In Defence of Not Knowing

District Diaries February 2026 Edition
by Marvin Penner

Three words:  I don’t know.
How do they make you feel?
Do you find they slide from your mouth or get stuck?

The disciples of Jesus often found out that they did not know as much as they thought they did. They thought they knew who God would judge, but Jesus was gracious (Luke 9:51-56). It seemed obvious to them that children should be kept away from the action, but Jesus invited them onto his lap (Matt 19:13-14). They were quite certain that they knew how to budget appropriately and were shown their error by a woman with a flask of oil (Matt 26:6-13). At least one of them expected that Jesus wanted to be defended but Jesus was more interested in healing (Luke 22:47-52). I wonder how many more accounts you can find where it would have been better for them to say, I don’t know? I wonder how often I follow their example and feel certain of things that in fact, I do not know?
 
It can be a profitable exercise to read your Bible with an eye for those things that only God can do. For example, 2 Peter 2:9 lets us know that “the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.” We tie ourselves in knots trying to explain God’s justice and determining which struggles are for our punishment and which are lessons to be learned. It seems God has no problem

telling the difference - but maybe you and I do not. In another controversy, I am embarrassed as a Christian, to remember how many times in my life respected leaders have been convinced of prophetic fulfillments only to find that Jesus was right when he said “no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows” (Matthew 24:36). 

I think the most extended discussion on the topic of not knowing comes to us in the book of Job. Job’s friends were convinced beyond doubt that Job’s problem was a cause-and-effect issue: Job had sinned, and if he confessed his sin, God would remove the punishment. Yet Job (and God) insisted that he was righteous.  When Job demanded justice, God confronted him with the unexplainable wonders of creation, leading him to the conclusion that he did not know as much as he thought he did. We get a little peek behind the curtain but in the end all that Job could say about the circumstances of his life was, I don’t know!
 
Of course, there are many things that we can know to be true. We can and should have certainty in these things. There is also the confidence of things not seen (Heb 11: 1) that is central to living by faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Determining those things about which we should say, “I don’t know” is a topic for another article. Today I simply wish to remind us that, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14). A humble person does not find the three words “I don’t know” uncomfortable. I wish to argue in defense of not knowing, because even if I don’t know, God does.