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Thoughts From John Durant

Dear Friends,

What knowledge do we most need to possess or internalize as a believer? What knowledge would have the most transformative and life-changing effect upon us? Many of you, like myself, could list certain truths that have helped form and mold who you are. If you had asked me at various times in my life, I would have said God’s grace, God’s attributes, the all-important truth of justification, a well-rounded knowledge of His Word, the delight of His presence, or numerous others. In the process of growing we come across many gold nuggets buried in the soil of the Scriptures which enthrall and captivate our hearts in the particular seasons of our walk with Jesus.

It may vary at times, but the older I get the more I would have to agree with the author of my selection for today, John Durant. There is no knowledge more important than the one he speaks of today. And he came to see this even though passed away at 40, living his relatively short life from 1620-1660. A Puritan by scriptural conviction and choice, he offers what he believed Scripture laid out as the richest and most important knowledge to have. THE knowledge that will change us, if we possess it. I must say I agree with him, as I am sure (or hope) most of you do. Enjoy.

[*Durant, like many in his day, used the word “perfect” in the way we use the word “mature.” “To the perfecting of our souls” = “to the growing, or maturing, of our souls.” He was not advocating a point at which (in this life) one could attain perfection, but is speaking of our ongoing advance toward spiritual maturity.]

Precious Knowledge
“Of all divine knowledge, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in the light of love, is most precious with regard to the perfecting of our souls. As there are degrees of luster in the heavenly lights, so there are degrees of glory in divine truths. Every star in the firmament has a glorious light; yet the light of the sun exceeds them all in glory. And every truth, which is as a star in the heaven of divinity, has a peculiar excellency in it, and the knowledge of it is precious; yet, Jesus Christ, who is the sun in divinity’s heaven, has a transcendent excellency in Him. To know Him tends to the perfecting of our souls more than the knowledge of any other truth, or all truths besides.



This is why Paul accentuates this knowledge as an excellency: “Doubtless, I consider all things loss for the surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). And it is not without reason that Paul says this. For although he had gained a knowledge of other things, without this knowledge he would have been at a loss in regard to soul-sacred perfection. Whatever other knowledge, though it be precious and desirable for perfecting; is not to be desired as much, at least by the saints, as the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”


Durant could have used Ephesians 3:17-19 as his supporting text, for it also assures us of this same truth. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

In this verse Paul explicitly tells us that if we could only “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and know this love which surpasses knowledge,” it would change us! We can know other truths (as he says), and they are helpful, but none of them mature us in the faith like knowing Christ, part of which is knowing the depth of the love He has for us.


In the typical Puritan fashion of loving long titles, Durant’s book is called: “A Discovery of Glorious Love – The Love of Christ to Believers Opened in the Truth, Transcendency, and Sweetness Thereof, Together with the Necessity that Lies upon Every Believer to Strive After the Spiritual and Experimental Knowledge of It.” You simply had to read the title of a Puritan book to know what it was about!

May We Know in a Life-Changing Way the Not-Fully-Comprehendible-Depths of Jesus’ Love, Pastor Jeff

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