God’s Desire and our Need is to Come to the Full Knowledge of the Truth Today

God desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth; today the Lord is recovering the full knowledge of the truth and we all have the capacity to come to this knowledge, for we need to come to and be in the full knowledge of the truth. Amen!

When we speak of the truth, we refer not only to what is true or even only to what is in the word of God.

The truth is the shining of God as light in and through His word. God is truth, Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth; the Triune God is truth.

The word of God has a substance, and the basic element of this substance is the Triune God.

We need to see that the word of God is much more than black-and-white letters, the love letter of God, and the revelation of what is in God’s heart.

The word of God contains God Himself, for the substance of God’s word is the very Triune God.

When we come to the word of God with our heart turned to the Lord and our spirit exercised, we touch the substance of God’s word, and the truth is infused into us.

God’s word becomes God’s divine revelation, and it conveys something of God to infuse God and deposit God into us.

The divine word conveys the unique reality of the Triune God and makes the contents of the faith clear to us. Praise the Lord!

When we partake of the reality of the Triune God in His word, we become genuine and sincere men, for the reality which is God is wrought into us to become our genuineness, sincerity, honesty, and trustworthiness as excellent virtues in our behaviour.

These virtues enable us to express God, the God of reality by whom we live.

We become persons living a life of truth without any falsehood or hypocrisy.

When we enjoy God as the reality in His word, we live a life that corresponds with the truth revealed through creation and the scripture. Praise the Lord!

It all starts with the word of God and our coming to the word in a proper way.

When we touch the reality of the Triune God in his word, we are infused with what God is, our faith increases, and we can live a life according to God’s purpose and for the fulfilment of His economy.

May we come to the Lord’s word day by day and may we allow the Lord to infuse us with Himself little by little, day by day.

May we remain in the word daily, enjoying the Lord and musing on the word, so that the very reality of the Triune God would be wrought into our being and become our reality, our sincerity, and our genuineness.

God Desires that we All come to the Full Knowledge of the Truth as Revealed in His Word

1 Tim. 2:4 says that God desires all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth.

Thank the Lord that, in His mercy, He has saved us; we are now saved.

However, being saved is not good enough, according to this verse; we need to go on and come to the full knowledge of the truth.

In the Lord’s recovery, we are being recovered to this matter, to the full knowledge of the truth.

The Lord’s recovery is to recover the full knowledge of the truth (v. 7; 4:3).

It is not only the leading brothers or the serving saints that need to come to the full knowledge of the truth; all the saints, you and me, need to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

When we neglect the truth, degradation comes in.

When we do not remain in the word of God day by day with much prayer and consideration, degradation comes in.

The degradation of the church issued from the neglect of the truth and the leaving of the ministry of the apostles.

The Lord’s recovery today is the full recovery of the divine truths in the holy word of God (John 1:14, 17; 8:32).

Titus 1:1 says that Paul is a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness.

Paul was an apostle not only according to the faith but also according to the full knowledge of the truth.

By faith we receive and enjoy all that God has planned for us, all He has done for us and all that He has given us.

The full knowledge of the truth is an appreciation, even a thorough appreciation and a full acknowledgement and appreciation of the truth.

The truth is the reality of all the spiritual and divine things that we have received through faith.

We all need to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

In both 1 and 2 Timothy Paul emphasizes the need for us as believers in Christ to come to the full knowledge of the truth (see 1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7).

What is the truth referred to here? It is the truth contained in the writings of the apostles, who released and ministered the truth.

It is the entire content of the New Testament, including the gospels and the Epistles and the book of Revelation.

The truth in God’s word has been revealed; we have the truth in our hands.

Even more, the truth has been properly interpreted through the ministry of the age according to the vision of God’s eternal economy.

We have no excuse, to say it like this; we need to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

This doesn’t merely mean that we memorize the truth, we remember the verses, and we can recite key statements and major points of the truth.

The full knowledge of the truth is according to godliness, which is the living out of God.

We need to receive the truth into us by means of all prayer and petition, commit it to our memory, and prayerfully muse on it so that it becomes our constitution.

The full knowledge of the truth is a thorough apprehension of the truth; to have such knowledge means that you have a full acknowledgement of the reality of all the spiritual and divine things that we have received through faith.

We need to exercise both our spirit and our mind to come to the Lord in His word and come to the full knowledge of the truth by being in His word day by day.

The way we take today is that of constitution, not memorisation. We want to be constituted with the truth so that the truth becomes our very being, the constituent of our inner being.

We need to be before the Lord concerning this matter and daily set aside time to be in God’s word. It’s good to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, thank You for saving us. We want to come to the full knowledge of the truth. We give ourselves to You. We give You our time and our energy. We want to set aside some time every day to be in Your word so that we may be infused with You and receive the truth into our being. We want to take the way of being constituted with the truth. Oh Lord, may we have a thorough apprehension of the truth as we come to You in Your word day by day. Bring us to have a full acknowledgement of the reality of all the divine and spiritual things that we have received through faith. We exercise our spirit of faith to receive and enjoy all that You have done and prepared for us. We exercise our spirit and our renewed mind to be in Your word day by day so that we may come to the full knowledge of the truth.

All Believers Need to Come to and Be in the Full Knowledge of the Truth

When many Christians hear that God desires not only to save us but that we come to the full knowledge of the truth, they immediately think that they need to attend some Bible school, a theological school, or a Bible seminary for this.

But Paul didn’t say this; he said that we all need to come to the full knowledge of the truth, for this is our God’s desire.

Every believer in Christ has the capacity to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

Each one of us is created by God with a certain capacity, which with some is greater and with others it is smaller, for us to know God and apprehend the truth.

The way for us to take to come to the full knowledge of the truth is by learning the truth daily by coming to the word of God.

We need to come to the word of God to read the Bible day by day.

The divine revelation in the Bible is exceedingly profound, and for us to understand and interpret the Bible according to its intrinsic significance is not easy.

This is why, throughout centuries, there have been various schools of theology, and many Bible institutes and seminaries have been established.

Even more, countless commentaries on the Bible have been written.

It seemed that, if the Lord saved and raised up a particular gifted or intelligent person, he did his best to open up the Bible according to his or her understanding.

But we need to realize that there is a governing vision in the Bible; there is the eternal economy of God, which is in faith (1 Tim. 1:3-4).

The proper interpretation of the word of God should be according to God’s economy, God’s plan, and His purpose.

In the different Bible institutes and seminaries, students learn things such as theology, Biblical history and geography, and biblical Hebrew and Greek.

While all these are not wrong in themselves, we need to realize that there is the governing vision in the Bible, the vision of God’s economy, which is the God-ordained way of interpreting the Bible according to its spiritual significance.

Also, what God wants us to come to is not the full knowledge of theology, Greek, Hebrew, geography, and history in the Bible; we need to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

To have the full knowledge of the truth is to fully know the truth; knowing the truth in this way is a safeguard.

It is not possible for every believer to study in a seminary, but it is possible for every genuine believer in Christ to come to the full knowledge of the truth by spending time with the Lord in His word every day.

Every day we need to take time to behold the Lord in His word and be under His speaking.

Each and every believer in Christ has the capacity to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

We should not say that the truth is too high and we can’t understand it; rather, we should open our being to the Lord as we come to Him in the word, and we should let Him shine in us.

And if we do not understand a particular truth, we need to study it prayerfully and ask for help among the saints so that together we may come to the full knowledge of the truth.

We need to understand the Bible in the way of apprehending its spiritual significance.

We all as believers in Christ and children of God need to come to and be in the full knowledge of the truth.

We need to study the Bible according to the way ordained by God so that we may be in the full knowledge of the truth and also bring others into this knowledge.

When we study the Bible in the way ordained by God, we will be equipped with the truth to also help the saints receive the healthy teaching and know the truth in an adequate way.

Always remember, you have the capacity to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

Do not think that you’re not that smart; the truth has to saturate our being, beginning with our mind, and we will come to the full knowledge of the truth.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the divine revelation in the word of God. Thank You for giving us the capacity to come to the full knowledge of the truth. Thank You for the proper interpretation of Your word according to its spiritual significance. We want to take the God-ordained way to study the Bible so that we may come to the full knowledge of the truth. Save us from any deviations from the truth. Save us from merely knowing God’s word and the things in God’s word. May we see the truth, be constituted with the truth, and have the truth dwell in us. Grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ. We want to study the Bible according to the way ordained by God so that we may come to and be in the full knowledge of the truth. Amen, Lord, may we come to the full knowledge of the truth and help the saints also receive the health teaching and know the truth adequately.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 62-63, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 3, entitled, The Full Knowledge of the Truth.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Faithful and Diligent Spreading of the Truth, article via, Having this Ministry.
  – God desiring all men to come to the full knowledge of the truth, a portion from, The Full Knowledge of the Word of God, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – Being Constituted With the Truth for the Spread of the Lord’s Testimony, article via, Living to Him.
  – Does truth really matter? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The saved ones need to come to the full knowledge of the truth, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – All Scripture is the very breath of God, / And by His Spirit into words was breathed; / By godly men the words were written down, / With all God’s fulness unto man bequeathed. / It is the breath of God as light to man, / With rays divine man to illuminate; / It shines in darkness and to man reveals / What is his truest need and actual state. (Hymns #799 stanzas 1-2)
  – Now to enjoy Thee I come to Thy Word, / On Thee to feed till my hunger is o’er. / Now in my spirit I turn unto Thee, / Of Thee to drink till I’m thirsty no more. / Feeding and drinking, Lord Jesus, of Thee, / Feeding by reading, and drinking by prayer; / Reading and praying, I eat and I drink, / Praying and reading—Lord, Thou art my fare. (Hymns #811 stanzas 6-7)
  – God the Lord has spoken, and His mystery shown, / Christ and His expression has His counsel willed: / Christ with all God’s fulness as the glorious Head, / And the Church His Body, with His riches filled. / God the Lord has spoken, and from heaven shown / That the triune God would blend with creature-man: / Father in the Son, the Son the Spirit is, / Dwelling in the Body to fulfill His plan. (Hymns #800 stanzas 4-5)