Adding knowledge - wisdom, insight, and discernment - to the goodness of God in me (2Peter 1:1-5). That goodness, which is the nature of Jesus in me (Rom 3:22; 2Cor 5:21), through faith in Jesus, and God’s continued and continual gracious working in me/us (Luke 12:32; Ro 9:11,16; Eph 1:5,9,11; Phil 2:13).
Since God has given us EVERYTHING we need… It is ours now to make every effort to engage with God, daily, in a consistent, persistent ongoing set of encounters that lead to greater and deeper engagement - knowing (gnosis) more of and about God, to know (epignosis) and understand Him and our experiences with Him, better.
These ongoing and repeated encournters add bits of knowledge (gnosis) of God that strengthen our faith, add to our understanding, affirm our position with God, and instruct us to live our lives with and for God, as we sojourn here with God (epignosis).
To gain this (added) knowledge, we must not just read to read (James 1:19-27), but earnestly seek Him in and by His provided word to give understanding and to our experience – even our first experience (epignosis).
To do this, we must add knowledge, that of knowing more about Him through His Self-revelation - as to gain more from Him that we might know Him better, love and trust Him more, and be more and more transformed in mind, and conformed in our likeness, to His Son - to Jesus and His life in us - that we might love as Jesus loves, as we have been loved.
Where do we get this knowledge?
1. Creation - first and most general Psalm 19:1-6 (Job 38-40; Ps 138; Isa 40; Romans 1:19-20,22)
2. God’s word. (...and Spirit - the Spirit of Truth 1John ) Ps 19:7-13;
2Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness” NIV
Romans 1 the transition… from creation to word, general to specific
