Is Your Faith Just Head Knowledge?

Hebrews - A Look at the Book

Tomorrow marks the end of the semester, and I will take my last final in my class on Hebrews. For part of our final, we were asked to write about a way that Hebrews has affected our lives. So I began thinking about the book as a whole. What is one of the general messages of this book? It took me a while to narrow it down to one lesson I have learned, because there really are so many throughout this book. But I decided to take the approach of looking at the book as a whole. And what I discovered is a common problem among most Christians, a problem that we probably all face at one point or another.

Is your faith just head knowledge? Or is there a much deeper relationship present?

Many times we learn so much about the Bible that we store the information in our head for future use but never apply it to our daily lives. We learn about who God is and what He has done for us, but then we go about our daily lives as if we had never been taught the first thing about God. This problem can arise when reading through the book of Hebrews. The first 10 chapters of the book is filled with knowledge about God. The author makes amazing connections back into the Old Testament, and he lays out what Jesus did on the cross for His readers. He compares Jesus to the angels, elevates Jesus as our High Priest, describes Jesus position at the right hand of the father, and explains the differences between the Old and New Covenants. With so much information, one could easily just learn about God without actually getting to know God.

But just as our lives should not end with knowledge, the book of Hebrews does not end with a discussion of Christ. Instead, the author continues in the last 3 chapters by providing his readers with many examples of those who have lived out the faith. He then connects in to Jesus, as our ultimate example (see my posts on "Running the Race"). This is where the application comes in. Through chapters 12 and 13, the author lays out practical applications for our lives. He gives us ways in which we can incorporate these teachings into our walk with Christ. The faith does not end with knowledge, it extends into action and application.

So listen to what the author of Hebrews says, and consider what your life is like right now. You may have already learned this lesson in your life. You may already understand the importance of applying Scripture to life and not only learning about it. But you may be in a tough spot right now. I hope this is an encouragement to you to think about how you can apply Scripture into your daily life. Just remember that the Bible should not only be head knowledge.

Matt