I know, you know

It happened every time.
I was coaching my little league team, and I had a young man for the second season. He was my third baseman, and he played the position pretty well.
Except there were some occasions he would get a little wild on his throws to first base.
Sooner or later he would sail the ball over the head of my first baseman, and I would utter the words that became almost second nature.
"Watch your throws!"
He would always look at me with a kind of annoyed look and say "I know".
Well after this repeated itself several times, me saying "watch your throws" and him saying "I know", it occurred to me that I wasn't getting anywhere.
So I finally came up with a comeback. At practice one afternoon we were working on our infield drill and sure enough the ball sailed from his hand into the fence behind the first baseman.
"Watch your throws" I yelled.
"I know" he yelled back.
Then I had him, my response would become the cornerstone of my coaching language.
"I know, you know, now do it!"
You see it wasn't a lack of knowledge, he knew for us to be effective he would have to make good throws. If he made a bad throw, we would have a base runner, which in turn would probably mean a run. It was the application of that knowledge that was the problem.
He had a good arm, his eyesight was good, so it became a matter of rushing or not paying enough attention to what he was doing that got him into trouble.
I don't think the Church in America has a knowledge problem, in fact we are probably more educated than most countries. We have heard sermon after sermon and we have been to Bible study after Bible study, so we can't say we don't know.
It's the application of the knowledge.
Peter says a strange thing in 2 Peter 1:12, he reminds his audience of "these things even though you know them". That seemed strange to me, why repeat it if we already know it?
Then my young third baseman came to my mind and then I got it. Peter was saying, I know you know, but I'm going to tell you again.
James says it even better in his letter, in a nut shell (read it for yourself, James 1:19-25) he is saying we are blessed when we do the things we know we should do.
Would it not be a tragedy for us to be Biblical scholars and yet not get the very basic thing that God wants from us. To change the world one soul at a time.
We must be in the Word, for that is where we learn about God and what He desires for our lives, the knowledge is the foundation, but we will be judged by what we do, not by what we know.
How do you think God will respond to us when we say "well I know I should have, but I didn't".
Who knows, maybe He will say "I know, you know".
The facts are simple, we are to be the light in a very dark place. We are to be salt to a world that needs flavored. None of us would deny that.
It's just the application of that knowledge that gets us.
Because I know, you know.