Thomas Watson writes:

The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor.

I know I write about this a lot. But I suppose it’s a topic you can’t quite say enough about.

As much as I love God’s word, and I love to study it and encourage other people to study it, getting God’s word—on it’s own—it’s not enough. We have to believe it, and do it.

Watson’s analogy is well received. Knowledge alone is like winter’s sun, which makes things bright, but no necessarily warm.

The classic puritan Christian, Thomas Watson, eloquently shares his thoughts on the tension between the heart and the mind.

"The bare knowledge of God’s will is inefficacious, it doth not better the heart. Knowledge alone is like a winter sun, which hath no heat or influence; it doth not warm the affections, or purify the conscience. Judas was a great luminary, he knew God’s will, but he was a traitor."

“Knowledge alone is like a winter sun…” Superb. The sun is always hot, but its heat is not appreciated under a blanket of frozen water. Much like our minds, when filled with heat radiating knowledge of God and his word—it can’t do anything for an icy heart.

Thomas Watson affirms that both must be working for spiritual prosperity.

Some friends had a discussion last night about biblical hermeneutics. Biblical hermeneutics is basically the science of interpreting biblical text. It’s the process of going from reading what is written to understanding what is meant. Subconsciously, we do this any time we read anything. It requires a bit more intention when we’re reading a text that’s 1900 years old.

I’m not going to detail on the hermeneutic process that I use. If you want to study that, I’d encourage you to do so. There’s lots good resources available.

What I wanted to mention was one critical part of anyone’s biblical hermeneutic. It’s the piece that ensures we are not the Gnostics from the second and third centuries. I’m speaking of the Single Meaning point of any good biblical hermeneutic. It’s also sometimes called The Single Sense.

The idea is that when the author was writing, he had a single meaning, or sense, in mind. Hermeneutics seeks to discover that meaning. If the author was discussing money, then the meaning has to do with money. If the author was talking about faith, then the meaning has to do with faith. We can’t derive meaning beyond what the author intended.

Of course this varies slightly based on what type of text is being read (i.e., poetry, history, prophecy, etc).

Here’s another explanation:

"The basic meaning of a passage is the single sense evident to any reader who allows the words their ordinary meanings and who expects the grammar and syntax to shape and combine these meanings in a normal fashion. We need not await a mystical revelation of a truer sense dependent on allusions hidden to ordinary readers, the numerical values of letters, esoteric definitions, or other mumbo jumbo. No spiritual application, typological analysis, or theology derived from the text is legitimate unless it is faithful to this single sense. In other words, no larger meaning may be construed which distorts what the words actually say." (a)

Make sense? A lot of people will have problems with this. Bear with me.

A lot of people stop there. Their pursuit of understanding the Word of God stops with the author’s intended meaning. But it shouldn’t. Because while all scripture has a single meaning, it has many applications.

What I mean is this: The implications of the authors meaning will apply to you or your community in many different ways.

The author may be talking about money, but with the guiding of the Holy Spirit, you might find there is an important application about faith there. Or perhaps the author is talking about faith, you may find an important application about your use of money there. These are legitimate applications, although not necessarily the meaning of the verse.

The important thing to remember is that the personal application we receive from scripture will never be entirely different from it’s meaning and absolutely never in contradiction to the whole of scripture. The single meaning becomes the defense against heretical applications.

Christians should be faithful in seeking the single meaning of scripture, and patient and prayerful in waiting for the personal application of it. Both are absolutely essential, but seeking the meaning should always come first.

References:
a. http://www.themoorings.org/doctrine/issues/hermeneutics/intent.html

A lot of people downplay theology as unimportant compared to other things; feeding the homeless, evangelizing, etc. That’s nothing new. It’s part of accepted modern church culture. We minimize theology as divisive. But I’d like to present another reason why that’s bogus.

What’s the point of everything we do? Glorifying God. The point isn’t to make believers when we evangelize to them, it’s to glorify God. The point in feeding the homeless isn’t preventing their hunger. It’s to glorify God. So, if glorifying God is the point, then we have to make sure we know who it is we’re glorifying.

Let’s say for just a moment that there was someone you really admired. We’ll say it was an ultimate fighting championship fighter you admired. You were in awe of his courage and bravery and conviction to win, even in the face of great danger. Now this isn’t someone you’ve met yet. And all these qualities are things that you’ve gathered from friends and other fellow admirers. In reality though, this person you admire isn’t an ultimate fighting championship fighter at all. In actuality he’s a great electrician. A farcry from a fighter. Now, do you think that when you meet this object of your admiration, he’ll be honored by it? No, of course not because that’s not who he is. He’s not a figther, so all of your admiration was either mute or some construct of your own mind.

It is similar with God. The bible tells us who God is. The bible tells us God is the electrician. Our duty and pleasure is to admire him as he really is. As he says he really is in his word. We don’t come to know that without theology.

It is similar with the nation of Israel in the first century. They believed passionately in God and desired to honor him. But not in God as he really was; the person of Jesus Christ. No, instead, they had a great zeal, but “a zeal without knowledge”. (Romans 10:2)

So there it is. You have zeal. How about knowledge?

It seems to me that people (me included) have a tendency to think as if they get God. They know him. Thinkers think that they know God because they know all about the bible. Feelers feel that they know God because they, unlike the Thinkers, have really experienced him. Of course the Thinkers will reply, how can you know what you don’t understand? The Feelers will retort, how can you know what you only know about? I’m convinced that in some manner both are correct. While I’m not completely certain what side of the fence I fall on, I’m convicted of one thing. No one has the corner on knowing God—except for God.

Reading in John Owen’s the Mortification of Sin in Believers today I was reminded of the wild largeness and profoundness of God. The more anyone truly knows God, the more they’ll inevitably find that they really know very little of God. His ways are not our ways. Owen puts it this way, “Though you know enough to keep you low and humble, yet how little a portion is it that you know of him!” The more we come to really know God, the more we come see how much greater he is that we are.

Paul describes it beautifully; “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12) Today, we have only partial understanding of God. We see him dimly through tainted flesh. What we can know of him is what he has given us in his perfect and finished revelation of Scripture. While the thinkers can think, and the feelers can feel, it will all be in part until the perfect comes and we will know fully, just as we are fully known. But until that day as we seek knowledge, we should also grow in humility, realizing that we are not getting bigger in as much as we know God, but rather we are seeing that God is much bigger than we originally understood.

I mentioned two groups of people, Thinkers and Feelers. I would like to add briefly that regardless of who you are in Christ, we have been given the Word of God. It’s his perfect revelation to us and we have nothing of absolute spiritual truth beyond it. Whoever we are in Christ and in whatever way our minds operate operate, the Word of God must always be central.

Jesus, I pray that you would give us, your bride, a profound humility before you. To hold tightly to what you have revealed to us in your scripture, but recognize always that you are infinite and we are finite. Give us hope for the day that we will see you clearly and strength to live and move as you have called us. Sanctify us, God, for the sake of your glory!