastically away from trying to manipulate God. God purpose also was to reveal Himself and that includes us today. That is the beauty of the Bible, because it reveals God. It is His word to us.

Too often we have expectations of God and thereby create our own God into our own image. We love God if things go our way and when we see God blessing us. We don’t really love Him for who He is and for Himself. In a sense we are trying to manipulate God according to our own expectations.

At the end of his very hard trial Job said, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5) In other words Job knew God in theory but now he knows Him as He really is. God changed Job so he could actually enter into a more authentic and true love relationship to the mighty living and loving God and know truth and God not just in theory but in practise and entered into God’s fulness.

In the parable of the ten talents Jesus tells about a owner that gave talents to three people. These talents represent the talents he gives to us such as intellect, heart, resources and abilities, etc. He gave 5 to one person, 2 to another and 1 to the last. The first two people doubled their talents and the owner said to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23) The last person with 1 talent went and hid his talent in the ground and dug it up to give to the owner. He did not use his talent to do good or to honor the one who had given him the talent. He was not a good steward. The owner said to him, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So, take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:24-30)

The man was afraid so he hid his talent, but the real root problem is that he didn’t really know God as He is. He had a very wrong understanding of God. Like many of us this guy had some very real misconceptions of God. He severely doubted the owner’s character and the application to us, is that applies to us doubting God’s character. His misconceptions could have also been rooted in envy because the owner had the wealth and the man didn’t and he worked for him. The owner had many advantages that he didn’t. Satan is also envious of God and wanted to take God’s place as Sovereign. The one with the one talent thought God was the manipulator, but it actually it was himself. He really didn’t know God as He actually is.

This person like Satan perhaps thought he could do a better job. This is root of sin—man wants to be God. What is our concept of God, not just in theory but in practise? How we live shows our concept of God and our relationship with Him.

We must know God for Himself as revealed in the Word of God. If we are not students of the Word of God and prayer, we will not know God in His fulness and never experience His fulness in this life and the full rewards in the life to come. If you really want to know God, consider that God humbled Himself and came as a man—God incarnate and allowed His own creation to torture him, mock and spit at him and nail Him to a cross. (John 1:1,14) It was all in God’s plan for divine justice required that somehow the penalty for our sin death, must be reconciled. He took our death penalty on Himself and gave us life. This is the great exchange. This is the God who created you, loves you and cares for you and invites you to spiritual life through His death for the penalty of our sin and His resurrection to life giving salvation. This is the God we serve; this is the God that wants you to know Him as He really is that you might also experience His fullness. (Ephesians 3:19) Fulness will not be found anywhere else. The cross of Jesus more than anything else clearly shows us the greatness, love and the holy character of God.

If you do not receive this gift of life in Jesus Christ you will be like this man with the one talent and go to a place of weeping gnashing of teeth. Turn to Jesus and receive new life in Him, real life and get to know God in His fulness and as He truly is. God invites us to life and to the best. To receive His best, you also must give your best. Use the talents God has given you and don’t be envious of others or of God. Change your misconceptions of God and get to know Him as He really is through God’s Word the Bible and prayer. Refuse to believe the lies of the devil.

All misconceptions of God have their root in Satan, who loves to tell lies of God, and get people only to look at circumstances to determine truth rather than God and he distorts the truth and falsely maligns God’s character. As the word of God says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Let God create in you a new heart. (Ezekiel 36:26)

This quote expresses the importance of knowing God through His word and the Holy Spirit and with heart, mind and will. “A source of spiritual delight is the word of God contained in Holy Scripture because there is to be found ultimate truth that enlightens the mind, which, being mind, has truth as its object. Moreover, there is ultimate in sweetness and grace in the word of Scripture, which draws like a great magnet the hearts of the readers to agree with them and to be convinced. This is only natural. After all, the words of Scripture are the word of God and the Holy Spirit” (Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel (Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press, 1989), 186).