Knowledge Puffeth Up

The same sun that melts wax hardens clay. The same knowledge that puffs up some individuals humbles others.

1 Corinthians 8:1: Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

1 Corinthians 13:1: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 Peter 1:2: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

Is your knowledge puffing you up or is it multiplying grace and peace unto you? If your knowledge is to multiply grace and peace to you, it must be mixed with charity (love). I have known many Christians whose knowledge was mixed with love. They were a constant blessing.

I have also known Christians whose knowledge was not mixed with love. They were not always a blessing. Their knowledge puffed them up (made them proud) and did not edify. Knowledge is useless without love. In fact, knowledge without love is destructive.

I have sometimes been puffed up because I knew something that another believer did not know. I have been proud. At times I have also been joyful because I knew a passage from the Bible that helped someone. There is a world of difference between knowledge that blesses someone else and knowledge that puffs me up. If I love to have knowledge for the sake of knowledge I am proud. If I love to have knowledge that blesses someone else I am a blessing. Are you puffed up because you have knowledge or are you blessed because your knowledge helps someone else? To put it as simply as possible, is your knowledge blessing just you or is it blessing others too? The following passage describes those who have knowledge without love.

2 Timothy 3:7: Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

3 John 1:9: I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.

Bible preachers and teachers who love to have the preeminence often love the preeminence more than they love others. I have heard preachers and teachers like that in person and an abundance of them on TV and radio. They do not see that love is greater than knowledge. They do not receive God*s kind of love, nor do they spread it to others.

1 Corinthians 13:13: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Care to discuss Knowledge Puffeth Up with Ron?

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