June 6, 2023

Matthew 22: 29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” (NIV)

You ought to know more than a little bit about the Bible.*

This is Jesus’ gentle way of saying, “That was a stupid question.” The Sadducees thought they were going to trick Jesus with their hypothetical situation about a woman who had been married to, and outlived, seven brothers, and their question about whose wife she would be at the resurrection. They didn’t even believe in the resurrection so we can be pretty sure that they weren’t asking because they wanted to learn something from Jesus.

If they had known the Scriptures, the Sadducees would have known that marriage is an earthly institution, not a heavenly one (verse 30). (Keep your jokes to yourself!) If they had known the power of God, they would have known that he is the God of the living, not the God of the dead (verse 32). If they had known God, they would have known his power.

Josh McDowell lists ignorance as the number one reason that people reject Christ.* We might say that to know him is to love him. In Romans chapter one, Paul writes that ignorance is no excuse for not knowing God because “his eternal power and divine nature” speak for themselves. But such basic knowledge of God is not saving knowledge. As Christians, we are called to introduce the lost to Christ and to reflect his character in our lives. If we aren’t fulfilling our duty, we, too, are without excuse and the world is lost.

The right knowledge of God consists in doing our duty.*