Understanding What's in a NameSample

The Need for Understanding

Let’s start by reminding ourselves of the importance of understanding God’s Word in general–before we set out on a journey to understand the significance of names, and in particular, the name of Jesus.

If you grew up in church or you’ve been a Christian for a few years, you’d probably do pretty well on a Bible trivia quiz. But even if we have a fair amount of biblical knowledge, we may not truly understand it, so we may lack the wisdom to apply that knowledge to our lives. Solomon writes, "Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7) Wisdom is the correct application of knowledge. It’s what we learn from God and about God, applied to everyday life. And in order to live wisely, it’s crucial that we understand the biblical knowledge we’re gaining. That’s why Paul prays that the Ephesians will grow in their understanding of who Jesus is and all He’s done for them (Ephesians 1:16–18).

Jesus explains this same concept to His followers in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1–30). He says, "When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart…" (Matthew 13:19) The seed–God’s Word–isn’t the problem. The problem is that if we don’t understand what we’re being told from God’s Word, and it doesn’t have a chance to germinate in any type of soil. So, we can go to church and hear a great message from the Bible, but if we don’t understand what we’ve just heard, by the time we hit the car park, it’s gone. It’s not about hearing the Word. It’s about understanding it.

The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day were qualified scholars of the Jewish scriptures. However, Jesus disqualifies them, saying, "You are completely wrong! You don’t know what the Scriptures teach. And you don’t know anything about the power of God." (Matthew 22:29) Essentially Jesus is saying, "You may know the scripture, but you don’t understand the scripture." Again, even if you’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover and you can quote verses extensively, it means nothing if you haven’t understood God’s Word and made it your own. Truly understanding God’s Word radically changes our thinking, feeling, and behaving.

The wonderful news is that God has already provided for us everything we need to live the Christian life successfully, and with true understanding. He has given us the Holy Spirit, His Word, the church, the armor of God, and finally, the name of Jesus: name above all names.