When I first became a Christian, I knew I was way behind in my understanding of who God is, not to mention my knowledge of the bible. All the Christians I knew were born into Christian families, raised in the church, and had learned all the biblical stories from time they could walk.

I decided that I needed to know as much as I could. So after completing my BA/BSC I decided to go to Tyndale University to get a Master in Theological Studies (instead of enrolling in teacher’s college). That decision came with a great number of issues (a story for another time), regardless, I soaked in all the amazing teaching. But, you know what the say, “the more you know the less you know”. It was actually a bit frustrating. I remember confiding in one of the professors over lunch one day. I shared with them my desire to learn everything I could about this God I believed was the anchor of my soul. And they said to me, “so often Christians are educated beyond the level of their obedience.”

Boom. That was the end of the conversation.

I was left a bit mystified. Was I being insulted? Were they telling me to stop learning? Should I un-enrol? What were they saying to me??

It wasn’t until years later that I got it.

Learning all we can is not a bad thing, actually it is a great thing —to learn the original biblical language of Greek or Hebrew, or the history of the bible — it’s all great, but what I believe my professor was saying to me is that if we, as followers of Jesus are not doing the very thing we are called to do, then really, what is the point?

For instance, John writes in 1 John 4:11 “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another.”

Honestly, living out this verse is not easy - it may actually be easier to learn greek - because this verse means loving the co-worker or classmate that gets on your nerves. It means loving the family member who has a completely different belief system or ideology than you do. It means loving the spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or even child who deeply hurt you. It means loving the friend that disappointed you. It means loving the mother or father that walked out on you. It means loving the person who’s social media post is just digging at you and getting on your last nerve (because honestly, nobody’s life is that perfect. Ugh)!

Learn, learn, learn as much as you can about this amazing God we serve but let’s not be more educated than the level of our obedience.

Since God so loved us, let us love one another.