The Secret Things Belong to the Lord

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us . . . .” Deut. 29:29.

We can see that this law applies to daily situations. It also affects a common evil that is called “suspicion.”

Suspicions are thoughts that are occupied with things one doesn’t know, thoughts that maintain things that have not been revealed, and consequently, one doesn’t know. Someone who entertains suspicious thoughts about something acts accordingly. These are works of darkness.

Suspicion is judgment without light, and it is always evil, whereas light itself is the true judgment.

God’s gems, His precious truths, are mostly hidden to people; yet they do not belong to darkness because they are not hidden because of their nature, but because of man’s sinful nature. Seeking for the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ Jesus is good and prudent, for the fact that I desire these treasures to be revealed to me is the same as seeking light, for everything that is revealed is light. Eph. 5:13.

The connection is that whatever is hidden to me at the moment is not meant for me at that moment, which means that I ought not to have an opinion about it. Nevertheless, there can be much of what is hidden to me at the moment that is meant for me—even pre-determined for me before the foundations of the world were laid—and which, in due course, will be revealed to me.

Concerning suspicion, it is certain that one usually has no idea how active it is, seeing that we have to deal with innumerable opinions about all kinds of things and about all kinds of people.

Many people will say, “You have to have an opinion, but of course it is important to see everything in the best light.” This is wrong, for one doesn’t have to have an opinion about what is the best. You can quite simply answer yourself when thoughts arise about this or that: “You don’t know that.”

The best opinion, even the only good opinion I can have about something, is the actual opinion. If I don’t know it, I ought not to have an opinion, and so I can keep myself pure from unspeakably much.

It is extremely rare to receive the answer that one doesn’t know “anything about it.” If we were always truthful, sober, and prudent, we would often have to answer: “I don’t know that.” Or, for example, when someone asks, “What is your opinion?” we could answer, “I have no opinion about that.”

One more point regarding this matter: “But he who is spiritual judges all things.” 1 Cor. 2. There are situations where nothing has been revealed to most people and where it seems that nothing can have been revealed to anyone, but something can have been revealed to a spiritual person. Then he has a right to have an opinion—a thought—which is not a suspicion, whereas the others cannot rightly have an opinion because it is hidden to them, and thus it is not for them.

The usual words about not knowing what dwells in someone else’s heart are therefore not correct, because the spiritual person also judges things that are usually hidden to people. He can do that because God reveals it to him. However, this law also applies to the spiritual person: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us,” so he also should not have an opinion about something when God has not revealed it to him.