Much Knowing, Little Doing

Serving – March 2013 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Much Knowing, Little Doing

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” — Mark 16:15

“We spend too much time on theory and too little time on practice, and the imbalance is greatly hampering the environmental movement. Talking may make us feel good, but it’s only action that’ll get the job done.” As the speaker on the environmental issues program made this statement, I thought of how the truth of his words might also be applied to the Christian movement. I think it is safe to say that most Christians are talking far too much and doing far too little about actually promoting the cause of Christ to those around them.

Years ago, I met a young woman at a Bible conference in New Jersey who told me how many conferences she had attended in the previous year and how many notes she had taken. Needless to say, I was impressed. But is this how we are to measure our faith – by how many meetings we attend and how many notes we take?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of Bible conferences and note-taking. Both are helpful ways to put into practice Paul’s simple design for becoming a Christian worker: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 NIV). But will Bible conference attendance and note-taking alone bring us the happiness mentioned in John 13:17: “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them”? Isn’t it what we do with what we’ve learned that makes us a real worker, and a happy one at that?

Consider how much time we spend reading and listening to the Gospel. Mark 16:15 (above) tells us that we have been commissioned to pass on this good news to those all around us, and not just take it in for ourselves. As the song by Arthur Woolsey (below) says, “We’re saved, saved to tell others.” Yet many of us have trouble speaking of Christ to those in our family, neighborhood, school or workplace. Yet this is the purpose for which He came – to commission us to share the Good News with others. Have we responded to His commission with any action?

It is far better to know only a few Gospel verses and rub them together near somebody’s dead wood and thereby enkindle in them the spark of new life, than it is to have notebooks full of comments on Scripture and warm nobody’s heart but our own with them. It is sad to consider that while we may know “these things” we may not be experiencing the blessing of actually doing anything with them.

By Larry Ondrejack

Saved To Tell Others We’re saved, saved to tell others of the Man of Galilee.
Saved, saved to live daily for the Christ of Calvary.
Saved, saved to invite you to His salvation free.
We’re saved, saved, saved by His blood for all eternity. By Arthur Woolsey