John 13:7

John 13:7

The Contrast between Present and Future Knowledge

I. It is a very interesting thing to consider ourselves here as only in the childhood of our being, our full manhood being reserved for another and higher state of existence. Though now I can believe in the existence and presence of God, I have none of that perception and consciousness of it which I have of the existence and presence of a beloved friend who is standing at my side. I shall in the future life be sensible of my nearness to God; I shall have faculties for apprehending His manifested glory; no longer thrown upon faith, but privileged with sight and the sight not that of a fleshly organ alone, however strengthened and refined, but mental, spiritual vision, as though God were Himself everywhere visible. But whilst there is more in the prospect of this change in the mode of acquiring knowledge, than in the most gorgeous beauties of the celestial city, to animate to the running the race set before us, you will allow that our knowledge must be necessarily defective and imperfect so long as we have only the dark glass and not the open vision: we have now neither the organs nor the opportunities for acquiring close and intimate acquaintance with spiritual things; and therefore what marvel if it have to be said of a thousand things into which we may be anxious to search, as Christ said to Peter in our text: "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

II. Then there is to be a great increase in the material of knowledge as well as a great change in the mode of its acquisition. Here we do not know as much of any one subject as our capacities could receive; knowing by study, not by sight, the amount of knowledge is always less than it might be, and greater upon one topic than another. It is therefore unavoidable that we have no harmonious views of truth. The elements which we have to combine are too small, and not being moreover on the same scale, will not fit with each other; hence the darkness, hence the enigma. But hereafter we shall cease thus to know in part of every subject that can minister to happiness; we shall know as much as we are capable of knowing. Therefore will there be no longer any void, no longer a disproportion of what we know of one thing and what of another. Hence, will the separate truths blend in one harmonious whole, and all enigma will cease, though wonder upon wonder have yet to be unravelled. It is not that we should embrace all truth, for that is the property of the Divine Being alone; but it is the having every capacity full even as God has, so that truth will always present one unclouded panorama, bounded indeed, but beautifully distinct, and each part contributing to the general splendour.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2271.

References: John 13:7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1293; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. i., p. 166; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 119; vol. xi., p. 365; vol. xvi., p. 152; H. P. Liddon, Christmastide Sermons,p. 191; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 417; J. Jackson Wray, Ibid.,vol. xxix., p. 8; C. J. Vaughan, Last Words at Doncaster,p. 72.