How Does Knowledge as a Christian Change My Worldly Life? (Christian Character Series Part IV)

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Christian Questions Bible Podcast
Episode: How Does Knowledge as a Christian Change My Worldly Life? (Christian Character Series Part IV)
Hosts: Rick & Jonathan
Date: February 2, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Rick and Jonathan continue their "Christian Character Series," focusing on the third quality in the “ladder” outlined in 2 Peter 1:5: knowledge. They explore how knowledge—when built on the foundation of faith and moral excellence—impacts a Christian’s character and everyday life. Through scriptural exposition and practical analogies, the hosts clarify the unique nature of Christian knowledge, the dangers of misapplied knowledge, and the importance of rooting knowledge in godly virtue.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The “Ladder” of Christian Character

• Theme Scripture: 2 Peter 1:5

  “Now, for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.”
  — (00:29)

• Rick: “Peter gives us a blueprint for building a ladder of Christian character development: first rung is faith… then moral excellence… which in turn gives us the stability to next develop knowledge.” (00:40)

Review of the First Two Rungs

• Faith: Allegiance of our direction (01:37–01:51)

  • Loyalty to God through faith.

• Moral Excellence: Allegiance of our heart (02:00–02:08)

  • Putting our heart behind our godly direction.

• Rick: “Without a godly standard of moral excellence, everything else built upon our faith would crumble as it would be built upon a faulty, sinful, earthly perspective.” (02:26)

---

Why Is Knowledge the Next Step?

• Knowledge (“gnosis”): Loyalty of our intellect, our minds (04:19)
  • The importance of rooting knowledge in moral excellence, not just “knowing stuff.”
  • Much knowledge today is “corrupted by worldly perspectives, opinions and social pressures.” (04:46, Jonathan)

The Danger of Misapplied Knowledge

• 1 Corinthians 8:1-2:

  “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.”
  — (05:55)

• Rick analogy:
  “A black balloon and a black bowling ball look the same, but the balloon is full of hot air… we want knowledge that is full of something strong and weighty.” (06:12–07:00)

• Jonathan: Paul’s own example as Saul of Tarsus—a man with knowledge but without godly application—shows how knowledge “was misapplied... full of hot air.” (07:26)

Knowledge Used Without Moral Excellence Causes Harm

• 1 Corinthians 8:7–13 discussion: If a knowledgeable Christian uses their understanding to flaunt freedom, it may cause others with weaker consciences to stumble.
• Notable Quote (Rick, 09:26):
  “What I have done is I have stumbled you. And that is not acceptable… Knowledge can be easily misapplied.”

---

What Does Godly Knowledge Look Like?

• Not about having “all the answers”:

  • “No one has perfect knowledge. Knowledge is the sense of knowing what Christlikeness is and, and going towards it.” (11:47, Jonathan)
  • “It’s not about knowing everything, it’s about knowing in the right direction and following after, and learning more.” (12:08, Rick)

• 2 Corinthians 4:6–7: The light of God’s knowledge shines in our hearts through Christ—it’s a treasure in “earthen vessels.” (12:31)

• Rick:
  “We don’t want to acquire knowledge so we can be boastful about it. The scripture is saying that it comes from him through us… It’s not about me. It’s about the gift of God.” (12:53)

The Source and Growth of Knowledge

• Ultimate authority: God and scripture.
  “The godly allegiance of our intellect will recognize that the source of our knowledge ultimately is God.” (13:56, Rick)

• 1 Timothy 2:3–6:

  • “God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge (‘epignosis’—full discernment) of the truth.” (14:16)
  • Jonathan: “Paul describes what God’s Kingdom on earth will be like—a time when every man, woman and child… will understand the beauty of God’s plan and can use their free will to decide whether they want to be a part of it.” (15:03)

---

Pursuing Godly Knowledge

Recognize Scripture as the Foundation

• 2 Timothy 3:15–17:
  “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…” (16:05)

  • Jonathan: Mentions Timothy learning from his family; knowledge can be passed down generationally. (16:38)

• Value of Old Testament:

  “The new is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the new revealed.”
  — (17:14, Jonathan)

• Rick: “The knowledge of our true Christianity… is dependent on the Old [Testament] just like it’s dependent on the new. If we don’t read the Old, we’re missing a major contribution to becoming Christlike.” (17:48)

Lifelong Diligence

• 2 Timothy 2:15–16:

  “Be diligent… accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter…” (18:33)

• Examples:

  • Jesus repeatedly quoted Old Testament scripture when tempted. (19:02)

Continual Filtering of Thoughts

• 2 Corinthians 10:3–5: Destroy speculations; “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” (19:53)
  • Rick analogy: Like a water filter that needs regular changing to keep out sediment, so our minds need constant renewal:

    “We need to filter [our minds] constantly. Maybe you need to change that filter. Renew it continually.” (20:19)

Stand in Awe at God’s Plan

• Romans 11:32–36:

  “Oh, the depth of the riches… both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.” (21:49)

• Rick:
  “Does our knowledge bring us to this kind of mental space of awe and gratitude? …man, you can’t get bigger or better than that.” (22:48)

---

True Value: Leaving Past Knowledge for Christ

• Philippians 3:7–11:
  • Paul left his previous achievements behind to gain the surpassing value of knowing Christ. (23:57–25:23)

  • “He had a perceived value in his previous life, but really it was that balloon… What he traded it in for was something of great substance and weight.” (24:31, Rick)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Rick, Balloon vs Bowling Ball Analogy:

  “We want the knowledge that we are given through God and God's word… to be full of something strong and weighty, not full of hot air.” (06:12)

• Jonathan:

  “In a general sense, having knowledge doesn’t mean that you can answer every question or that you know the depths of every single prophecy. No one has perfect knowledge.” (11:47)

• Rick:

  “Do we have that sense of awe that his plan is for everybody? Man, by definition, you can’t get bigger or better than that.” (22:48)

• Jonathan:

  “Paul describes what God’s kingdom… will be like. It will be a time when every man, woman and child… will understand the beauty of God’s plan and can use their free will to decide…” (15:03)

---

Timestamps for Critical Segments

• 00:29–04:19: Overview of Peter’s ladder; why knowledge follows moral excellence
• 05:55–07:00: Dangers of misapplied knowledge; balloon vs bowling ball analogy
• 08:23–10:55: Knowledge misused causes others to stumble—1 Corinthians 8
• 12:31–12:53: God’s knowledge as “treasure in earthen vessels”
• 14:16–15:21: God’s kingdom and the universality of knowledge (epignosis)
• 16:05–16:38: The importance of scripture as the foundation; generational knowledge
• 17:14–17:48: Old and New Testaments as intertwined sources of knowledge
• 19:53–21:49: The continual process of “filtering” thoughts and capturing them for Christ
• 21:49–22:48: Being awed by God's vast plan—Romans 11
• 23:57–25:23: The surpassing value of knowing Christ—Philippians 3

---

Conclusion: The Allegiance Attribute of Knowledge

• Summary Insight:
  Building Christian knowledge is not just accumulating facts, but cultivating an intellectual loyalty to God—anchored in faith and moral excellence, fed by scripture, filtered constantly, and always leading to awe, humility, and transformation.

• Jonathan:

  “Based on our pursuit of moral excellence, our efforts should bring us to an ever-growing intellectual appreciation of God’s word, God’s plan and God first.” (27:54)

• Rick:
  “To become Christlike is a process; faith is the foundation, moral excellence is the standard, and knowledge the loyalty of our minds. Each rung prepares us for the next.” (28:23)

---

Next Episode Preview

The series continues as they explore the next attribute: What kind of self-control is really required of a Christian?

---

For episode archive and listener questions: christianquestions.com

Transcript

[A]

Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Access more audio videos and Bible Study

[B]

[e-mail] Our topic is how does Knowledge

[A]

as a Christian Change my Worldly Life?

[B]

Here's Rick and Jonathan.

[A]

Welcome everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co host for over 25 years. Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?

[B]

Second Peter 1:5. Now, for this very reason, also applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence, knowledge.

[A]

In Second Peter Chapter one, the Apostle Peter laid out a phenomenal blueprint for us to follow regarding the how and why of developing a focused and loyal character that is modeled after Christ. After reminding us of the incomprehensible promises that God brings us through his power and Jesus's sacrifice, he then focuses us on doing our part. Peter gives us a blueprint for building a ladder of Christian character development of which the first rung is faith. Because we have the firm footing of Christian faith in place, we can then develop moral excellence, which in turn gives us the stability to next develop knowledge. As we will continue to see when followed, the order of developing these attributes of our Christian characters will yield and an unbreakable alliance to daily living God's will through Christ.

[B]

Let's briefly review the first two rungs of the Apostle Peter's ladder of Christian character. First rung the Allegiance attribute of faith. This is the allegiance of our direction.

[A]

So it's about allegiance. It's about loyalty. And if you decide you're living a life of faith, your loyalty is I serve God through that faith.

[B]

Second rung Allegiance Attribute Moral excellence. This is the allegiance of our heart.

[A]

So we put God first by eagerly and fully supplying moral excellence to the foundation of our faith. We put our heart behind our direction. That's really what we need to be doing.

[B]

Why is the allegiance attribute of moral excellence the next quality after faith?

[A]

That's an important question because as Peter develops this ladder, we're going to ask that question every single time we introduce a new rung. Why does this one follow the previous one? Well, in relation to the allegiance attribute of moral excellence and faith. Because without a godly standard of moral excellence, everything else we could potentially build upon, our faith would crumble as it would be built upon a faulty, sinful earthly perspective. Now look, excellence and virtue can and do abound in many people for many reasons, and we always want to be aware of that and support it. However, we're in a different category than that. We cannot Forget the why of our seeking such virtue and the loftiness to which we are to strive with our moral excellence built upon faith. Our calling to godliness and not merely human moral integrity is what we are focused on. It's our calling to something higher than human moral integrity. So we've got faith and then we've got moral excellence. Well, Jonathan, what's next? Let's look at two Peter 1:5, and

[B]

in your moral excellence, fully supply knowledge.

[A]

Simple Scripture, fully supply knowledge. And we supplied the fully supply because that's implied from previous verses. We're not going to go there now. Moral excellence is the foundation upon which we are instructed to build knowledge. We're told, in your moral excellence, fully supply this knowledge. For most of us, look, knowledge is knowledge. Hey, I know stuff. You know stuff. We have knowledge, but that's not what we're really looking at here. How does this moral excellence focus us in a Christian perspective to change the role of knowledge in our lives? What changes with knowledge because we're Christians. Why does knowledge need moral excellence to continue in this Christian growth pattern?

[B]

Well, the word knowledge in the Greek is pronounced gnosis. The word knowledge generally signifies intelligence and understanding. As far as our Christianity, the deeper we study God's word with the help of His Spirit, which is his power and influence, the deeper our understanding becomes. It's important to note that much of the knowledge today is corrupted by worldly perspectives, opinions and social pressures.

[A]

That's an important point right at the end there. Knowledge can be corrupted. It's still knowledge, but it can be corrupted. And we have to be really, really, really careful. So this allegiance, attribute of knowledge, this is the allegiance. This is the loyalty of our intellect. We had the loyalty of our direction through our faith. We have the loyalty of our heart through moral excellence. And moral excellence essentially means living up to our highest purpose. And now we have the allegiance, attribute of knowledge, the loyalty of our intellect, of our minds. Why is knowledge the next quality after moral excellence? Jonathan, we're going to begin to answer this question right away. And that's the theme question. As we go through all of these pieces that the Apostle Peter gives us, let's begin to answer why it's after moral excellence. Let's look at a really powerful example of knowledge improperly applied without our Christian moral excellence. So this is a great way to start is don't do this at home. Okay? That's where we're starting. Let's look at First Corinthians, chapter 8, verses 1 and 2.

[B]

Now, concerning things sacrifice to idols, we Know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, meaning inflates. But love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything he has not yet known as he ought to know.

[A]

Okay, so you said that knowledge can make arrogant or inflate, but love edifies or constructs. Knowledge in and of itself can be helpful, but misapplied, it can also be very detrimental. Misapplied. Knowledge fuels a hollow character. The apostle says knowledge makes arrogant, knowledge inflates, it fuels a hollow character. And a hollow character has no true strength or substance. And Jonathan reminds me of, let's say you have a black balloon. You blow up that black balloon and you look at it from the end and it's perfectly round and it's black and it's shiny. Now, what's inside of that?

[B]

Air.

[A]

Bunch of hot air. Right. Okay. Now you put that down and you tape it to the table so it's not gonna blow away. And then next to it on the table, you put a black bowling ball. They look the same. One is full of hot air. The other has an incredibly deep substance. We want the knowledge that we are given through God and God's word and his strength to be full of something strong and weighty. Not full of hot air can look the same, but it's got a very, very different, different purpose.

[B]

Well, the Apostle Paul is teaching a lesson based on his own failures. Previously known as Saul of Tarsus, he was a prominent Pharisee who used his ego driven understanding of the law and made it his personal mission to persecute Christians. His knowledge was misapplied.

[A]

It was full of hot air, and it didn't have the substance that he needed. So let's look at what the apostle continues to say, because he is already warning. Knowledge can inflate. And he knows that because he was there before, he was there now. Going down a few More verses in First Corinthians, chapter 8, the apostle Paul continues his focus on the early church dilemma. And they did have a dilemma in the Gentile churches with Judaizing Christians and all of that, of eating meat that had previously been offered to idols. Some said you can do it, some said you shouldn't do it. And it was a real debate in those days. So let's go into First Corinthians 8, 7, 10.

[B]

However, not all men have this knowledge, but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food will not commend us to God. We are neither the Worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. Now, let me pause here. Paul is telling us that even though there would be nothing wrong with this because no principle was violated, we must rise above what we know so that we don't stumble others. Continuing with verse nine. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you who have knowledge dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.

[A]

That's a powerful statement of responsibility. So your knowledge. Let's reverse the roles. Let's say I know about this, but you have a moral issue with it. You're not sure. And I am just kind of cocky in my knowledge, saying, hey, look, John, nothing more. Look, look, look. See, nothing happened to me. But by you trying to follow my example, it's not going well inside of you.

[B]

It's not. My conscience is kind of twisted up here.

[A]

Right, right. And now. Now you're in a dilemma. And what I have done is I have. I have stumbled you. And that is not acceptable. It's not acceptable. And so for someone who doesn't have that full knowledge, it's immaturely imitating the potential actions of what true knowledge can truly allow for us. It can be very, very damaging. And the apostle is saying, you be aware of those around you. Knowledge can be easily misapplied. Let's go further. In First Corinthians 8, let's go to verses 12 to 13.

[B]

And so by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause my brother to stumble. This principle emphasizes sacrificing our preferences and being sensitive to the needs of others as we lay down our lives for our brethren.

[A]

So our first approach to developing knowledge is to go back to moral excellence and saying, am I living up to my highest purpose? By the way I explain myself and what I know, what is the allegiance of my intellect really loyal to? Is it loyal to looking good to others, or is it loyal to being true? And a powerful example of appropriately applying and living godly knowledge. It's really easy to want to look good to others. I can do it. What's your problem? Come on, brother, what's your problem? That's not where we're supposed to go. And that's why Moral excellence, living up to our highest purpose is a basis for us really, truly applying the knowledge that we are given the privilege of being part of a privilege of being given.

[B]

In a general sense, having knowledge doesn't mean that you can answer every question or that you know the depths of every single prophecy. No one has perfect knowledge. Knowledge is the sense of knowing what Christ likeness is and, and going towards it. You know, learn and apply to transform our lives.

[A]

That's really important. It's not about knowing everything about everything. It is about knowing in the direction and following after and building on it and learning more. So how do we do that? Well, our spiritual knowledge is fed by our faith in the light of God's glory that shines within us. Interesting scripture in Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 6 to 7.

[B]

For God, who said light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

[A]

And that's the key. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is, is within us. And it's obvious that it doesn't come from us, it comes from him through us. And that's the kind of knowledge we want. We don't want to acquire knowledge so we can be boastful about it. Rather, the Scripture is saying that it comes from him through us. So that we can't say, well, look at me, because it's not about me. It's about the gift of God that we need to strive to develop. So our knowledge, our allegiance of our intellect, needs to be humbly subservient to our mighty God through Jesus. This allegiance of our intellect can only thrive with his light filling our emptiness. Don't be the balloon, be the bowling ball that's got substance. Let his light fill you up with that.

[B]

If our moral excellence is intact, it'll drive us towards a better understanding of God and His plan.

[A]

Absolutely, positively. The moral excellence has to be there, and it drives us toward that better understanding. Now, the godly allegiance of our intellect, okay, what we're talking about with knowledge will recognize that the source of our knowledge ultimately is God. That's the ultimate source. 1 Timothy 2, 3 6.

[B]

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator also between God and men. The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. You know, the word for knowledge in this scripture is a little different. Remember, the word was gnosis in Greek. However, this word for knowledge is epi gnosis, which means recognition or full discernment. It's a precise and correct knowledge of the truth. And Rick, I've got a comment on this verse because it's one of my favorite scriptures that uses the word all my favorite word in the Bible.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Paul describes what God's kingdom on earth will be like. It will be a time when every man, woman and child who ever lived will understand the beauty of God's plan and can use their free will to decide whether they want to be a part of it.

[A]

And that's why it says, come to the knowledge of the truth. It's not simply knowing. It's the full discernment of the truth. Nothing hidden, everything exposed and explained and in front of you. And this is a big, big thing here. This is a journey for us because we don't know everything right now, Jonathan, not yet. We're blessed with being able to know through God's spirit many things, but not everything. So we journey toward that full knowledge by doing a few things first, by recognizing our highest authority as the Bible. That's where we have to start. If we want the knowledge to be in Christ. That's built upon the moral excellence and upon faith. It's got to be coming from the Bible. Second Timothy 3, 15, 17.

[B]

And Paul is talking to Timothy and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped for every good work. Timothy learned from his mother and his grandmother, as mentioned in second Timothy 1:5. They had great faith and knowledge that they passed down.

[A]

That's another part of this. You can see that this kind of knowledge can be passed down from generation to generation, and then by God's spirit can be developed in somebody else. So it doesn't always have to start with nothing. We have a great basis from which we can actually start it. As the people of God, we must fully equip our minds to feed our intellects toward honoring our father God. Always. That's the key. Always be honoring him with what we know, because that drives what we do.

[B]

Rick, you and I talked about this the other Day Peter told us in second Peter 3, 15 and 16 that our beloved Apostle Paul, according to the wisdom given to him in all his letters, took the Old Testament and explained its connection to Christ. Still, it wasn't easy for the Jewish Christians to understand. But over time, it sank in. We can't ignore the Old Testament. You know, there's a saying, the new is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the new revealed.

[A]

You can't have one without the other. It just doesn't work. And we're going to see that unfold as we go further. But this is about the knowledge of being a true Christian. The knowledge of our true Christianity, of our discipleship, is dependent upon the Old Testament, just like it's dependent upon the new. And if we don't read the Old, we're missing a major contribution to becoming Christlike. You got to think about that. We've got this recognizing our highest authority as the Bible in its entirety. Next, we need to dedicate ourselves to the lifelong journey of comprehending the inspired word. It's one thing to recognize it, it's another thing to comprehend it. 2nd Timothy 2, 15, 16.

[B]

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed. Accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness.

[A]

Be diligent to present yourselves approved workmen accurately handling the word of truth. You know, and Jonathan, we were just talking about the value of the Old Testament. Think about Jesus. The moment he was baptized, what did he do?

[B]

He went into the wilderness.

[A]

He went up into the wilderness to be by himself. Of course, Satan was there. And Satan was there to tempt him. Satan tempted him three times. And each time Jesus answer was quoting Old Testament scripture he didn't want to debate. It was about the Scriptures of God. It's about the holy word of God. Our knowledge has to be founded just like Jesus showed us at the very beginning of his ministry. Let's go further. Our moral excellence fuels the allegiance of our intellect, okay? This knowledge to fiercely and decisively fight off and conquer all that would detour us from the knowledge of God. This is what we're going to call a present tense work in progress. And we'll comment on that in a moment. Second Corinthians 10, verses 3 to 5.

[B]

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful. For the destruction of fortresses, we are destroying Speculations. In every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, we all are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

[A]

So first of all, the apostle is saying, this isn't something I did and I'm all done with it. This is something I'm doing regularly and constantly. And it says we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing to raise up the knowledge of God inside of ourselves and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, here's the problem with that, Jonathan. I can work on that today, and tomorrow I'm gonna have to work on it again. And the next day I'm gonna have to work on it again because my thoughts are imperfect inside of Rick. And it just reminds me, in our home, we have well water, and our well is like 500ft deep. That's a story all by itself. But. And we, we get sediment in our water, okay? It just comes up. And so we have this water filtration system that's put into the. Into the system. I have to change the filter every six months because that filter is pure white when you begin. And when you take it out, you just run your finger down the portions of the filter. It's like, ew, this was in our water. And the point is, unless you filter it all the time, all the time, you're going to end up having that sediment come through. And that's why we need to treat our minds. We need to filter them constantly. And maybe you need to change that filter. Renew it continually. Renew it. So we are looking at things in the appropriate way. We need to not only gain the knowledge of God, we must magnify it mightily in our lives. Mightily. It's got to be magnified in a big way in our lives.

[B]

Our knowledge of God and his plan are based on his wisdom and knowledge, which makes sense of why sin abounds. Paul in this next text is talking about Israel's and the world's fall from favor. Romans 11, 32, 33, and 36. For God has shut up, meaning concluded all in disobedience, so that he may show mercy to all. This is the true gospel, the good news of great joy for all people. God will show mercy to all, continuing, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For from him and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. If we're limiting God's mercy to just Christians, we're Missing out.

[A]

Yeah. And what we're doing is we're taking this incredible knowledge that has been shown to us in all of these different scriptures and we're narrowing it down. And perhaps we need to change the filter so that we can filter out the sediment of earthly thinking and really see the magnitude of God's plan and his heart and his focus on where we're going. So here's the question. Does the allegiance of our intellect, does our knowledge bring us to this kind of mental space of awe and gratitude? At the end of that verse it said, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Is that where we end up when we are looking and studying and trying to understand? Do we have that sense of awe that his plan is for everybody? Man, how can you? Can't you. By definition, you can't get bigger or better than that. Do we have that sense of awe? Think about that. Finally, this knowledge that we're offered is worth leaving all previous accomplishments behind fort it's worth walking away. Philippians 3:7,8 but whatever things were gained

[B]

to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, from whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. The apostle Paul left behind all his accomplishments and worth when he was known as Saul of Tarsus. He traded it all in to follow Christ. Talk about value.

[A]

He had a perceived value in his previous life, but really it was that balloon that was full of hot air and empty. And what he traded in for was something of great substance and weight that could move things and change things. And so you can see that he made a choice. I'm putting everything else that I knew away because what I now am learning far surpasses it. And Jonathan, you can't keep both if you keep what was. What is. Transforming doesn't have enough space to work. Know the lack of value in what we leave behind. That's something we all need to learn. What's the lack of value that we leave behind? And we now looked at the value of what is before us and you gave us a hint of that. So let's go to the same problem. Verses Philippians 3 Now let's pick up with verses 9 through 11.

[B]

And may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

[A]

Great conclusion to the apostles journey here of leaving those things behind. Faith is our basis. He says that. He actually says through faith and moral excellence is our standard. And he doesn't say the words moral excellence, but he does say not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. So he's actually talking about the faith and the moral excellence to bring him to the ability to know. Peter wrote the blueprint for the latter. Paul is essentially explaining part of that blueprint in his own life experience. So this faith, our basis and moral excellence is our standard and they awaken and drive the allegiance of our intellects. Faith is the basis. Moral excellence is a standard and that drives the allegiance, the loyalty of our minds.

[B]

Why is knowledge the next quality for moral excellence?

[A]

So we've got moral excellence and knowledge comes next. Why does it follow? Faith and moral excellence can fully supply our capacity to drink in the knowledge of God. You need both of them. You need both to drink in the knowledge of God over the knowledge of men. And that's a big, big point that we need to be clear on. It's got to be. It's a different source of knowledge brought to us in a different way. Without the moral excellence that's built on faith, our knowledge is far too easily subject to the whims, the opinions, the agendas and the imaginations of our sinful world. Just look at social media and you'll know what we're talking about. There's too many ways to go that aren't really where we need to be. We need to be in that place where faith and moral excellence are developed so that we can really learn the things we need to learn. So let's put this all together, Jonathan. The allegiance, attribute of knowledge. Let's take a look at that.

[B]

Based on our pursuit of moral excellence, our efforts should bring us to an ever growing intellectual appreciation of God's word, God's plan and God first. The stronger our faith and our moral excellence, the stronger our minds will be and the more substance we can impart to our own heart and then to others. Well Rick, where do we go from here? What's the next rung on the ladder?

[A]

And hopefully folks, as you're listening, you're getting the sense of how the apostle Peter is working here. He builds that foundation of faith and says, you've got to build moral excellence, living up to your highest purpose based on that faith. And as you live up to your highest purpose, pour the knowledge of God into you so that you can be in that place where things are going and growing in the right direction. He continues, he continues to build the case for here is how to become Christlike. Don't think it's just about I believe and I love Jesus. That's a wonderful place to, to start. But that's not where we end. We've got to go up this incredible ladder that he sets the blueprint for. And in our next episode we'll be touching on that. It comes down to making sure that our knowledge is built upon the right things, the moral excellence that is based on faith of those who follow Christ. Think about it folks. We love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions and this episode and other [e-mail] coming up in our next episode, what kind of self control is really required of a Christian?