And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know

In the defensive pose of much of the Western church, it’s easy for anyone with the smarts, to get into the big fish in a small pond syndrome. What I am saying is that the isolation can lead us to think we know more than we do! I am fortunate to have spent my entire career in the context of the University, where I am constantly rubbing up against those who know so much more than I do in my subject. It helps with the humility, it really does!

Even as a Christian I was intimidated by all of this. That is until the Lord showed me that if someone knew 50 times more than I did, in terms of what can be known, that 50 times is a mere drop in the bucket. So whether we want to hear it or not, the verse at the title of this post from from 1st Corinthians 8:2 is applicable to us. We often say it this way “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.”

In the first verse of this chapter, Paul tells the Corinthians that knowledge puffs up, that is it has this tendency to make us proud and obnoxious. So, if we think we know something, and we allow that knowledge to make us feel superior, then this verse should cause us to rethink our attitude. In particular we do not yet know that we know nothing! On the other hand while knowledge puffs up (like the peacock) love builds up and edifies.

There is an equal and opposite error the Scripture warns us of. And that is that we can be always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). In particular in this scientific age, we can inappropriately dismiss anything that cannot be proved scientifically. This hinders many coming to faith. But to dismiss faith because you can’t prove God scientifically, is at the very least to be quite inconsistent. In particular you cannot live your life believing only what can be proved scientifically. For example were you in bed last night? Can you prove that scientifically? Well no! Neither can you prove love scientifically, but we do know when we are loved, and when we are not, and you probably know if you were in bed last night!

The writer to the Hebrews tells us, that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (11:1). So we can know, there is a substance to faith, and there is evidence for faith, but it only fully comes after we have chosen to believe.

Father, it’s so easy to get out of balance in the Christian walk. Help me to avoid these equal and opposite errors of operating in knowledge without love, and of failing to embrace the certainty of faith that a growing relationship with you brings. In Jesus Name Amen