Hey, Jude: The Harmony of Knowledge, Doing, and Habits

Hey, Jude, don't make it bad Take a sad song and make it better Remember to let her into your heart Then you can start to make it better

One of the slogans I heard early on in my study of the Bible was that the more you know, the more you do, which translates to “the more theology you know, the more you will live it out.” This is ordinarily true. But I am sure we all know Christians who know a lot of theology and have a good chunk of Bible themes memorized, and yet, struggle immensely with their faith and are unhappy people.

The ordinary of knowing and doing should go together despite its incoherencies. If you know little about your wife’s likes and dislikes, you are not in a healthy place; if you care little about your friend’s desires, you will be a poor friend.

When Jude writes to the Judean Christians, he uses all sorts of examples of how zealotry can endanger the cause of Christ and lead you astray. He writes that some follow the way of Cain by making deals with evil and eventually being swallowed up by desires (Jude 11). The short little treatise of Jude is a consideration of how the interaction among the three Christian virtues of knowledge, doing, and desires come together.