God loves to share knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
How can I know more about God?
This is the fourth article in a series on what is required of those who want to know more about God and his ways. In the previous post we saw that he both hides and reveals himself. Let’s look today at what that requires of us.
Jesus said, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mark 4:23–25)
These enormously important words from Jesus about what we can know about God and his ways come in a chapter about the Word of God and how we need to respond to it.
Jesus is teaching his disciples that when they hear the Word of God they need to pay full attention, and they need to receive wholeheartedly all that God says—and desire more. This is what he means by “the measure you use.”
How hungry are you?
It’s as if God drives a truckload of apples into a farmer’s market. He parks and posts a sign that says, “Free apples—all you can carry.”
And he means it. If someone brings him an empty knapsack, he fills it with apples. If someone brings a paper bag, he fills it. To the one who has no container but wants one apple in each hand, he gives two apples. If someone wants to fill their car’s trunk with apples, they get hundreds of them.
Jesus says whatever container you bring, whatever measure you use, he will fill it. And he tells every person as they leave that if they will come back later with another container, a larger one, he will fill that too.
One woman who filled her car trunk with apples came back later driving a pickup truck and said if the farmer meant what he said she wanted a payload full. He smiled and clapped his hands and got excited. He loved people who loved apples. Gladly he filled her truck for free and told her to come back later for more.
God is willing and generous
The apples are divine knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And God loves to share them.
He knows some people want all they can get of spiritual truth. Others want a bagful. Others want less because apples are heavy and require work to carry home. Some gladly receive one apple, eat it, and are full. Others want a sample like you get on a toothpick at the grocery store, but decide that’s enough. Others say, “No thanks.”
God is willing to give; what varies is the appetite of those who hear, and whether they wholeheartedly believe God’s Word, and whether they are willing to exert themselves to think about God’s Word until they understand it, and whether they choose to obey it.
Hunger. Belief. Thinking. Obedience.
Do you have ears to hear?
Jesus said, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” In other words, if you are willing to hear what I say, then pay attention and receive my words because I am now revealing God’s truth and ways.
When God chooses to reveal himself and his truth, we are responsible to get as much as we can. Those who have a big appetite, belief, the willingness to persistently exert themselves to understand, and obedience to what they hear, God gladly gives more knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
Those who prefer other things get what they prefer. In fact, Jesus warns: “from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
We are responsible for what we know, but God ultimately controls the supply of apples. He owns all the trees. He hides and reveals. We are utterly dependent.
God’s Ways and Our Ways
God’s ways: He is super generous with wisdom and knowledge. He approves of those who want more of what he reveals. He faults those who have no interest in it.
Our ways: If we are foolish, we pay little or no attention to what God has revealed in the Bible, nature, and the church. If we are wise, we make every effort to learn, understand, and apply God’s words.
God keeps talking to those who are listening.
More next week on the crucial topic of how we know more about God.