Obey...then know

John 7:17

"If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching,

whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.”

                Jesus indicates that obedience precedes knowing the veracity of His teaching.  The first step to true understanding is obedience to God.  If we will not first bow the knee before the King, we cannot really know the truth.  This obedience rests upon the faith that He is, in fact, the King.  Our sinful inclination is to know before we obey.  The simple obedience from faith exhibited by a child is lost in our sophistication of arguments, and so is our knowledge of truth.

                Frederick Robertson put it this way in his sermon on this passage, “”Surely then, by removing self-will, and so only, can the hindrance to right opinions be removed.”  “It is more true to say that our opinions depend upon our lives and habits, than to say that our lives depend upon our opinions, which is only now and then true.  The fact is, men think in a certain mode on these matters because their life is a certain character, and their opinions are only invented afterward as a defense for their life.”

                How true it is.  I am convinced that we consider an interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 that allows for an old earth not because the passage allows such an interpretation, surely it doesn’t, but because we suspect scientific assertion may be true.  Some have adopted a perspective on women as elders or deacons which leads them to place an unnatural interpretation on the clear scriptural teaching.  Others want warrant for their various vices, so they fabricate an argument to show biblical allowance of their sin.  Each of these errors is removed by following Jesus words, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know…”  Obedience must come first.  May God give us the grace to obey and believe what the Bible teaches instead of trying to use it to justify the lifestyle we have chosen.