It was a heartbreaking post on Facebook from a young man who just finished his education and was seeking his first church. He even had a doctorate degree! And yet, nobody would take him on as their pastor. He was confused and wounded, to say the least.
And then 'Job's friends' came along in reply to "help" him deal with this situation! Advice ranged from a new resume to a better photo, to lowering his sights to smaller, and humbler stations of service. Like Nursery duty.
But there's this list... perhaps a recipe... in 2 Peter 1:5-11 that promises we will neither be "useless or unfruitful"... which sounds a lot like what he desired! Peter encourages us to "be diligent" and "make every effort" to "add to" or "supplement" our faith. But note the order he prescribes! "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge," etc." says the King James Version, and the Christian Standard Bible phrases it, "... supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge... knowledge with..." and so on.
This sincere brother went from faith to knowledge (his doctoral degree!), skipping right over "virtue" or "goodness!"
But don't we all? Aren't we prone to improve our spirituality by learning more Bible instead of changing our character? It's not that knowledge doesn't matter, for it certainly does. But head and heart are meant to work together to keep us honest, humble, and yielded.
But there was one more twist to his story that made this sequence of "faith," "virtue/goodness," and THEN "knowledge" all the more important.
He earned his theology degree while in prison.
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