As we pursue sinking our roots deeper into God's Word, we need to
understand the basic biblical principles that lead to truth, and most of
all, lead to Him who is the Truth. A fundamental requirement for
discerning the truth is found in the remarkable statement made by the
Lord in Matthew 11:25:
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and
intelligent and didst reveal them to babes.
As the Lord Jesus Himself declares, the immature are far more likely to
have a greater understanding of the Scriptures than the wise and
intelligent. Most of the great perversions of Scripture have come from
those who believed that they had a superior insight into the Scriptures
because of their wisdom and intelligence. Does this mean that we should
seek to stay spiritually immature? Of course not. However, we must
understand that true spiritual maturity has qualities that are
childlike. The Lord also said in Matthew 18:3:
"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."
A child is teachable. Being teachable is one of the basic qualities of
humility. In James 4:6 we are told, "But He gives a greater grace.
Therefore it says, 'God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the
humble."' God's ways are much higher than our ways. In order for us to
understand Him, or His Word, we must keep a humble, teachable attitude.
In Scripture, the Word of God is called a river of life. A river is ever
flowing, continually going somewhere. If we remain in that river we too
will be ever flowing, moving forward. As we are told in I Corinthians
2:10: "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit
searches all things, even the depths of God." If we are following the
Spirit, we will be going deeper. Even the knowledge of basic doctrines
will be expanding for us as we come to understand the depth of His ways.
However, they should never expand beyond what can clearly be established
by the Scriptures themselves. In all things we must always come back to
"It is written" (see Matthew 4:4).
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