“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."

Sometimes the Apostle Paul writes one liners as if he was looking for a new T shirt slogan! When it comes to having a good argument, Paul's your man. He was never going to be a stand up comedian, but he had an instinct for the knock out punch line. 

"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." So that puts all the know-alls in their place. But wait a minute. Paul isn't having a go at knowledge. He's more concerned with what we do with what we know, and with what our knowledge does to us.

My guess is that we have all met the arrogant always right person, somebody who knows a lot but thinks they know more than they do. And especially thinks they know more than you do. Which might be true. But that isn't the issue. If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, an inflated sense of our own cleverness is hardly risk free.

Paul drops his one liner into an argument that was dividing opinion in Corinth, and was dividing the fellowship in Corinth. The issue was whether it was right or wrong to eat meat that had previously been sacrificed to idols. The whole passage is a lesson in ego reduction.

"Concerning food that has been offered to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love build up. If anyone thinks that he or she knows something, that one does not know as he or she ought to know. If someone loves God, that person is known by him." (I Cor 8.1-3)

In Christian spirituality and ethics, love is the defining quality of life, behaviour and relationships. However knowledgeable and experienced a Christian is, they only half know what they know, if their knowledge doesn't build up and strengthen the life of the Christian community. Those who think they know better than others, also think their knowledge makes them better than others; they simply haven't learned the first principle of Christian knowing.

"Knowledge puff up, but love builds up."

"We all have knowledge" is Paul's way of breaking the monopoly claimed by the super spiritual would be post-graduates in Christian knowledge. What matters though, is not what we know, but whether we love God and are known by God. Love is itself the deepest form of knowing. Those who have come to know Christ have been recreated and renewed by the self-giving love of God and the formative dynamic of the Holy Spirit. They know God and are known by God. They build one another up in love.

In the life of the Christian community there will always be occasions of difference, arguments and discussions and contested opinions. Often there will be those who claim the high ground, "We have knowledge…" – often with the claim that their position is the 'biblical' position. But Paul says of the Christian community then and now, "We all have knowledge." The real issue isn't what we know; it is whether we are known by God and know God. That knowledge is based on a relationship of love, we love God and are acknowledged by God. 

"Knowledge puff up, but love builds up."

Paul isn't setting knowledge against love; he is bringing them into their proper relation. Real Christian knowledge is embedded in the love relationship between God and the believer. We know because we are known; we love because we are loved. Knowledge can become detached, a form of intellectual control that feeds the ego; knowledge puffs up.

By contrast, love is a way of knowing the other person. That mutual knowledge and love, of each other and of God, enables the Christian community to deal with difference. To know we are loved by God, and to love God, is to know we are known, and to understand that we are understood. "Love builds up."