Precept upon Precept

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Isaiah 28:10

The process of learning and spiritual growth is aptly described in this passage. God’s people were not interested in learning and growing spiritually. They wanted to fill their lives with sinful pleasures, and God was very displeased with them. In order for us to please the Lord, we must begin by believing that He exists and having a desire to know more about Him. Once we accept the precept (basic principle) that God exists, we can begin to explore the world that He created to find out more about Him. As soon as we learn that God has spoken to us in His Word, we can begin to search the scriptures to find out more about His nature and His purpose for our lives. We can see in the Ten Commandments that He is holy, and He wants us to learn to govern our lives by His statutes. The Old Testament law convinces us that we are sinners and that our sin separates us from God. In the New Testament, we learn that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us on the cross and rescue us from our sinful condition. Once we put our faith in Christ, we can build upon the knowledge of salvation by learning more about how God wants us to live. “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (II Peter 1:5-7).