Adding Knowledge to Our Faith

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;
and to virtue knowledge;” II Peter 1:5

I turned thirteen and realized I knew little. It wasn’t that I thought I knew everything before that age, I just wasn’t aware I needed to know more. I took life at face value and put blind faith in my parents, teachers, pastors, and friends. If they said something was so, it must be so. There was only one problem. That formed a weak foundation for my faith. When their faith faltered, mine did the same.

Something happened when I started to see the sad realities of life for myself. I began to question what I was taught. Slowly my childlike faith melted into adult skepticism. That wasn’t a bad thing. Doubt made me start digging for answers. The more I questioned, the more I searched and studied; and the more knowledge I gained the stronger my faith grew.

Doubt Debilitates Faith

Doubt weakens our faith. Not knowing what or why we believe what we believe hinders our spiritual strength.  

My faith started when I was sheltered, secure, and sensitive. I accepted Christ as my Savior at the age of twelve and sincerely believed on Him. However, my foundation began to crumble when others let me down or betrayed my trust. I counted on those I loved, looked up to and leaned on.

When I grew to question behaviors, relationships and leadership, I even began to wonder if God was real and if His Word was true. I pondered things like:

• “Does God truly care about me?”
• “Is what I’ve been taught true?”
• “Am I really saved?”
• “Does my faith really matter?”

My struggles with doubt greatly hindered my faith and made it difficult to move forward in my spiritual and personal life.

Knowledge Builds Faith

Contrary to an overused cliché, what we don’t know does hurt us. We must move from dependent faith to independent faith. We can’t continue to rely, like a child, on others’ faith. We have to grow in our knowledge and personal relationship with God.

In the Greek, knowledge is the “act of knowing.” That “knowing” builds our faith and makes it even more sound, secure and strong.

Remove Doubt

Even the strongest Christ followers can struggle with doubt. When we put our faith in the wrong people and things, we can lose sight of what we know to be true. Satan can easily overtake a weak and distracted Christian. He loves to challenge our faith like he did with Eve. He caught her off guard while her life in the garden was safe and secure. (Genesis 3:1-6) When he enticed her and she questioned what she knew about God’s instructions, she disobeyed. He’ll trip us up too unless we remove all doubts.  

Add Knowledge

The best way to remove doubt is to replace it with knowledge.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God…” II Timothy 2:15a

We gain knowledge through:

• Experience of God’s work in our lives
• Education in God’s Word
• Expertise of Bible teachers

Adding this rose to our vase will take work. But, no doubt about it, knowledge will do our faith good.

Bring It Home

Can you add more knowledge to your faith today?

Praying for you as we grow together,

Smiles, BRC