John 9:25 - What Do I Need to Know?

John 9:25:
He replied, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

How many letters behind your name do you need to collect before you are useful to the Lord? Is there a minimum number of years you need to study, or a test that you take to allow you to serve the Lord?

Not according to a blind man -- no, make that a formerly blind man.

This man -- born blind -- had been directly benefitted by a miracle performed by Jesus. He had felt Christ spread mud over his eyes, and had followed His instructions to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And because of Jesus -- he could now see!

Everyone around him was either amazed, astonished or confused. Some had said that he couldn't be the same beggar they passed everyday -- but he adamantly confirmed that he was!

Once the Pharisees got involved, their usual legalistic attitude came into action -- this miracle had happened on a Sabbath. “This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath.”

These leaders questioned the man, but they were unwilling to believe his story, and brought in the man’s parents to verify that he had actually been born blind. His parents verified his story, but when they were pressured for more information, they simply said, “He is old enough. Ask him!”

The second round of questioning of the formerly blind man didn't go as expected. Speaking only from what he knew to be unquestionably true, he was able to stifle the arguments given by the Jewish leaders -- the same people, who if alive today, would undoubtedly have letters, degrees, and all manor of scholarly titles after their names.

Truth has a way of doing that.

He simply answered, “...I know this: I was blind, and now I see!” -- That was all he needed to tell them.

And, that is all we need, too. We simply need to tell what we know -- what we have read for ourselves in Scripture -- and what we know to be true from our own understanding and experience.

There is no “official interpretation” of Scripture that we need to have spoon-fed to us. Though scholarship is important -- the authority does not come from the interpreter -- but from the Word of God itself. What someone tells you, regardless of their “status,” does not matter if it conflicts with what you read in God’s Word.

2 Timothy 3:16-17:  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Galatians 1:7b-8:  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!

What matters most is -- our own study of God’s Word.

2 Timothy 2:15:  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.