Which is the greatest?

"So, the Word should be a means to a greater experience of God, right?"

This is such an important question that only those who are truly thirsting after God asks. Being in a pentacostal church for well over 23 years, I've seen the highs and the lows in my church and I've experienced the highs and lows too. I used to think that experiencing God means feeling him and sing with all my heart and guts. These worship sessions always causes me to cry eithers in misery (due to conviction of sins) or in joy (simply overwhelmed by God's pressence). As the year went by I felt my spiritual life growing. The conviction in my spirit tells me that there is something wrong with me coz I enjoy worship God so much, but I have a hard time grasping the things I read in the bible. In other words, I realised I was "incomplete". No, I do not think my salvation is incomplete, I am sure that I was saved and Christ work on the cross is complete for our salvation. What I meant must be seen in light of spiritual maturity.

1Peter 2:2
"like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,"


Heb 5:13-14
"For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."


Eph 4:11-13
"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."

Not every new believer will read the word and understand it immediately at the point of salvation. In their infancy of their faith, God has allowed them to experience Him in a tangible way, though that is not always the case. Experinecing God and feel Him to me is bonus, but not to feel Him yet know that He exist is counted to them as "faithful". The Word of God affirms us that

Hebrews 11:6
"without faith it is impossible to please God"

Romans 8:8
"those in the flesh cannot please God"

Colossians 1:10
"So that we maywalk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

So does it mean that eveyone who becomes a Christ must love the Word. Yes, they may not love the word at the point of salvation, but the Holy Spirit uses the Word to teach the truth about God through the word and through teachers of the Word. How bout Christians who died without knowing the Word. Well, they know Christ first right? Who is the Word? Christ is the Word; the bread of life. They may not have the written word, but they do have the living Word just like one of the thieves who hung beside Jesus.

Iis a believe who loves God and enjoy being in His pressence a true disciple of Christ? And is one who attends bible studies and know a lot about the bible a true disciple of Christ? What is the sign of true disciple? The true sign is growth because no bad tree bear good fruit. But all good tree will bear good fruit. Other people will know we are truly Christ disciples when we produce fruits that is consistent with our salvaion. We have a life time to change some of our attitudes, this is the grace of God that's been given. How does he or she knows if they are on the right track? The holy spirit will eventually affirm us through the Bible.

Therefore there should not be any disctinction between loving God and loving God's Word. The bible made it very clear. Jesus said "If u love me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). There is no distinction at all. If u love God, u will love His word. Conversely, for a Christian who reads the word, he will marvel in awe at what he read and strengthen his convictions and deepen his love for God.

In 1 Corinthans 13, this that marvellous chapter about love. Paul ended that chapter declaring that love is the greatest attribute: "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love". The context of the text is the church in corinth were so disunited because there were factions who thinks that the gifts they were operating in were greater than the others. Paul quash all those nonsense and declared that if they don't have love, all their gifts is nothing. We should not argue over which is more important because everything that we do is important. If we love one another we will be quick to listen and willing to learn. No one is wrong, except for anyone who goes to extremes. I am sure the Spirit of God will convict us all in due time. Let's get back to basics of loving God. When we do that we will love His Word. At the same time, let use get back to basics, love the Word, it will increase in our love for God.

"Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."
2Timothy 2:7