THE WORD IS LIFE

There are two ways of knowing things. The one is in the mind by thought or idea—I know about a thing. The other is by living---I know by experience. An intelligent blind man may know all that science teaches about light by having books read to him. A child who has never thought about what light is knows more about light than the blind scholar. The scholar knows all about it by thinking. The child knows it in reality by seeing and enjoying it.

There are two ways of knowing things. The one is in the mind by thought or idea—I know about a thing. The other is by living---I know by experience. An intelligent blind man may know all that science teaches about the light by having books read to him. A child who has never thought about what light is knows more about light than the blind scholar. The scholar knows all about it by thinking. The child knows it in reality by seeing and enjoying it.

The Heart and Life

This is also true in Christianity. The mind can form thoughts about God from the Bible and know all the doctrines of salvation, while the inner life does not know the power of God to save. This is why we read "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love" (1 John 4:8). He may know all about God and love, he may be able to express beautiful thoughts about it, but unless he loves, he does not know God. Only love can know God. The knowledge of God is life eternal.

God's Word is the word of life. Out of the hen are the issues of life. The life of a person can be strong, even when mental knowledge is limited.

On the other hand, knowledge can be the object of diligent study and great delight, while the person's life is not affected by it.

An illustration may make this plain. Suppose we could give understanding to an apple tree with eyes to see and hands to work. This might enable the apple tree to do for itself what the gardener does—to fertilize and water it. But the inner life of the apple tree would still be the same, quite different from the understanding given to it. And so the inner divine life of a person is something quite different from the intellect with which he knows about it. That intellect offers to the heart God's Word which the Holy Spirit can quicken.

Yet, the intellect cannot impart or quicken the true life. It is only a servant that carries the food. It is the heart that must be nourished and live.

Knowledge and Life

The two trees in the garden are God's revelation of the same truth. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would have received and known all the good God had for him in living power as an experience. And he would have known evil only by being absolutely free from it. Eve was led astray by the desire for knowledge— "a tree to be desired to make one wise" (Genesis 3:6). In this way, man got a knowledge of good without possessing it. He had a knowledge of good only from the evil that was its opposite. And since that day, man has searched for truth more in knowledge than in life.

It is only by experiencing God and His goodness that we can receive true knowledge. The knowledge of the intellect cannot quicken. "Though I understand all mysteries, and all knowledge...and have not charity (love), I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2).

It is in our daily Bible reading that this danger must be met and conquered. We need the intellect to hear and understand God's Word in its human meaning. But we need to know that the possession of the truth by the intellect can only benefit us when the Holy Spirit makes it life and truth in the heart. We need to yield our hearts and wait on God in quiet submission and faith to work in us by that Spirit. As this becomes a holy habit, our intellect and heart will work in perfect harmony. Each movement of the mind will be accompanied by the corresponding movement of the heart, waiting on and listening for the teaching of the Spirit.