You’re standing at the gas pump when an old friend pulls up to the pump next to you and asks, “What do you know?” Generally, our response to such a question is, “Nothing much.” But when it comes to our spiritual lives, what do we know? Hopefully, our answer to that question would be rather different. Hosea warns that when we don’t know much, destruction is imminent (Hos. 4:6). Knowledge is valuable, and knowledge is necessary in the life of a Christian. After all, Peter encourages us to put forth the effort to “add to [our] faith virtue, [and] to virtue knowledge” (2 Pet. 1:5, NKJV).
When Peter says that we as Christians are to add to our knowledge, we must understand what type of knowledge he means. The knowledge in which we are to be growing is in what God has given has – “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). This means that we as Christians are to grow in the knowledge of all that God has given to us through His word. Another way we might see this point being established is in the sequence that Peter gives. Our knowledge should be based on the moral excellence which we know is found in and rooted in Christ (2 Pet. 1:5). When our faith is where it should be, and we desire to be virtuous like Christ, we will then work to grow in our knowledge.
Growing in the knowledge of God’s word and Christ Jesus is important even as it relates to our salvation. When we work to grow in our faith, virtue, knowledge, etc., Peter says “will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:8). When we have this knowledge and we are continually building and adding to it along with everything else Peter encourages in 2 Peter 1:5-7, he later notes that we can know we have “escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 2:20). Yet because it is possible to forget what we know and to be led astray by false knowledge, Peter concludes his second letter by encouraging us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18).
Knowledge matters. What we know shapes the way we think and it ought to make a difference on the way we act. As we grow in our knowledge, our knowledge ought to be seen through our application. If we truly know what God has given to us through His Son Christ Jesus, we will then work to not only “add to [our] faith virtue, [and] to virtue knowledge,” but we will also add “to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love” (2 Pet. 1:5-7).
By Preston McElyea