“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10
K is for knee. Knee means a joint between two parts of the human leg. “The knee joint is one of the strongest and most important joints in the human body.”1 The knee joint is used for almost every daily activity imaginable. It is used for sitting, running, walking, standing, and even kneeling. It is actually the true support of the body for all of these activities. One would think it would be the feet, since the feet are the ones at the bottom on the ground, but that is not true.
Think about this for a minute … the knee is one of the most important parts of the body … it has greater value than the eye, the hands, or the feet. The only part of the body that would have more value than the knee would be the heart. Romans 10:10 shows us this, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Let us briefly look at each of these main areas that the knee is important for. First, we need to be WALKING. If you have been to the doctor any time in the past, you have probably heard the same thing that I have heard … “You need to be walking!” Eeks! Does he have to remind me every single time that I come in? Yes, he does! Because walking is one of the single most healthful things that we can do for our bodies. Spiritually, we need to be walking in the garden with our Lord every single day as well!
Secondly, we need to be RUNNING. “Running?” you ask. Yes, running! Now, I am not a physical runner either … and that is nowhere on my list of goals to achieve in my lifetime. But, spiritually, I need to be a runner! Hebrews 12:1 tells me that I am to “run with patience the race that is set before” me. As a Christian, I also should be running aka fleeing from sin. We see this in numerous scripture passages (I Corinthians 6:18, I Corinthians 10:14, II Timothy 2:22, etc.).
Thirdly, we need to be SITTING … at the feet of Jesus. Martha spent all of her time serving and failed the most important part and that was sitting and learning at Jesus’ feet. Ashamedly, I have found myself too many times in Martha’s shoes. What about you, my friend? Yes, we need to serve. But there is a time to serve and there is a time to sit. May we not fail to do one over the other when BOTH are so important.
Fourthly, we must be STANDING. We just recently finished Vacation Bible School at church and each night we did the pledges to the Bible, the American flag, and the Christian flag. We stood out of respect and honor to what those items represented. As a Christian, we could add one more item to that and it would be the Lamb of God. Have you heard the lyrics, “I pledge allegiance to the Lamb, with all my strength, with all I am. I will seek to honor His command. I pledge allegiance to the Lamb.”2 Once we have taken upon ourselves God’s armor to fight against evil, we must stand firm in God! (Ephesians 6:13)
Lastly, we must be KNEELING. When we bow our knee in prayer, we are humbling ourselves before a righteous and holy God, are we not? Yes, we need to stand firm in the truth of God’s Word, but let us not forget to also kneel in humbleness to Him!
Lesson Objective: To understand how the knee plays a key role in our Christian life. To understand how important it is to not only walk, but to run, to sit, to stand, and to kneel.
Did you pass or did you fail?
1http://www.innerbody.com/image/skel16.html
2http://www.metrolyrics.com/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the-lamb-lyrics-ray-boltz.html