The Lullaby Effect

always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7 NASB

Always learning – Are you comfortable? Of course, I’m not asking about the softness of the chair you’re sitting in. I’m asking if you are comfortable with your present state of mind, your understanding of your relationship with God and others. I’m asking if you are distressed, if you’re feeling the tension in your trust and faithfulness. I’m asking if you’re wrestling with being alone, even if you believe. I’m asking if you struggle with the difference between is and ought. It seems to me that one of the greatest impediments to truly active faithfulness is our desire to be comfortable. Comfort in the familiar blocks the investigation of distress. And faithfulness shines most brightly in distress.

“Always learning” isn’t an objection to investigation. It is an objection to cognitive disengaging. It is an objection to never putting into practice what we know so far. Pantote manthanonta, “always learning,” means never doing anything for fear that you don’t have it all figured out yet. “I just need a little more time” is the recipe for procrastination. “I’m not sure about this.” “What if it isn’t correct?” “But I don’t have the answer yet.” This is the lullaby effect, singing myself to sleep in the comfort of incomplete understanding. As long as I don’t know it all, I can’t be expected to do anything with the partial knowledge I have. I’ll have to wait until it all makes sense.

Wrong!

As my friend with years of Twelve Step experience said to me, “What are you waiting for?” Get on with it. Do what you know even if all you know is just this little bit. Nothing more will come until you do what you have to now. The choice is between waiting for answers or doing the questions. The greatest excuse for not taking action is, “I’m not sure what to do.” You don’t have to be sure. You have to do what you aren’t quite sure about now. It will all sort itself out once you start. It will never sort itself out while you are waiting to decide.

Paul’s choice of the Greek verb manthano is insightful. The basic sense of this verb is “an intellectual process that always has external effects and involves a conscious or unconscious intellectual initiative.”^[1] Notice its cognitive realm. But Hebrew instruction and education is not confined to the cognitive realm. It is primarily practical. It’s like being an apprentice. Hebrew learning is about how to do what God asks. If we get stuck in the cognitive processes of theology, we will have missed the entire point of Scripture. The Bible is an answer to the question, “What does God demand of me?” not “What am I supposed to know about God?” Please, don’t let your mind sing you to sleep.

Topical Index: manthano, learn, 2 Timothy 3:7

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (552). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.