Charles Koch has taken a business his dad started and turned it into a $100 billion dollar company—one of the largest privately held companies in the world. It should be obvious this is a person who knows how to get things done. In discussing implementing the management system that has led to this phenomenal growth, Mr. Koch maintains the employees in a company must actually practice the system, not just talk about it. He states:
If you’ve never swung a golf club or driven a car before, theory and instruction will only get you so far. You need to pick up a club or get behind the wheel and keep practicing until you internalize the mechanics to the point where you can do it automatically. It needs to become second nature to you. [1]
He also quotes the scientist and philosopher Polanyi who “argued that we only truly know something—that is, have personal knowledge of it—when we can apply it to get results”. Koch summarized Polanyi’s argument by stating that knowing and doing are two different things. [2]
In this blog, we have taken examples from almost every area of our lives to show that it is commonly accepted that we must live something to truly learn it. Yet we Christians still hold to the idea that we only need to believe to be saved; that we only need a theoretical knowledge of what it means to be a follower of Christ to be saved. Why?
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[1] Charles G. Koch, Good Profit, New York: Crown Business, 2015, p. 11.
[2] Koch, p. 76.
