As many of us can attest, being faculty in higher education often comes with an unusual level of fervor for gaining knowledge. We were the ones in primary and secondary school that actually looked forward to the first day of school.
The schedule and routine, learning new things, performing well: these are things we thrived on, and likely still do.
I am no different. If you ask my family, they’ll tell you that I am a perpetual student. Like many faculty, I’ve had as many years of education past high school as I had prior to it, and I still love new learning.
Knowledge Doesn’t Always Bring Heart Change
I wish I could say my love of learning simply comes from an innate curiosity about the world, and maybe some of it does. But, selfishly, it often comes from a desire to perform well. I want to be valued. I want to have the right answers. I want others to want to be like me. Don’t we all?
What my walk with Jesus has taught me, however, is that knowledge for the sake of knowledge does not always bring heart change; but heart change – sanctification – starts with knowledge of who God is.
If we don’t intimately know our Savior, then our understanding of who He is, and who we are in light of that, will be marred.
Tangled Up Motives
A women’s Bible study author, Jen Wilkin, coined the phrase “The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” This idea has really resonated with me ever since I heard it.
As I’ve taken on teaching roles with high schoolers at my church, I struggle with the fear that I sometimes learn God’s Word just to teach it well. My motives aren’t totally wrong – I do want my students to reach a greater understanding of the gospel and deeper belief in God, but sometimes that motive gets tangled up in a desire to be the perfect teacher (as if God needs me to be a perfect teacher to get His message across.) How big I make myself!
It May Take Years
Psalm 111:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Loving God comes from knowing Him. Reading the Word and gleaning more about who He is will help me to see myself and others in the right perspective.
Knowledge, for the sake of knowledge, puffs up (1 Cor 8:1). It’s not enough to bring heart change. But can heart change be achieved without knowledge?
Knowing that the fear of the Lord starts with knowledge of Him reassures me that reading and studying God’s Word will not be done in vain. I may not always experience immediate heart change; it may take years for a particular verse or passage to strike me the way it is intended, but I can trust that God is faithful to bring light to His Word at the right time.
Shellie Acocello
Health and Human Performance
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga