Before we continue our reflections on what it means to be partakers of the divine nature, it would be helpful for us to reexamine our foundational text.

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:3-11)

Having acknowledged faith as the foundational first step, and virtue as the second, today we arrive at the third step in the process of becoming partakers of the divine nature, and that is knowledge. When we think of knowledge, one thing that comes to mind is the ever-increasing pace with which we acquire new information.  Until roughly 100 AD knowledge doubled around once a century. By 1945 the rate at which knowledge doubled had shrunk to about twenty-five years. The pace of advancement only continued to quicken. IBM projected that by the middle of this decade, knowledge could double every 12 hours.

There are several reasons for this now dizzying pace of knowledge acquisition. First, the internet connects billions of connected devices, which generate vast amounts of data. A quick Google search can reveal information that used to take significant time and effort to discover. Second, artificial intelligence provides an analytic component that was lacking even a few years ago.  Just the other day I asked AI how many times the Hebrew word bara was used in Isaiah, and I was quickly given the answer, including a breakdown of where in the book it occurs and passages from elsewhere in the Bible that might be related. Third, patents and inventions are increasing rapidly, with new discoveries often building on rather than replacing previous ones. Fourth, knowledge has become more collaborative. Global networks allow ideas to spread and evolve quickly. We have evidence of the existence of the number zero in the 3^rd or 4^th century AD in India. (While the concept of having nothing has always existed, it took a while for mathematicians to figure out a way to incorporate this into computations). Within a few centuries the Islamic world had adopted the number zero into their mathematics. It would be the 12^th century before Europe would adopt the use of zero after translating Arabic texts. It took some 800 years for the number zero to make its way from India to Europe. Compare that to our modern day, where American tech companies are worried that China will use our own advanced AI chips to surpass us in the development of artificial intelligence. Society’s appetite for knowledge continues to grow, leading us to obtain knowledge at an ever-increasing rate.

If we have increased the rate at which we obtain knowledge, we are led to ask the question why we are so concerned about learning? As a kid, GI Joe told me that knowing was half the battle. In the late 80’s and early 90’s NBC stressed “The More You Know.”  When writing to the Colossians, Paul stressed that the purpose for obtaining knowledge was so that we could walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord:

⁹ And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-14)

What is critical for us is knowing what God determines to be right and wrong. In Eden, our original sin was not solely disobedience, but the attempt to seize the ability to determine what was right and what was wrong. If you are a parent, you have experienced this with your own children. When your kids get mad at you, it is often because they think they know better than you. How dare you limit their sugar, insist they go to bed at a certain time, and monitor what they watch on their screens! Their desire is to eat as much sugar as they want, stay up all night, and watch anything on their tablet. But you know that too much sugar is bad, kids need sleep, and that there are things they should not see on those screens. The sooner they realize that you know what is best for them, the better off they will be. The same principle applies to our walk with the Lord. God knows what is best for us, more than that, God wants what is best for us. To desire to follow God’s will is to desire what is best for us. Jesus sets the example for us when he states, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. (John 4:34) It is because of this that we know that the will of God is revealed perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ. If God’s will is revealed in the law, it is fulfilled in Christ, which is why Jesus himself preached in his Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17) When wondering what God would desire of us, we need only ask the question made famous my Charles Sheldon in his book In His Steps, “What would Jesus do?” The more we know Jesus, the more we know the will of God.

This knowledge is not simply something we hold in our minds, it is something we apply. When I was young, I remember my dad taking promotion tests as a firefighter. To become a sergeant, he had to take a test demonstrating that he knew the information necessary to perform the task of a sergeant. While as one of his dependents it was easy to think of a promotion as more money for our family, the point of dad learning more was not just getting a bigger paycheck. The people of my hometown were banking on dad being able to drive the fire engine to where it was needed and operate the pump so that the requisite water was available to put out any fire. The more dad learned, the more he could be of service as a fireman. As humans, we learn God’s will for the purpose of walking in a manner pleasing to him. Thinking again of the experience of parents, it is hard to see our kids grow up. Yet, we acknowledge that it is necessary for them to continue to mature in order to become who God wants them to be. They progress from taking their first steps, to walking across the stage as graduates. They grow from saying their first words, to making vows to the person they love. These milestones might be bittersweet in our eyes, but they are also moments of great pride. Do you think God feels any less pride when he sees us growing and maturing, reflecting more of his image into the world? What pleases God more than seeing us grow to reflect a more accurate likeness of Him? How do we do this other than to become more like Jesus, allowing him to bear fruit through us? Jesus himself said, ^“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

If this is indeed the end goal, to look more like Jesus, should we not first endeavor to know what Jesus looks like? Our journey to becoming partakers of the divine nature begins with faith, we place our trust in God.  We realize that our faith must be supplemented with virtue, the embodiment of virtue being Jesus. Those things being true, we must strive to continue to grow in the knowledge of who Jesus is. It is worth asking ourselves the question- do we know about Jesus, or do we know Jesus? I would submit that the more you know about Him, the stronger your desire to know Him.