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“Add To Your Faith | Jesus and Gnosis”
Categories: Add To Your Faith | 2025
When Jesus was only 12 years old, His family made the trek to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. After all was said and done, the family made their way back home assuming that Jesus was tagging along somewhere in the group when, in fact, He’d stayed behind in Jerusalem. When they found Him, He was sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers (Luke 2:41-45).
I don’t know about you, but for some reason I’ve always had the impression that Jesus was in the temple teaching the teachers. As if little boy Jesus was showing up all the seasoned veterans. Yet, that’s not quite true. Luke tells us that He was listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46). The preteen Jesus stays behind in the temple, not to teach, but to learn. When He tells His parents that He must be about His Father’s business, that business was not preaching to the grown ups but learning from them - adding knowledge to His faith (Luke 2:49). Later, Luke records that as Jesus aged He grew in wisdom and stature (Luke 2:52). Isn’t that fascinating?
No one fully understands all the intricacies and dynamics of what it means for Jesus to simultaneously be God and Man, but one thing seems to be clear - that Jesus added knowledge to His faith just as I must add knowledge to my faith. That fact should helps us appreciate two things...
First, that we should hunger and thirst for knowledge of His word like He did. We need to understand that being busy in our Father’s business is not just a matter of engaging in good deeds, it also involves learning. In fact, as it was with Jesus so it is with us, our involvement in the Father’s business should begin with seeking to understand His will and grow in His wisdom.
Second, if we develop such a hunger and thirst, we can grow in wisdom and knowledge as He did. Of course, there are some attributes of Jesus that we’ll never share, but we have the opportunity to grow like He did. If I dedicate myself to listening, learning, and asking as He did I will continually add knowledge to my faith.
- Jonathan Banning
