Merriam-Webster defines knowledge as "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association."
It is not enough to simply "learn" by listening to a lecture or contemplating facts and truth. In order to truly learn something and consider it to be knowledge, it has to be applied. For example, if I say that know it is good to wear a seat belt in a car, but then never buckle-up when I actually ride in a car, then I only believe this fact is true. Truth is not learned until it is applied. Thus, true learning causes us to do the things we have learned.
I am going to be a Math Teacher in just about a year and I hope to apply this principle to my own teaching. Memorizing formulas and crunching numbers is not truly learning mathematics. By having my students apply their understanding to different circumstances and the "real world," it forces them to gain real understanding because they performed and action rather than just passively absorbing information, which would certainly be squeezed out of them during the next 3-day weekend.
Any time we learn something new, we need to understand its significance and then do something about it.
Christ asks the same of us. When a woman taken in adultery was brought to Christ, he forgave her of her sins. He then said, "Go, and sin no more." It was important that she goes forward, acting on this forgiveness of sins. If she were to go and continue to sin, then she would not have truly learned of repentance and forgiveness. But by applying the atonement and repenting by sinning "no more," the woman is able to gain knowledge of the goodness and grace of God as well as the wrongness of her prior sins through her actions.
LOVE THIS. In John 7:17 Christ says, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." This connection between doing and knowing is inseparable. And it applies to so much more than just doctrine. It applies to all aspects of life. We come to know things as good or bad through doing and experiencing. Love it.
ReplyDeleteVery true and accurate, application is a mark of true learning, and as such should be something we strive after. As one of my professors taught me, I don't remember who, a real measure of how well we understand a principle in any subject in life is whether we can explain the most complex of principles to a small child or someone who has no knowledge of the subject. I think that applying what we learn in our lives helps to do this. We are able to better understand what we are taught and really learn it, up until we are able to teach it to a small child by applying it to ourselves.
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