The Know (None of) It All

Did you know that the technical term for holding hands is interdigitation?

Or that the same guy who wrote the James Bond books also wrote Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang?

Kathy Lee Gifford sang the theme song to the Beginner Bible Stories videos.

Silly putty was developed by the military during World War II as a failed substitute for rubber.

The Thing from the Fantastic Four is a devout Jew.

McGuiver’s first name was Angus.

Go Google it. My facts are straight.

I know all of these things right off the top of my head and it makes me happy that I know them. Some people collect stamps. I collect useless trivia, and I tend to be a hoarder. I have never wanted to be a “know-it-all” because nobody likes the guy who spits out random facts just to sound smart, but I do still want to know everything. I have wanted to be the guy who always has the right piece of knowledge or skill set for the right moment. That is why I taught myself how to play the Ukulele, how to take disassemble and reassemble my laptop, and how to wrestle and alligator. O.K. that last one I have personally never done but I have watched Swamp People enough to be pretty sure I could handle it.

Too often, though, I measure my value by what I know or by I what I can do better than anybody else. I feel useless if someone knows more than me about something so I do everything possible to avoid those situations where I am not an expert. The Apostle Paul, who knew a whole heck of a lot more than I ever will, had a very different approach.

He wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth that he “resolved to know nothing …except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (Chapter 2 verse 2 NIV). Paul had every right to be a know it all. He trained under the best of the best in Jewish intellectual circles. His writings are foundational to expository theology and most of what we believe about God was explained to us through the writings of Paul. If PBS were around back then making documentaries on smart Jewish stuff, they would interview Paul as an expert and he would not even have to wear a turtle neck and glasses to look like he knew what he was talking about. He was that good.

But he resolved to know nothing.

It has taken me awhile to understand why he would do this. Wisdom and knowledge seem like good things that we should be praying and seeking God for and then when we have them it would make sense that we put them use. I thought that knowing more stuff about God was the goal of my life.

I think that Paul would agree with me on this but that is not the point he was making in this verse. He understood what happens when we come into a new situation thinking we know all about it. This could be anything from a new job or season of your life to a task that you have been given that you have never done before. Here is what I have learned from my own experience about knowing everything:

Know-it-alls never have to rely on God. The more I rely on what I know and what I can do the less I need God to show up and show out in my life. The less I need Him, the less He shows up. Paul knew the incredible danger of this and goes on to say in the next few verses that his “message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (verses 4-5 NIV). Paul knew that if he came into that city showing off everything he knew that people would be magnetically drawn to him and not to the God who could actually save them. When I am an expert, I risk pulling people away from the God that I am trying to get them to see. Paul had to make a conscious decision that he was not going to be an expert or a know-it-all for the sake of his own glory.

Know-it-alls never learn anything. Recently I was asked to run a certain sound board that has been a thorn in my flesh for quite some time. I have read the entire manual multiple times and still have no idea what most of the buttons do or how to fix it when things go wrong and yet I was hired on as the expert in charge of making sure everything the band on stage did sounded great. And the band would have sounded great, if I really knew what I was doing in the strange world of microphones, monitors, gains and decibels…but I didn’t. Thankfully, there were people at the event who did know what they were doing who volunteered their time to help me out. At first it was pretty humiliating because there were so many people who knew way more than me but by the grace of God I was able to do something I hardly ever do; admit my ignorance. I could have held onto my position of authority and pride and let everything go wrong but instead, because I admitted that I was in over my head, these guys were able to step in and teach me a whole lot. I learned so much that I am confident next time will go a whole lot smoother.

Paul understood that if he was going to keep learning and growing closer to God, he had to enter into every situation from the standpoint that he still had a whole lot to learn.

Know-it-alls eventually fail and look really dumb. Knowing everything is an impossible task that even King Solomon and the guy that won like 3 full seasons of Jeopardy in a row could not accomplish, who am I to think I can do it? My brain does not have the bandwidth of Wikipedia. I have limits and God has gifted other people with knowledge and wisdom that I could never obtain on my own. Every expert will come to a place where they feel completely ignorant compared to the incredible knowledge of God. I would rather admit this on my own than have God point it out in front of everybody. Nobody ever looks down on the guy who never claimed to know what he was talking about but when the know-it-all goes down he is the target of humiliation.

 

If you are following God then I can guarantee you will be asked to do things you have no idea how to do. You will be asked to go places you know nothing about. All you need to know is Jesus Christ and the fact that He was crucified. All you need to know is what Jesus has already done for you and you will know that He is capable of doing everything He said He would do. Celebrate your ignorance and thank God that he is taking you somewhere that only He in all of His wisdom could take you.