Many years ago as an adolescent I was tasked with a science project to learn the art of sowing and reaping. My elementary school teacher asked that we sow a seed in a pot of soil, and provide for that seed water, and sunlight. She also asked that we document what we had witnessed after 3 weeks.
I in turn thought that I was much smarter than everyone else, and decided to transplant my mother's already grown plant to prove my incredible successful “green thumb”. So, I waited a day before the project was due, and preformed this critical surgery. Prior to presenting my results to the whole class, I thought I would just take a nap since my plant was bigger than everyone else’s. But, to my demise, everyone else’s seeds were small but well-rooted, while my large tree trunk was slumped overlaying dead on its side.
The moral of my story is never shortcut knowledge. There is much to learn in the art of application that helps us be rooted in our study of our Gospel message. We as the body of Christ must learn that you, and I can never gain the full knowledge of our God until we have engaged in the experience or practice of His Words.
Knowledge is more than just words, information, and study. It is the application of the Gospel message that forms the evidence of our faithful knowledge. Faith without works is dead.
James 2:14-18
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
