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God’s Will - Knowledge of Truth

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. - 1 Timothy 2:4

Some people struggle to know the will of God. By this they often mean they would like God to show them who to marry, what job to take, or where to live. What we can know is that God would like everyone to use their free will to choose to become a Christian and then know truth. A full knowledge of truth would answer most of the other questions one might have.

One might well ask why those who are already Christian seem to fall short of the knowledge of truth. Perhaps the most common reason is a failure to mature. There can be several reasons for this. The failure to have a renewed mind (Rom 12:2) and the mind of Christ (Phil 2:5) is one limitation. Denominations are also a symptom of immaturity (1 Cor 3:1-3). Worldliness is a trap difficult to escape (Titus 2:11-12). In a consumer society it is difficult to resist indulging the flesh (Gal 5:16).

There is a momentum in life that can propel us on a trajectory to either prevent one from becoming a Christian at all or failing that to keep us immature and ineffective for Christ. To attempt to break out of this inertia requires effort. This is where the encouragement and exhortation of other Christians can help. However, if other Christians are also trapped in the same state of immaturity, they can hinder and dissuade one from maturity.

One has to choose to either remain on a comfortable course and miss out on the will of God that we would come to the knowledge of truth or that we put in the effort to disengage from that which hinders and apply ourselves to growth and maturity. First we have to become aware that we are immature. The best way to do this is to measure ourselves against Jesus and see how far short we fall. If we make an honest appraisal, we should be able to see a lot of room for improvement.

We can become so blinded to what is possible and so integrated to the world system that being more like Jesus seems like a metaphorical ideal and not a practical reality. However, why would the bible tells us that it was expected of us, if it were not achievable (Eph 4:13). Many correctly recognize that becoming more like Jesus in today’s competitive “dog eat dog” world would be a distinct disadvantage. However, this shows how much our values need to change so that “success” in the world becomes less attractive.

Many who have achieved worldly success enter old age and only then begin to consider that perhaps their “success” came at too high a price. How much happiness and contentment might have been had if the knowledge of truth ad been obtained earlier. Truth is not limited to being able to see through “baloney”. Truth is also understanding what has value, discern what is best, and understanding wisdom. It works in conjunction with love in that being free from the blindness of selfishness allows the clarity of vision to see deeper into truth.

Having a low value of truth makes one vulnerable to deception (2 Thess 2:10). It is God’s will that we grow into the image of Christ. As this process matures, we can rely on a knowledge of truth to aid us in all other questions.

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