... is thinking that we already know the answer!
This is an issue in every area of life, but it is a particular problem for people of faith. As Christians we have a precious truth that we know and must not be compromised. And yet, if we think we already know everything about our faith, we are greatly mistaken! So, how do we continue to be open to learning more of God, while holding firmly to what we already know?
Moreover, we have another related problem: we have inevitably already added onto the core Biblical truth all manner of 'knowledge' that we have unconsciously accumulated around it. This is an encrusted layer of culture and a multitude of assumptions that we have collected while growing up and through our life's experience - but which are not actually there in the Bible! We have ended up with a 'boat encrusted with barnacles', which slows us down, make us unresponsive and difficult to steer. But we are so used to all this stuff we 'know', that we don't even realise that underneath this encrusted, misshapen faith of ours, there is smooth pure truth.
We no longer seek to learn, for we already 'know'. So we shut our minds to new understanding, and we also resist having the barnacles of our unredeemed ‘knowledge’ scraped away! We continue to wear our blinkers, oblivious to the far greater truth that God wants to reveal to us!
So, how do we keep our hearts and minds open to God’s further revelation? (Note: I do not mean to imply that He has ‘new truth’ to reveal to us, merely that we have much more of God still to know.) How do we keep growing and learning whilst not changing the Gospel already fully revealed through Christ and recorded in the Bible?
Of course, this is not a new issue. The early church leaders wrestled with the same question, and this was part of what led them to lay down the early creeds - those fundamental truths of the Christian faith that were not to be compromised. The creeds are surprisingly short!
When we think we know, we are at the greatest risk of pride. Where we are certain we know, we are most vulnerable to deception! In fact the very things we hold most dear are likely to be the same areas where we are blind and deaf to Jesus' challenging love, where He desires to show us more of His grace - and yet we will not listen!
Can we daily come in an attitude of humility, with two prayers: "Lord, what more do You want to show me?" and "I ask You show me what I think I ‘know’ that is not really of You".
The greatest block to being open to Christ is thinking that we already know the answer!
