The Knowing-Doing Gap

August 5, 2024

I am amazed at how people can attend church for years and hear the truth in a variety of ways, yet there is only a slight change in thinking. There might be some surface behavioral change, but at the core of how those people think, there is little difference.

I talked to two different people this week who were like this. As I sat there and listened to them share, I was aware of what their church background had been and was totally amazed at their way of thinking. I was thinking, how could this possibly be?

I have heard many times from people who are in the position to know that today’s generation doesn’t necessarily not believe what the church teaches – it’s that they don’t believe the church believes what it teaches. Read that again. Make sure you get it. Today’s generation doesn’t necessarily not believe what the church teaches – it’s that they don’t believe the church believes what it teaches.

Wow. Why is that? It’s because of the gap between knowing and doing. Think about it. Every one of us has lived in that space between knowing something and actually doing it. There's a gap – a large, gaping, and sometimes ugly gap between having all the knowledge about a truth, a way of life, or a practice, and actually putting our heart, feet, and hands to doing what we now know.

• We know we should drink at least 64 ounces of water daily and exercise daily, yet it’s often a battle we don’t even fight.
• We know we should calm down and take a step back when our emotions are overheating, but doing it too often is tossed.
• We know we should read God's Word and pray regularly – but taking the time to do it isn’t easy.

Too often we think knowing is doing. We hear the mantra, “When you know better, you’ll do better.” But reality shows us that isn’t true. Because we know something doesn’t mean we will actually do anything about it.

Let’s look honestly at ourselves spiritually. Preachers, teachers, parents, and children. We are so often much better at telling our knowledge than we are in following it. How do we change this?

We can’t think or know our way into doing what is needed. Our knowledge has to get from our head into our heart, our passion, our hands, and our feet. Putting the Ten Commandments on the schoolroom or courtroom wall doesn’t make anyone follow them. Not even memorizing them will do it. One must have a passionate heart to DO what we know and say we believe that is followed up with intentional action.

God says that He desires for us who say we belong to Him, those who claim to be Jesus followers to be sanctified. What does that mean? Well, in the most simple, basic way, sanctification is closing the gap between what I know/believe and what I do. In his book, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, James K. A. Smith tells us that generally intentional habits must be chosen to come first and then they will turn into “natural” actions and lifestyles. “If sanctification is tantamount to closing the gap between what I know and what I do … it means changing what I want. And that requires submitting ourselves to disciplines and regimes that reach down into our deepest habits. The Spirit of God meets us in that space – in that gap – not with lightning bolts of magic but with the concrete practices of the body of Christ.”

Have you ever tried to start a workout practice, a new habit, a new way of eating, and found the first days to simply drag? You are so frustrated you wonder how you will get through it? You groan when the alarm rings telling you to get up and get at it? Then as you stay with it, things begin to change. You find a strange rush of anticipation as your new habit, your new way of living is doing something great in you, to you. You are enjoying the new way of life and the new you. But you had to push through to get to this place.

Back to those two people who “know everything and experience nothing” – you know someone like them. Maybe it’s you. Knowledge is going to get you nowhere. It doesn’t impress Jesus and it’s not the ticket. He told the Pharisees, the believers-without-changing people of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think knowing them will give you life. But you refuse to come to Me.” The only way knowledge will get you anywhere is if you let it lead you to truly FOLLOWING Jesus.

You and I are intended for real life, a changed life. We are made to have far more than knowledge. We must be sanctified, close the gap between knowing and doing. We do it by taking action; creating disciplined habits. Then we will have personal immense joy, and the world will believe we believe.