Embrace Brokenness

2 Timothy 2:11

¹¹The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

2 Peter 1:2

² May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Lately I have been thinking about why I started this blog and the word koinonia and where it appears in the Scriptures. Koinonia means an intimate fellowship a communion, and I started this blog to have intimate fellowship with believers that I am not always around. Recently I have discovered koinonia appearing in Scripture in conjunction with the Greek word ginosko which means to know. These words and related words have been coming up everywhere in what I have been reading and hearing lately. The word knowledge in 2 Peter 1:2 is related to the Greek word ginosko and the next verse discusses partaking and partnership (koinonia) with Christ.

So how do gain this knowledge of Christ that supplies us with grace and peace?

The simple answer is found in the 2 Timothy verse that appears first in this entry. We must die with him. We must die to ourselves and embrace brokenness. To do this we have to understand what it means to be broken.

John Piper talks in his book, God Is The Gospel, a lot about the world's view of love and how antithetical it is to Christian love and embracing brokenness. The world wants to be loved and will embrace brokenness to be built back up again. In the words of Piper the world wants "to be made much of." But that is not what dying with Christ and sharing the same attitude Christ had in the flesh is about. If we really want to have the same attitude as Christ that Paul talks about in Philippians 2:1-11 we have to embrace brokenness in order to be filled with the righteousness of Christ. In other words embrace brokenness and God's love to make much of God not ourselves. Today I was reading through the first chapter of James and it amazed me that in the first verse James identifies himself as a servant of God first. That is crazy. James was the earthly brother of Christ, but to him that means nothing. He has embraced brokenness and voluntarily become a bondservant to glorify Christ.

The other nigh at Unite Now I was praying to be broken, because I knew I needed it but I wasn't sure why. And God definitely didn't return that prayer void I went over to talk to my brother and I couldn't even speak because I was crying so hard. It was beautiful, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard. We want to make much of ourselves in this culture, because what the world tells us to do. But by making much of ourselves we will never come to the knowledge of God, and it's the knowledge of God that provides a love that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 4:19).

We have to die with Him to live with Him. Because it is through dying with Him that we know Him. And through knowing Him we receive eternal life. When we don't humble ourselves now we will be humbled later by the words "Depart from me I never knew you." (Matthew 7:23).

Through knowing God we receive all grace and peace and love. I encourage you as you read through the Scriptures to look for the words know and knowledge and anything similar and to rejoice in the blessings and promises of knowing God. I pray that we will humble ourselves like Christ and embrace brokenness so that we may make much of God and gain knowledge of Him who is above all.

John 14:4-7

⁴And you know the way to where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" ⁶Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."