Fixating on What’s Important: Knowing What We “Need” to Know
Today’s sermon about Paul’s experience in Paradise (2 Cor. 12:1-4) is a good example of a passage that may leave us with more questions than we have answers. Doesn’t it seem like the Bible often does that to us? In this passage, don’t you wonder what Paul really saw, or why it happened? Or why Paul says he was forbidden to talk about what he observed?
We may also wonder where God came from. Or how the earth looked before the flood? What happened to the ark of the covenant? What all did Jesus tell the apostles during the forty days he was on the earth following His resurrection? What work did the other apostles do in building the early church, as Acts focuses mainly on Peter and Paul? What became of the Philippian jailer? Did King Agrippa ever become a Christian?
As human beings, we want to know about the world around us, our history, and the reasons behind much of it. And without the Bible, man would have many questions about how and why we are here that would otherwise be mysteries. Instead, God has revealed many things to us, and He did so for a reason.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law”
(Deut. 29:29)
God has given us knowledge and the ability to find answers so that we can obey Him!
Are there still many things He did not reveal about Himself, judgment, heavenly things, or the innerworkings of life itself on this earth? Obviously, but our lack of understanding on those things is inconsequential. We know what we need to know. “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32).
We may have questions about spiritual things or even a specific passage that can’t be answered definitively, but if we search the scriptures, we should at least find the answers we need. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…” (Eph. 1:17-19).