I have a confession to make: I like to know the answer. It doesn’t really matter what the question is. If I’m honest with myself, I want to be able to answer the question accurately. Whether the topic is history, geography, science, politics, sports, or theology, I like to know the correct answer. Admittedly, that’s just who I am, and I also recognize that it can be an annoying trait. I also recognize that the more I think I know, the more I realize how much I don’t know, so this is not so much a claim regarding having knowledge as it is an internal desire to sound like I have knowledge. And there’s the rub – it is more about my ego than straightforward knowledge.
Having said that, the older I get, the easier it is for me to admit that I don’t know the answer. I was taught as a young man that the proper response to a question that you couldn’t answer was to say “I don’t know, but I’d be happy to go find the right answer for you.” But the years have revealed to me that there are some answers that I will never have – at least in this world.
Sometimes, I won’t know the answer because the amount of time that I would need to invest to learn the answer far outweighs the relative importance of knowing that answer. On other occasions, I won’t know the answer because it was none of my business to begin with. But then there are those answers that God has simply chosen not to reveal to us. I look to Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth for support for this notion, when he writes “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). If the Apostle Paul didn’t know everything theologically, then I am certainly not expected to have all the answers.
Therefore, the challenge is one of being aware of the limitations of knowledge, whether it be what I know, what we know, or what can be known – while at the same time recognizing that most of us don’t want to concede that those limits exist. And I am aided in that effort by remembering the damage that can be done if I’m wrong. As a pastor, I’ve encountered far too many people who have been put off from religion because someone gave them wrong answers. When I see so many people filled with joy as they live their lives in fellowship with the church, it pains me to think that others are unwilling to join us simply because they had been led astray or hurt when someone else’s ego wouldn’t allow them to admit that they didn’t know something.
I don’t know everything. We don’t know everything. However, there’s quite a bit that we can know, and we should strive to learn all that we can, with the expectation that we will be held accountable for what we learn and how we use that knowledge. And at the same time, we need to embrace the reality that God has chosen to keep some things to himself for now, and that means that we cannot claim to have all the answers. As strange as it may seem to us, there are certain questions to which the only correct answer is “I don’t know.” The search for knowledge doesn’t end with that answer; rather that answer demonstrates wisdom regarding the limitations of knowledge. And we can all benefit from some more wisdom.
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron