Knowledge

I don't think I'm bragging when I say I know a lot. That's a reflection of God-given gifts, not anything inherently great about me, but I like to learn and for some reason I remember things. But there's a down side to knowledge: Sometimes (often?) I don't listen, because I think I already know.

Paul wrote a warning about knowledge to the Corinthian church. He's getting started on the question of whether it's OK to eat food sacrificed to idols, and he says this (8:1-3): "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God."

Knowledge puffs up. When we know more, or know better, we speak up in a hurry, don't we? We're not bashful in pointing out, from a position of superior knowledge, where a brother or sister has it wrong. We like the way it feels to be right.

Not always good, Paul says. In fact, often not. He suggests another way: Love. Love builds up. Love doesn't care so much about right and wrong in the empirical sense, because love is focused on how people are really doing. Love just wants to help.

Knowing the causes of addiction, as well as the solutions, isn't helpful to the addict, but concerned questions, drop-by visits, rides home and prayers are very helpful. The addict knows he or she has a problem, although admitting it may be hard, so that preachy sharing of knowledge doesn't add at all.

I was in a conversation not too long ago where I wound up asking the other guy, "What's more important to you, being right or being effective?" This person was in a dialogue with another man about marriage, and he really wanted to be acknowledged as right; he wanted to win. I thought he'd already made his point, that the other man was thinking things through, and that the seed of knowledge needed to be watered and fertilized with love.

That's what Paul means, I think, when he says that when I think I know something, that's evidence that I don't "know" the way I ought to. In God's kingdom, knowledge is simply a tool that helps us love others better. Knowledge isn't to gain respect for myself, it's not to win arguments. The purpose of knowledge is to enable me to serve God and His people better. 

That's why often it's better if I let a factual error slip by without correcting it. That's why before I point out a better way, I need to think about the behavior that annoys me to see if there's a Biblical direction there or just my own preference. 

We Calvinists pride ourselves on head knowledge. We're getting better at serving with our hearts, too, but most of us could work on just using what we know to do better, rather than speak so much.