It is About Love, Not Knowledge - Psalms 119:89-176 and I Corinthians 8
The world puts a premium on knowledge. People who have a high IQ or much learning are held in great honor. God is not that way. He knows that even if we have all knowledge, we would not know what to do with it. We would come to the wrong conclusions without His wisdom and direction. Therefore, the Lord is interested more in love than knowledge. He does not want us to read the Bible for knowledge. He wants us to read it, because it is His love letter to us, and we long to know Him as the love of our life. He wants us to know Him better, and He wants us to have the abundant life, so He has given us His Word. The psalmist has a wonderful grasp of this truth. There is no talk of knowing God's Word better than everyone else. The psalmist emphasizes how his life has benefited from knowing God's Word. He lets us all know that he longs for the Word, because he loves God, and he wants to live for Him out of that love. Is that why you read the Bible? I hope it is, or you are missing the real point.
I Corinthians 8 makes this point very well. Let's say that we do have the knowledge that all idols are really not gods, they are just imitations of God. Therefore, we start going to Buddhist temples and other pagan shrines all of the time. We do their rituals just to have the experience. We eat their sacred foods, because we know there are no such things as idols. However, a person who is weak in knowledge sees us, and they think we believe in idols, even though they know we profess to be a believer. This leads them to worship God and idols. We have done a terrible thing. We have failed to love our brother. We have put knowledge before love. God wants us to love Him and to love others as He loves them. Therefore, we should not put knowledge ahead of our relationship with others. We will seek to do the loving thing that will help our brother grow in the Lord. It is not that we can be perfect, or that no one will ever take offense at something we do. However, we need to consider others first, and not be puffed up by our knowledge.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 120-122 and I Corinthians 9.
I Corinthians 8 makes this point very well. Let's say that we do have the knowledge that all idols are really not gods, they are just imitations of God. Therefore, we start going to Buddhist temples and other pagan shrines all of the time. We do their rituals just to have the experience. We eat their sacred foods, because we know there are no such things as idols. However, a person who is weak in knowledge sees us, and they think we believe in idols, even though they know we profess to be a believer. This leads them to worship God and idols. We have done a terrible thing. We have failed to love our brother. We have put knowledge before love. God wants us to love Him and to love others as He loves them. Therefore, we should not put knowledge ahead of our relationship with others. We will seek to do the loving thing that will help our brother grow in the Lord. It is not that we can be perfect, or that no one will ever take offense at something we do. However, we need to consider others first, and not be puffed up by our knowledge.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 120-122 and I Corinthians 9.