#knowledge is not enough

1 Corinthians 8:1–2 (ESV)

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

 There are some people who know far too much, or should I say that they hold the truth they know in unrighteousness. Instead of receiving God’s truth in absolute meekness, what they know puffs them up. It makes them feel superior to others whom they perceive to be lacking.

 Concerning food offered to idols: This issue was a point of contention among the believers in Corinth, but it represents a whole host of questions we face as a church and an individual believer. Behind these contentious matters is the greater concern of how we respond to the things of the spirit of God. Consider the following verses:

  1 Corinthians 2:14–16 (ESV)

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

 The natural person does not consider and hold as true the fresh things of the Spirit of God because they do not compliment what is puffing them up. They react against God in the moment and will eventually call foolish these things because they must be spiritually discerned. This spiritual discernment refers to the formation of spiritual agreement with or a rejection of God’s thought after examination and scrutiny. God is calling us to agree with him and form persevering convictions from what he says to us. We need to move from possessing knowledge into allowing the knowledge we have, to possess us and transform our minds. It is not what appeals to our minds that is important. It is what the Holy Spirit is saying to us that is important. So that we can say: “We have the mind of Christ.”

 The natural or soulish believer will come to a point where he will declare that “doctrine does not work. It has no real impact in my life and does not bring me to the place the place I desire to be.” They often know the Bible but know nothing of its power to change, heal, and transform their lives. Jesus spoke of this condition:

  Matthew 6:22–23 (ESV)

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

 God’s knowledge can become darkness. It can puff us up and bring us to a point of self-satisfaction. It can make us unavailable for the fresh impartation of truth. If I try to live in the memory of yesterday’s light to the degree that I do not perceive the light of this day, I will stumble in the dark. I will not have the ability to see in this moment. I will be blind. My eyes are not healthy and do not perceive the fresh light. Consider this statement of Jesus Christ as well:

  John 8:12 (ESV)

Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

 We all have knowledge. Some are puffed up by what they think they know. To them Paul says: “Leave your imaginations and foolish pride behind and consider this:” “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” God is calling us to “walk in the Light as he is in the light” and not to hold it in a way that makes us blind and deceived. There is another pertinent passage in the book of Hosea:

  Hosea 4:6–7 (ESV)

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.

 Note it says: “my people are destroyed.” Not the lost or the unbelieving world but God’s people. God is under no compulsion or promise to protect those believers from the consequences of their refusal to embrace his truth properly. If we refuse his light, we will be left in darkness and in the old sin nature experientially. If we reject his knowledge and wisdom, he will have no choice to reject our flesh. He stands apart from us in the battle. We will be rejected in our priesthood and intimacy with God. Just as he did with Israel in the first battle at Ai:

  Joshua 7:1 (ESV)

But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

 This next passage describes what happened to Achan and a whole host of others who left Egypt, only to live in destructive and dangerous self-perceptions in the wilderness:

  1 Corinthians 10:1–11 (ESV)

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

Matthew 4:4 (ESV)

4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

 Has it ever struck you, as it is hitting me right now? It is written so we can know how to live. If knowledge is held without the proper heart and spirit, we will live without divine power, without the benefits of the cross and without the renewal of the spirit of our minds. Information that does not lead us into transformation makes a Christian dangerous to the work of the Holy Spirit on the earth today. One of the characteristics of the final days is this:

  2 Timothy 3:1–9 (ESV)

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

 This word "difficulty" is particularly interesting in the Greek language. It refers to "hard, difficult, perilous, troublesome and even demonic times." It refers to outward circumstances and opposition that will require us, as believers, to have something supernatural from God active in our lives. The implication is that people will profess to be in and of Christ but will reveal hearts that have not be truly transformed. With major heart problems not dealt with through the surgery of the Holy Spirit, people will have the appearance of Godliness without the life and energy to put it into practice. These people are attracted by bible knowledge but seldom settle into a permanent place in the body. Many will chase after the latest trends and presentations of truth but will fail to be established in the character and nature of God. Surprisingly, Paul says to avoid such people. They oppose the truth and are corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

 They have knowledge but do not have the capacity to bring those they minister to maturity. Many have an ability to minister but it has a ceiling to it beyond which they do not go and beyond which therefore they are not able to take others. Sooner or later the uncultivated ground will either be cultivated or revealed. Perhaps our English word "overweening" could be used to describe the condition of these hearts: "presumptuously conceited and overconfident, proud in all the bad senses of the word. i.e. excessively, arrogantly and exaggeratedly so." These are the very areas that we all have the potential to reveal. We are all human, but we need to be so in touch with the Lord and his word that these heart problems are dealt with before they manifest themselves in our lives.

   Knowledge is not enough we must progress beyond it and allow The power of God to apply the cross and its benefits to our hearts and lives. What James has said comes to mind:

  James 1:19–22 (ESV)

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

 We should not kid ourselves. This transformational process will go on for the rest of our lives. Everyday, we will perhaps have to set aside filthiness and rampant wickedness to see our souls delivered from the problems brought on us by the fall of man and established in the newness of the life of God within us.

  Romans 6:3–4 (ESV)

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

 Knowledge is not enough. We know so that we can be enable to walk or live in the newness of his life.