Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

For we know in part. What does it mean to know in part? Simply put, it means we are wrong – at least partly – about perhaps everything. Many of you would say, “but if we know in part, then we must be partially right!” Perhaps – but which part?  Perhaps – but is partially right good enough? Partially right is also partially wrong. Many of you are familiar with Einstein’s great formula for relativity, E=MC².  What if he had forgotten to square C? Would partially right be good enough?
 
Let’s look at it another way: What if whoever translated your Bible mistranslated every 10th word? Would your translation be right or wrong? Certainly 90% is good enough! No, I don’t think we would use that translation very long with only a 90% accuracy rate. 
 
But now, what if our understanding is at 90%? What if our theology is only 90% accurate; is that good enough for you? Most of us would be thrilled to know that we understand God’s Word that well. I tell you, I certainly would be. In truth, I would hesitate to think anyone understands that much. Perhaps we’re only at 50%, or 30%. Paul doesn’t tell us how little we understand, he just compares it to “a poor reflection.” 
 
So why, then do we act like we have it all together? We argue and fight and some of us think we would rather be martyred than give up our position on timing of the rapture or any number of silly things. The truth is, when you look at our understanding, we have missed a lot more than every 10th word. In other words, we’re wrong, if the standard is 100%.

So, sure, we’re partially right about a whole lot of things. But, we’re also partially wrong about a whole lot of things. And, when we’re dealing with things like the Word of God, and with eternity, I think we always need to be aware that we don’t have all the answers. Our opinions, our theology, our understanding of the Bible, even down to our concept of God and, yes, even salvation – are, to a certain extent wrong. And, obviously, some are more wrong than others.
 
Over the past couple of years, as I recognized my doubts, one of my great fears has been that people were putting their faith in the prescribed answers – many prescribed by me – instead of in God. And, follow with me, here – if your faith was in, say, the inerrency of the Bible, and some archeologist was able to “prove” (at least to you) that the book of James was actually written in the 2nd Century by some ambitious scribe named Chuck, what would that do to your faith? Or, more importantly, what would that say about your faith? Is a faith that is too heavily based in a particular doctrine, such as in the literal pre-tribulation rapture, a “saving” faith? That’s something to think about. It’s something I have been thinking about, as I taught doctrines like inerrency and the pre-trib rapture.
 
One of the problems that pastors like me have had is the pressure to have all, or at least most, of the answers. The 20th Century has all been about answers, hasn’t it? Science is not about guessing, or at least so they claim. Guessing wouldn’t have been good enough to attempt to put a man in space. Guessing isn’t good enough to cut a man open and repair his heart. And, I have to say that I’m really glad about that!
 
But, is guessing good enough for salvation? Is guessing “good enough for gospel,” as the saying goes? Is guessing good enough to judge others by? Is it good enough to split churches over? Is guessing – even educated guessing, which is a lot of what we do – good enough to justify doing the things we have done because of what we have claimed was The Truth, when our own Bible tells us that we don’t really know everything?
 
And, consider this: God doesn’t seem to even really be that concerned that we do know everything. Haven’t you ever wondered why God didn’t tell us plainly when, or even if, the rapture would happen in the great scheme of things? Why didn’t God tell us plainly when and how to baptize people? Now, many of you are probably thinking, “but He did tell us plainly.” Well, my answer to that is, if it is that plain, why does ¾ of the church disagree with you? Paul didn’t tell the Corinthians, “for we know in part, except about baptism, we’ve got that wired 100%.” If we look at the Big Picture – all of history, all of the Bible – it would appear that God was more concerned with relationship than with truth. At least our modern definition of truth, anyway.
 
So, what I’m saying is this, and here’s where I am going to be brutally honest: I don’t know when or even if the rapture is going to happen. I don’t know that I was right not to baptize infants. I don’t even know that you saying the prayer that I convinced half of you to pray was good enough to get you saved!
 
Now, before you all have heart attacks of your own, let me tell you this: I believe that God is faithful, and if it is your true desire to “be saved,” with all that salvation encompasses, then God is faithful to that desire. I am not necessarily calling into question your salvation; I was merely questioning whether our methodology was all that important.
 
Also, I think I was at least close on a number of those things that I taught. If I had to pick all over again among all of the choices of theologies that are out there, I would probably pick the ones I have today. But, is that good enough for me to condemn the church down the road? I don’t think so. I have to at least acknowledge that they may have grasped some truth that I, in my limited ability to understand, have missed.
 
Ten years ago, if someone had taken away my faith in all of my rigid beliefs and opinions, I don’t think I would have known what to do. Ten years ago, I still believed that having faith meant not having doubts. If you recall, ten years ago I took a sabbatical to go back to seminary for a “refresher” because I felt that my theological framework was shaky and I needed desperately to shore it up. I had found holes in my theological roof that needed patching. But, after attempting to patch these holes, I started thinking that perhaps it was more than just a few holes that needed patching… perhaps it was my foundation that was defective. Perhaps I wasn’t even a Christian at all!
 
God is good, however, and His very presence in my life assured me that yes, indeed, I was a Christian. But, at the same time, I became more and more aware that perhaps I wasn’t quite as converted as I thought I was. But, that’s a sermon for another time, perhaps, if God’s willing.
 
So you can imagine what I’ve been going through these last few years, though you probably couldn’t have detected it. If anything, I preached stronger and harder, as I said, in an attempt to dissuade my own doubts. Now, however, I know something. I know that I am wrong about some things, though I am not sure which things I am wrong about. I’m probably a little wrong about everything. I also know that God knows that I am wrong… His Word tells me that I am wrong! And, I know that God is OK with that. It finally dawned on my that God doesn’t expect us to see any better at this point than “through a glass darkly!”
 
And, the best thing is – for me, anyway – is that I am finally OK with that. I am in total peace with knowing that I don’t understand a lot of things. I am OK with not having all the answers. In fact, I am better than OK – I am great with that! I am finally free from the burden of thinking I had to bear the burden of holding truth together. It sounds so foolish, now that I say it out loud.
 
Now, I told you a few minutes ago that I have found that I only know two things. Before I tell you the 2nd, I want you to know that without knowledge of this 2nd thing, I could not bear my first revelation. This second truth is so critical, so foundational, that because of it, I don’t care that I don’t have all of the other answers.
 
Turn with me please to 2 Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 8:

So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

This is the Apostle Paul, suffering for the sake of the Gospel, writing to his friend Timothy. Note that Paul, even though he was suffering for this Gospel that he preached, did not say, “I am suffering, because I know that the doctrine of salvation by grace is true.” He did not say, “I am suffering because I am a great apostle.” He said, “I am suffering because I know whom I have believed.” 
 
Just let this phrase roll around in your brain for a few moments: “I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.” Or, as another translation puts it, “I know in whom I have believed.”
 
Try to think of this in a human, real context, which of course is really the only way we can think of it. For those of you who are married, consider your spouse. For you who are not married, consider your closest friend. Now, how many of you are thinking of a collection of truths about that person? Green eyes, brunette, 5 feet 10 inches, born March 15, 1942 in Chicago, has a bachelor’s degree in accounting, allergic to cats, so on and so on. 
 
No, if we really know the person we are thinking about, chances are our thoughts were more emotional, more personal and intimate than just a collection of facts. Perhaps you were thinking of how that person makes you feel when you are together, or about how they make you laugh, or whatever. You might feel a warmth in your heart as you think of the person. Or, if you’ve had an argument on the way to church, you might have an entirely different set of feelings. But, you see my point.
 
It was not a doctrine, a truth, an understanding or a theology that Paul claimed, even though Paul believed and taught a lot of truths. No, Paul had found something greater than a collection of truths. When Jesus came to Saul and knocked him off his horse, struck him blind and asked him a very personal question, “Why do you persecute me?” Jesus became someone real to Paul, not just a collection of facts. And, as Paul grew in his relationship to Jesus, that knowledge – of the person and personality of Jesus, not facts about Jesus – grew deeper, more intimate, and more developed emotionally. 
 
Listen to what he tells the Corinthian church, found in 1 Corinthians 2, starting at verse 1:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Why would Paul, of all people – he was without a doubt the best-educated apostle of them all – come to these people with fear and trembling? Paul was, in his own words to the church at Philippi, extremely educated in the facts of the Jewish religion, a Jew among Jews, and without fault under the law. But listen to what he tells them in chapter 3 of Philippians.  We’ll pick up at verse 8

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.