Knowledge Doesn’t Save Us
Had a discussion with a person in recovery the other day. Their interesting insight was that in all the time they have been in treatment and recovery, they have come to realize that knowledge alone doesn’t save them. They have to act on it and internalize it and make it real. It has to be more than just knowing.

That, of course has been a problem for the church as well. It has been a standard opinion that simply having knowledge isn’t enough. You have to believe, we have been told. Yet when pushed we still fall back into believing as knowing. “Do you believe that Jesus is your Lord?” becomes a statement of knowing, not acting. Of course, acting would mean that we had a works-based view instead of a faith-based view. I get a headache even thinking about trying to separate the two.

These insights come from the strangest places. It actually started with a discussion in an interesting book I am reading on NASCAR called Sunday Money by Jeff MacGregor. He was talking about the preponderance a few years ago of the WWJD bracelets. He pointed out that the issue wasn’t really the one being asked. If you are in a situation where a moral question like that would be asked, he guessed that in most instances the person wearing the bracelet knows the answer before they even ask the question.

A student in confirmation class told me that a number of years ago as well. “Hey,” he said, “of course I know what Jesus would do. He would do the right thing. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.” And there we are back to the fact that knowledge, even the knowledge of the best and more correct way in history as found in Jesus, is going to get us to do the right thing any more than knowing that your next cigarette will take years off your life will make you stop smoking tonight.

Sometimes we have to do the right thing even when we aren’t sure. Sometimes we have to trust that doing the right thing will do more than make us feel good. Doing the next right thing, doing what Jesus would do, applying the knowledge we already have is important.

In reality it is probably nothing less than doing God’s will.