written by Dries Cronje
After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” – Mark 1:14-15 The Message (emphasis mine)
Okay, so here, in the first instruction Jesus gives in the Gospel according to Mark, we hear that we need to believe the Message. ‘Believe’ is a verb, just like ‘know’ is a verb. The two are very different verbs… Many people today think of believing in much the same way as knowing. They think you believe something if you are certain of it, with or without any concrete proof or deep understanding. This isn’t wrong. It’s one of the nuances of faith or belief. However, it leaves little room for healthy doubt. We need to wrestle with what we believe…
We have glimpses of the Message of Jesus. We hear stories and parables, accounts of miracles, and questions rather than answers. Perfect stuff for faith. Not so for knowledge. One of the most important things we need to do is to wrestle with this information, to question it, to doubt it, and misunderstand it on our way to some deeper understanding. That’s faith or belief, and a more complete picture of what it truly means to believe. If you just know something, no wrestling or questioning is required.
Listen to what Pete Rollins had to say about this in one of his video teachings.
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The words Jesus spoke in the above verse could be considered his first command in the gospel of Mark. This category of echurch will be highlighting the commands or instructions of Jesus and focus on how we can go about practically living and obeying them.