CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE

DAY 125 OF 365 IN 2021

Acts 15:1-2 While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers that unless they adhered to the ancient Jewish custom of circumcision, they could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas argued and discussed this with them at length, and finally the believers sent them to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local men, to talk to the apostles and elders there about this question.

Sometimes when a patient presents with a very complex medical case, different teams of clinicians work together to find the best solution. Often, there is a second opinion and even sometimes a third. Such cases are referred to experts in particular departments because they are more likely to hold a wider body of knowledge on the specific matter.

It did not matter then that Paul and Barnabas even with their capacity to instruct, were not deemed the final authorities in the matter that arose in today’s text regarding circumcision and salvation. Thus, they had to be sent to the elders and Apostles in Jerusalem. Mind you – this was not an undermining of their authority, it was to establish a connection to the ‘fathers’.

We have been taught and read in scripture that ‘we have the Holy spirit in us who teaches us all things’. However,  this dimension of access should not cause you to step into error with a belief system that causes you to despise the body of knowledge others possess. No matter how engraced or anointed you are, there is a body of knowledge, dimensions of truths about God and about this world which have been entrusted to specific individuals and particular groups of people, for the benefit of the entire assembly.

There is a reason people are deemed ‘experts’ in particular matters. Your role, therefore, is to recognise this and honour those custodians. You may have answers, but not to every question. If we begin to assume that we do, and start thinking ourselves as having all, we begin to sway into territories and taken on positions that have nothing to do with what we are purposed to do.

Recognising and honouring others as custodians of a body of knowledge should not be seen as dent in one’s ego. In fact, it ought to be seen as wisdom to tap into and draw from another pool of knowledge. Don’t let your pride lock you out of this access – access to dimensions of truth which God has committed to specific individuals.

#sly