We Know In Part
One of the greatest lessons in life is to learn our limitations. Paul exhorted the Corinthian church to be careful of an arrogant attitude toward others through what was perceived as spiritual insight and knowledge. He warned that even one’s prophesying can lack exactness and thus one must be open to correction and instruction. Being teachable is a mark of humility and this is the basis of true spirituality. Some have opted out of studying or learning from others based on a portion of a single verse that they have taken out of context, which is: “…Knowledge puffs up…” (I Cor. 8.1) In doing so they have rejected objective truth replacing it with mere subjective revelation. Dr. Craig Blaising, professor of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has stated, “The antithesis of spiritual is not academic. The antithesis is spiritual is unspiritual.”
The context in which Paul was exhorting the Corinthian church to not be “puffed up” was in regard to eating food offered to idols. There seems to have been a heated debate, going on in the church, about possible spiritual contamination resulting from eating food that had be offered to idols, about the power these false gods or demons had over those to ate such food and the Biblical prohibition of idolatry. I am sure that the arguments against this practice were very reasonable and even supported by Scripture and Church dogma, but they were missing a very important ingredient; and that was Love. Their knowledge on this subject was being used as a weapon against each other. Rather than edifying one another, they were destroying each other.
Knowledge that “puffs up”, is knowledge that expresses a “holier-than-thou” attitude toward others. It is the majoring in minors that places those, who do not share your personal convictions, out of your inner circle. It is exaggerated knowledge. It is the appearance of sophistication and intelligence, without content and balance. Sir Francis Bacon, a 16th century English philosopher and politician, coined the phrase, “knowledge is power”. Educators have positively used this phrase to promote education for all around the world, yet others have distorted the increase of knowledge to their own advantage. For centuries the hierarchy of the Church kept the Bible out of the hands of the laity. In keeping the people ignorant of the Scriptures, they could easily control them through their own interpretations and traditions. An example of this was when Galileo proposed that the earth rotated around the sun and not the sun around the earth. The inquisition court condemned Galileo as a heretic, quoting the verse: “Ye men of Galilee, (that sounded like Galileo), why do you gaze into heaven?” (Acts 1.11)
The deceiving factor of knowledge lies in the equating the knowing about something with the experience of it. Paul said, in the eighth chapter of I Corinthians, that loving God is knowing God and being known by Him. In this experience of knowing God, one recognizes that idols are nothing but a block of wood or a piece of metal; that there is no life in them and that they have not power over us. To know that there is only one God is not enough. Without the experience of knowing God and being filled with His love, we can become very harsh and judgmental toward those who do not share our understanding of spiritual things. Those that know God are filled with love for their brothers and sisters and are careful to not destroy the weaker among them with their personal convictions. Remember, we only know in part. God knows all.
Scriptures to meditate on:
I Cor. 13.9-10; 3.20; 8.1-13; Is. 55.8-11; I John 3.2; Mat. 11.25; John 5.39