Sir Francis Bacon is credited with coining the phrase “knowledge is power,” intending to highlight the importance of education for personal advancement. He understood that with greater knowledge comes increased control over a situation. Unfortunately, it can also be used negatively.
I once worked for a police chief who began every budget meeting with an in-depth examination of the overtime expenditures of each section of the department (there are a lot of sections). Each commander was required to provide an accounting for every hour that exceeded their respective allowances. It was an exhausting and stressful exercise of detailing the extra work officers were doing in light of staffing shortages.
In preparation for one of these meetings, I began my practice of analyzing the numerous spreadsheets related to my areas of responsibility, when I paused to look at a portion of the budget that I was not accountable for. It was data related to employee staffing for the entire police department. It revealed the “salary savings” for the positions that had remained unfilled for months. When I compared what we were spending on overtime against how much was being saved by not hiring people, we were actually ahead by a very large amount. As the familiar line of questioning began at the next meeting, I asked about my discovery. The chief became silent, and the pressure stopped. He had known the truth the whole time and had chosen to use our ignorance to his advantage. He was using knowledge as power.
The only thing worse than being taken advantage of in this way by someone else is doing it to yourself! Some Christians make a habit of living with uncertainty regarding their relationship with God. My grandmother had that habit. She loved the Lord and His church, yet she would frequently fold her hands, slowly shake her head, and, holding back tears, would say, “I just hope I make it.” She faithfully served the Lord, but, to her own harm, she remained in a perpetual state of insecurity.
When it comes to experiencing assurance in our faith, knowledge is power! God does not manipulate His children by keeping them in the dark. He does not want them to be in a never-ending state of apprehension so He can squeeze a little more fearful obedience out of them. He wants Christians to be “all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (2 Pet. 1:10). It is to the believer’s benefit (and to God’s glory) that the believer feels secure in his faith. She will be more productive for the kingdom of God if she is not living a life of instability. An example of that stable, productive life is found in Romans.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:1–5)
Knowledge is power and, specifically, knowing you are justified before God results in the power to enjoy peace, endure suffering, develop endurance, increase in character and live in hope! That is a knowledge worth striving for!
Among the many reasons to obey the Lord, one of them is that is produces assurance. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Is. 32:17). Doing what pleases the Lord does not earn salvation, but it’s how Christians experience peace. It mentally affirms an irrevocable heart truth—that you are His. That’s some powerful knowledge.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 Jn. 5:13)