love’s priority over knowledge

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

1 Corinthians 8

Discover the Word had for me what was a rather convicting program on love’s priority over knowledge. There is no doubt that knowledge is important, and that it can make the difference between success and failure, even between right and wrong. It’s not like we can simply toss it aside as unimportant, or unmeaningful. But it must be coupled with love to amount to anything. And that reminds us of what is called “the love chapter” in the same book, 1 Corinthians 13, which tells us the very same thing.

It is relatively easy to accumulate knowledge over time. Some of it is basic, yet important for life, and wears well, lasts. But other knowledge is certainly subject to revision, I think of science’s current adjustment from the theory of relativity into quantum physics. That’s an extreme example, not something most of us ever think about.

But much of what we know includes elements of the unknown. The problem for us is that we never know what we don’t know. It’s simply unknown to us. So that a big part of true, good knowledge is to acknowledge that there’s much that we don’t know, and that we know nothing at all in the way God does, completely and perfectly. Not that God doesn’t reveal knowledge to us, nor that we don’t have certain basics down well enough to carry on in life, like how to drive a car to work.

But to love is another story. Is that something we think about, and occupy ourselves with? Scripture says that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves. There is a proper love of self, but not the kind spoken of there, in which all that matters to people is what matters to them, and others are good only insofar as they fulfill that. No, the text quoted above says that we’re to love God, and we know elsewhere that we’re to love our neighbor, even including, according to Jesus, our enemies.

So love, beginning in the sphere of God’s love for us, is to be coupled with our knowledge, and is indeed to have priority over what we know. We don’t violate love ever. There is a place to put what we know (or think we know) aside, but never a time or place to put love aside. And this needs to be at the forefront of what we do, not on the sideburner, as we supposedly get the real tasks of life done. The priority in the midst of all we do, and all our work must be love. Because that is where God lives, the God who is love, and who we know in and through Jesus.

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a thought processor

But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2

Mary, the mother of our Lord was surely one of the very wise people of her day. Think of what she had to go through in her lifetime, as a young woman bearing a child from a miraculous conception which was seen as scandalous. Seeing Jesus for thirty years, growing up and evidently taking on himself Joseph’s work, then at last in what would seem to be a whirlwind ministry cut short by a death which Simeon had prophesied to her before. And then seeing the Lord appear after his resurrection, perhaps witnessing the ascension, and being in prayer before the Spirit was poured out, and remaining for a time after that. What she went through was epoch, certainly unusual and immense.

And Mary seems to have been a thought processor. She maybe didn’t have a ready answer for many things, but gathered her thoughts over time from what she witnessed and from the input of others.

I see myself that way, as a thought processor. I try to be in scripture, in prayer, and aware of something of what is going on in the world, of the culture. We are all quite limited in ourselves, and we certainly try to gather from each other. And above all, I want to receive from God, from God’s word through the Spirit in and through Jesus.

After the magnificent Magnificat, called Mary’s Song (Luke 1), which itself is quite a wonder surely from what she had gathered over time beginning in childhood, we read next to nothing from her lips in scripture. But at least one of the gospel writers, surely Luke was one of them, talked with her, gathering both the knowledge and wisdom she had gathered through the years. And I have come to realize that we often can learn much in the way of our Lord from seeing others who often really don’t have that much to say. Their lives and manner of going about things speaks volumes, helping us to sense something of the Spirit, hopefully rubbing off on us in God’s working to make us more like Jesus.

And so that is my goal: to dial down, lay low and keep processing, keep listening to what others have gathered, while being aware of life, with a heart to keep looking to God for God’s word to me from his word in and through Jesus.

in what are our thoughts steeped, and what follows?

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4

We steep teabags in water (I, strangely enough, in coffee water) to let the leaves soak in the heat for the brew. Day in and day out, what do we soak our thoughts in?

This passage written by the Apostle Paul tells us to be occupied with that which is good and helpful. It clearly seems to include good from any source, though one has to be discerning, and separate the good from the bad. Of course the emphasis would be on God’s special revelation in scripture, while certainly including God’s general revelation which might well include a Greek philosopher like Plato, and any number of writers or people, not Christians themselves. Again, we need discernment. There is actually much good to gather in from sources which are not explicitly Christian.

I think we know the difference from what is good and what is not. Though sometimes we might become somewhat numb to that distinction. There is much that passes for entertainment and information which at best is questionable and at worst is unhelpful and downright demoralizing. What is especially challenging, though, is that which is couched as good, yet would not fit into any of the categories in Paul’s list above. It is one thing to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5). But it is quite another thing to fight fire with fire, to essentially enter into that darkness, ourselves. We can become immune to that which is objectionable, and even begin to participate in it ourselves.

Interestingly, Paul follows up the list of what we are to reflect on with the instruction to do not only as he said, but as he did. His example in his life day in and day out was seen by some who were recipients of this letter which we entitle Philippians. Maybe he was seen by all the believers there, and surely especially so by the leaders of the church. That example is passed down from generation to generation, hopefully, and at any rate, the same Spirit who helped Paul and others to live in the Jesus way, is present to help us in becoming followers of our Lord.

So our thoughts, what we dwell on impacts how we live. Not that this passage is actually saying that, though we know from other passages and in life that this is true. What is fundamental for us includes both what we occupy ourselves with, and what examples we follow. Something we need to concern ourselves with as we seek to live with others and in the world in the full will of God.

knowing Jesus

Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing King Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It meams sharing the form and pattern of his death, so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:7-11; The Kingdom New Testament

It has been dawning on me, at least the increasing awareness that I have lived all too much in a world of ideas, of thoughts, and not nearly enough in relationships. It’s not even that I have thought particularly well, but that is how I’m wired, to think, and to keep thinking. And to enjoy the fellowship of others who think. Though it can end up sadly being that it’s not so much them I’m enjoying, but our thinking together. Of course one can enjoy both at the same time. But simply to know others, just to know them, is probably plain downright underrated, yes by myself, as well.

And then someone on Facebook shared the first sentence of this quote from Oswald Chambers:

Paul was devoted to a Person, not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ’s.

God reveals truth to us in the form of knowledge and wisdom. But it’s important, indeed vital for us who name the name of Jesus to remember that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in him (Colossians). And that our goal should be to know him. Yes, in a personal way along with others, and in that communion, more and more get to know each other.

Eternal life is knowing God, and Jesus Christ whom he sent (John 17). God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is eternal life, the life by faith in which we live. And that is a relational existence of love, and all that makes up a relationship. We are taken into that communion by faith, in and through Jesus. We learn communion with the Father by the Spirit through the Son.

Lofty words, and quite beyond me, indeed. But I realize that in the midst and maelstrom of it all, I simply need to settle down more and more into this relational knowing in communion, the heart of what life is really all about. In and through Jesus.

knowledge: the blessing, and the curse

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
    Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
    embrace her, and she will honor you.
She will give you a garland to grace your head
    and present you with a glorious crown.”

Proverbs 4

For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
    the more knowledge, the more grief.

Ecclesiastes 1

Knowledge is the watchword nowadays. At our fingertips is the answer to nearly any question people might ask, often without much effort. That’s good in a lot of ways, and can save people some grief, if they use it wisely. On the other hand, by itself, it simply is a part of “life under the sun,” which the book of Ecclesiastes (see link above) is largely about. That book, when considering knowledge is looking at it as if that is all that exists. What is not factored in, at least not sufficiently in Ecclesiastes (and that book is hard to interpret, biblical scholars differing from one another), is the reality of God and that all of life under the sun does matter to God, made clear at the end of the book. One of my favorite biblical books, by the way, because it shows the emptiness of what people are often full of in this life.

Proverbs, in the tradition of the wisdom of Solomon, puts knowledge and wisdom, nearly synonymous in that book, at the forefront of what one should desire in life. And that knowledge has nothing directly to do with the plethora of the knowledge of “life under the sun,” in which people ordinarily live and breathe. Although of course, it’s meant to help us navigate such knowledge with the wisdom from God, to put a proper evaluation on itself, what is called discernment. And that combination certainly not only has value, but is actually crucial for us living in the world as people of faith.

A key, which is fulfilled in Jesus, who is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians; Colossians) is that the knowledge we need begins, and in a sense actually ends with God. Apart from God in Christ, the knowledge we have is incomplete. In it, we find not only the meaning of life, but life itself, since Jesus himself is the Truth, bringing us into the reality of the life of the Triune God, the eternal life. That is why when we have something of a strong sense of that, other things not only pale in comparison, but are exposed. And yet we necessarily live in the seemingly mundane, endless routine of everyday life. And Psalm 131 is so important for us to not only remember, but take to heart. It is good to try to think God’s thoughts after him. But in so doing, we will quickly learn just how dependent we are on God and interdependent on each other.

We need to ever and always keep this foundational truth in mind:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1

And by God’s mercy and grace through Jesus, not live foolishly, but grow in wisdom in the knowledge of God, and learn to see everything more and more in that light. Through turning the pages of scripture, together as the church. And ultimately in the light of the revelation of God in Christ.

goodness precedes knowledge in Christianity/ in the faith

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind,forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

2 Peter 1

Most Bible scholars/ commentators insist that the order in 2 Peter is unimportant, that what the writer says we’re to add to is beside the point, that we’re simply to have all of those things. I beg to differ, but even if they’re correct, the Bible not only supports but comports (makes sense) in the truth that goodness precedes knowledge.

Of course in our society, even our liberal democracy, for all the good in that, this is turned around. They insist that knowledge is the key to goodness. Yes, there is much one can learn to help one do good, and do better. But I would argue that knowledge alone insures nothing. And that even in “real life,” as some people might want to put it, goodness can make the difference needed, so that the knowledge which follows will be put to good use.

In the story in Genesis of Adam and Eve in the garden, we know the fall occurred when Eve took of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and ate from it in defiance of God’s command. In that case, the serpent suggested that knowledge had priority:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Genesis 3

Eve was deceived, as she acknowledges in this narrative. She wasn’t careful to take God at his word, and it is evident that she doubted God’s goodness. God had not told her she couldn’t touch the forbidden tree; maybe she had added that to keep her from the danger of eating it. And the serpent seems to clearly suggest that God is withholding what is good, and is thus less than good himself, in forbidding what the serpent seems to argue would be good. Deception, for sure.

The ultimate good scripture points to is of course in God and the good news in Jesus for a broken world. The good we bring on our own ends up harming us, because all good comes from God. Our insistence that we can handle it puts us in the place of God, something we’re incapable of fulfilling either pre or post-fall (Genesis 1-2, or 3 and after). We are made in God’s image, but God alone is God. And what goodness we have is all a gift from him in both creation and new creation.

The Peter text quoted above suggests that goodness comes from faith, that is, it’s a gift from God. And after goodness comes knowledge. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 8 that knowledge puffs up, brings conceit, whereas love builds others up, for their true good. And he suggests that no one knows as they ought to know apart from such love, such goodness.

The goodness we need is found in Jesus and the gospel, and we’re also helped to that goodness by the Spirit ironically through God’s word, meant to be spoken or read out loud, so that faith is formed and awakened. All is a gift. If we think we can go to scripture, and simply by knowing it, arrive, we are only kidding ourselves. We need faith to receive the gift from believing God’s word, which puts us on the track of goodness in and through Jesus, and through which we can begin to understand and live in God’s good will for us in him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

false knowledge versus true

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.

1 Corinthians 8

I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.

2 Corinthians 11

The more we learn, the more we realize we don’t know. Those who think they know it all are barely touching water, whereas those who know better, find themselves in an ocean they had previously not known. Real knowledge inculcates/brings humility (see the entire book of Job). And with that there’s an awareness of how very dependent we are on God, and by God’s gift interdependent on each other. I think I was struck by this awareness my first year in Bible college as a young Christian, perhaps more than anything else.

Admittedly people can know a lot, and yet not know well. To know well is not merely a head crammed with “facts” and thus in our mind, power. Knowledge or success as they say, can go to our heads. Rather, we want to learn how to see things more and more the way God wants us to see them. And part of that, incredibly enough, is to begin to see life and everything from God’s perspective, in and through Jesus.

Knowledge is a gift from God, both in its basic form which children begin to learn from infancy at least through high school. And in a special gift of the Spirit given to some in the church to share the truth of scripture, of the gospel (1 Corinthians 12). And as we can draw out from the passage in 1 Corinthians 8 quoted above (and see 1 Corinthians 13) amounts to nothing, apart from love. True knowledge from God comes out of love, situated for life, for living.

Someday somehow by God’s gift in Jesus, we will no longer know in part, and the gift of knowledge as experienced today, will no longer be needed. We will have been ushered into what we begin to experience now by the Spirit, into the fullness of that reality, in and through Jesus (1 Corinthians 2). Until then, we realize fully that we know only in part (1 Corinthians 13). And that part is always in love, if it’s the knowledge given by the Spirit, or the way God wants us to approach all knowledge in this life. As well as in the humility which attempts to see everything in light of the love of God in Jesus. And better yet, is seeking to rest in that love.