Living Out What You Do Know

3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

Paul has just finished saying that there may be some areas that his Philippian brothers don’t see things in exactly the same way Paul sees them. But now he returns to the main point: Live out the things you do know and grasp, the understanding we have together already attained to , the settled matters about which there is no question or dispute.

It is easy to focus on confusing matters as an escape from the matters which are crystal clear yet hard to submit to. All of us have some aspects of Christian living that we remain confused about. But all of us also have plenty that we understand well, that we need to follow without reservation. And this is a good test to see whether you are using your confusion as a cop-out: If you are wholeheartedly submitting to the things you do know that are hard for you to submit to, then probably your confusion is sincere. But if you are not submitting to those things that are clearly understood but hard to submit to, then your confusion is probably to some extent an escape from the will of God rather than a seeking of it.

For some of us, it is much easier to pursue the intellectual understanding of Bible truth than it is to pursue conformity to the Bible truth that we all already know. For others, it is easy to use confusing things in the Bible or perplexing questions regarding Christian truth as a way of justifying our failure to submit to the parts that are clear to us. Paul here calls us to give our first attention to living out what we know is right as we continue to seek to know the mind of God in the areas we don’t yet understand.

Mark Twain once said, "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

Heavenly Father, forgive me for how little zeal I have to live for You in every area of my life. Forgive me for how I’ve used intellectual pursuits to hide from my duty to live out my Christianity on a very practical level. Forgive me for how I’ve failed to love my neighbor. Forgive me for how I’ve failed to care for the weak and lowly. Forgive me for how I’ve failed to use every opportunity to share the good news with the lost. Forgive me for how I’ve failed to pray in the way I know I should. Without giving up on trying to figure out the things I don’t yet understand, help me to live according to the standard I already understand well from Your word.