Prideful Knowledge Versus Love

 

1 Corinthians 8:1–3 CSB

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by him.

This passage presents a subtle rebuke to those involved in a controversy in the Corinthian church. The issue was meat that had been sacrificed to idols and whether it was permissible or not to eat this meat. This was a major issue for the church that Paul spends the next several chapters working through. Paul  advocates for the building up of others as the solution to the controversy. 

At the beginning of this section Paul contrasts love and prideful knowledge. In this he is saying you can have what you pridefully know guide you or you can have what you lovingly know guide you. The issue for the church was a heart issue not a knowledge issue according to Paul.

When someone knows something it can lead to pride and arrogance. Often when the focus is what a person knows it is with incomplete knowledge that is mistaken for complete knowledge. The reality is that none of us can claim to know everything. Even when we narrow the scope to a particular area the experience of wise learners is that we have more to learn that we do not yet know. Wisdom approaches knowledge with great humility. In contrast the people bringing the complaint believed they had full knowledge and yet did not know it as they ought to have known it.

They had knowledge that had puffed them up. This kind of knowledge is self seeking, prideful, boastful, arrogant, divisive, and vanity. So often controversy in the Church is debated in the realm of this type of knowledge. Angry and divisive knowledge that is building up the speaker while tearing down the opposition is no virtue.

Paul contrasts knowledge with love. Prideful handling of knowledge has a tendency to build up the speaker; Love on the other hand builds up the listener. So then love ought to be the higher virtue.

What is even more interesting is what love does with knowledge. So prideful knowledge leads to thinking you know something that you don’t yet fully know. Love leads you to be known by God. Do you see that? Christian faith is a relationship with the Creator of the universe. It is love and being known by God that is the primary aim. When we seek knowledge it is in the context of Loving God and Loving others. Outside of this context seeking knowledge becomes an exercise of puffing one’s self up.

So then let us embrace God’s offer to be known by Him, love well, and humbly seek the truth.

God Bless You

~BJ Olson

 

Loving Correction

 

1 Corinthians 4:18–20 CSB

Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

One of the easiest things we can do is to run our mouths. I certainly have been guilty of speaking when I ought to have been listening. Paul is admonishing the Church in Corinth for tolerating arrogant and boastful people. They also are overlooking grievous sin in their church. This seems to me to reflect the contemporary church in our current cultural climate. It would seem to me that many are more concerned about expressing their opinion than they are about personal holiness. In this environment we talk past each other and ignore the moral decay that is in our own house.

So often this arrogant talk leads us to attack others for their short comings. However, we come up short at looking at our own faults and sins. There is a reason God says Proverbs 16:18 “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” The spirit of pride does not for a moment look in the mirror. It is persistently looking for ways to tear down others. Dear friends this is not God’s way.

1 Corinthians 4:21 CSB

What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

When the prideful and arrogant do not listen, you can be sure that the rod is coming. However, God does not start there. It is in love and with a spirit of gentleness that Paul is offering correction. The power of the rod is fear, judgement, and shame. The power of wisdom is love and gentleness (James 3:13). So, Paul is saying how do you want your correction? Harsh or gentle? I’ll choose loving gentleness thank you!

So how might this apply to us in our interactions with others? First, we need to make sure that our pride is not the reason we are running our mouths. Remember Jesus loathes self-righteousness (Matthew 23:28). Second, we need the power of God’s love to operate in gentleness. Next, with our hearts right before God then and only then will correction come from a sanctifying place. Finally, all correction is done to restore a person (Galatians 6:1-2). One of the clearest ways to tell the difference between Godly versus arrogant correction is on this point. If the apparent goal is to tear down then it is from pride. If the heart is to restore then it is from love.

Dear friends let’s us build one another up in love. Let us offer correction in humility and gentleness. Let us inspire one another to good works of love and righteousness.

God Bless You

~BJ