Knowledge with Love | 1 Corinthians 8:1-2

Am I my brother's keeper? That was the famously

defiant response that Cain had when God asked

him where his brother was, the same brother that

he had just murdered. Cain said, I don't know.

Why should I be accountable for him? Now, none

of us here this morning are murderers, I hope.

But that question still lingers among God's people,

doesn't it? Am I my brother's keeper? And the

answer is yes. The spiritual good of my brother

and my sister, especially those in my local church

family, is always going to be a guide for how

I live my life. My choices, my priorities, my

actions are always regulated by the principle

of Christian love. This morning, we're turning

the page from some of the challenging principles

that we looked at in 1 Corinthians 7. We're turning

over to chapter 8, and this is an entire chapter

that focuses on the balance between our freedom

in Christ and that principle of Christian love.

Before we open our Bibles and read the chapter

together, I want to give you a little bit of,

do a little prep work on the front end culturally

for the issue that's about to be laid on the

table by Paul. Having dealt with a whole bunch

of questions about celibacy and marriage and

divorce and singleness, the Corinthians now have

a new question for Paul to address and it's,

It's concerned something that we talk about food

sacrifice to idols. Food sacrifice, this is not

a big issue in 2026, right? But you'll find that

there are still many practical lessons that we

can lift off the page and apply in our modern

world today. Now, here's the cultural context

of what we're about to read. Recall that in Corinth,

most of the members of that church had come out

of a pagan background, those who were Gentiles.

They were in a pagan background. They came to

know Christ. And Corinth was a city, we talked

about this months ago, that had many different

temples where you could go worship idols of all

kinds and you could bring all kinds of sacrifices

to these temples and offer them to these so -called

gods. And when that sacrifice was an animal,

the meat would be divided up in several ways.

Some of it would be burned on the altar as the

offering to the god. Some of that might have

been taken home by the one who brought the offering

so that they could... They could eat a meal with

it. And some of it would be left with the priests

for them to live off of. And then some of that

extra portion, sometimes from the priest, sometimes

from the offerer, would then be sold in the marketplace

to a meat market. And that would be then put

up for sale for the general public to purchase.

So it's kind of an interesting thing about any

time in Corinth you walked in and you were purchasing

meat, there was a chance it had at one time been

sacrificed to idols. So think about this now.

For the Christian, this raises all kinds of issues,

doesn't it? Especially for the Corinthians who

are trying to learn about all the nuances of

their new Christian faith. So would eating that

meat that had been sacrificed to a false god,

would that defile me? It's a good question, right?

It's something that would probably be on your

heart. Can I attend a festival or communal meal

where that meat is being served? Or what if I

don't know where that meat came from? What do

I do? What about in a private home? What if I

get invited to a private home for a meal with

an unbelieving neighbor who I'm trying to reach

with the gospel, and boom, they serve me meat?

Uh -oh. Do I need to ask the question? Where'd

that come from? Is that offensive? Can I buy

this meat in the marketplace if it's at a really

good price? It's a deal. It's a steal, man. So

lots of questions here. And then the big question

that Paul wants to address in the middle of that

cultural issue is this. What do I do if my brother

or sister, my Christian brother or sister, has

a different conviction about eating that meat

than I do? Do I need to say no for their sake,

or do I lean into my freedom in Christ and eat

it anyway? So grab your Bibles. We're going to

go to 1 Corinthians 8. We're going to take a

look at this. As I said, it's nice to be in chapter.

Chapter 7 was a doozy, wasn't it? So I'm glad

to be here this morning. Now, if you look at

it, You can see it's a pretty short chapter,

just 13 verses. And we're going to cover it just

between today and next Sunday. And this may shock

you of the 13 verses. We're only going to look

at two today, verses one and two. And I'll explain

why in just a moment. So let's read the whole

chapter. Again, it's only 13 verses. Let's take

it the new. Let's just read the whole chapter

here. So hear God's word this morning. Paul writes,

now concerning things, sacrifice the idols. Verse

4. For even if there are so -called gods, whether

in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many

gods and many lords, yet for us there is but

one God, the Father, from whom all things, and

we exist for him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ,

by whom are all things, and we exist through

him. However, not all men have this knowledge.

But some, being accustomed to the idol until

now, eat food as it were sacrificed to an idol,

and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

But food will not commend us to God. We are neither

the worse if we do not eat it, nor the better

if we do eat. But take care that this liberty

of yours does not somehow become a stumbling

block to the weak. For if someone sees you who

have knowledge, Dining in an idol's temple will

not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened

to eat things sacrificed to idols. For through

your knowledge, he who is weak is ruined, the

brother for whose sake Christ died. And so by

sinning against the brethren and wounding their

conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble,

I will never eat meat again, so that I will not

cause my brother to stumble. Okay, there's a

lot there, and you can see that next week we

have a lot to talk through, right? But today

we're going to set the stage for Paul's big idea

by focusing on what I think is a foundational

principle in the Christian life found just in

verses 1 and 2. So let's take a look at this.

Let's start a conversation about this thing we

call knowledge. Knowledge. Look at verse 1 again.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, and

we can for now lay aside that cultural issue.

Paul says, we know that we all have knowledge.

Now, if you're reading from a translation other

than the New American Standard, which is what

I read from, you probably see quotation marks

around that phrase, we all have knowledge. The

New American Standard does not have them, but

the ESV does, and the CSB does, and the NIV do.

They have quotation marks. around that statement

now we've seen this already in first corinthians

right remember at the very beginning of chapter

7 paul wrote it is good for a man not to touch

a woman or have sexual relations with a woman

and in those same three translations there were

quotation marks around it and we talked about

this you might recall when you see those quotation

marks that's the translations committee committee's

way of telling you that they're convinced that

that is not paul's opinion That that is the opinion

of those in the Corinthian church. They're saying

that, and Paul is now going to pick up on that.

So you say this, and now he's going to respond

to it. So they're statements made by members

of the Corinthian church that Paul is citing,

right? So it's what some are saying. Basically,

concerning this issue of things sacrificed to

idols, they're like, we have full knowledge about

this issue. We have full knowledge about it.

We have theological understanding of it. We're

spiritually mature enough to know how to handle

it. That's what Paul is referring to here. So

I'm going to dub this group the know -it -all

faction in the Corinthian church because they

feel pretty good about themselves. Now, as we

read in verse 7, if you look at it quickly, and

we'll look at it in depth next week, we find

out that Paul doesn't agree with that statement

at all. In fact, he directly contradicts him

in verse 7, saying, no, there's people in the

congregation who do not possess the knowledge

that you're talking about. And then he's going

to go on, you heard it in verses 9 to 12, to

talk about these other people in the church who

are weak, brothers and sisters, who have a weak

conscience. So the know -it -all faction is dead

wrong about this. They're approaching this issue

with blinders on, selfishly, only thinking about

themselves. Because, hey, we know everything

that needs to be known about this, and they're

not considering the weaker members of the church.

So they need to be corrected, and we'll get to

that next week. For our purposes this morning,

I want you to see how Paul very briefly refers

to two negative things associated with the folks

who display this type of self -centered knowledge.

And you may know people in the church like this,

who have self -centered knowledge. knowledge

first of all he says it reveals their arrogance

right this form of knowledge Paul writes makes

a person arrogant and yeah most translations

use the phrase puffs them up right they're puffed

up which that phrase cracks me up this kind of

knowledge puffs up but love does what It edifies.

It builds up. And so what we have here in the

English is what we call an antithetical statement

that uses some alliteration to it. Knowledge

puffs up. Love builds up. Make sense? Now, we

need to qualify that statement about knowledge

puffing up, and we'll do that in just a moment.

Because if you just isolate that one statement,

you could walk out of here today thinking, oh,

well, knowledge itself is a bad thing. It's a

bad thing. And you might say to yourself, well,

look, if seeking knowledge is going to puff me

up and make me arrogant, then I'll just avoid

acquiring knowledge altogether and focus 100

% on just loving people. And that would be a

wrong conclusion. It's your motivation, your

attitude, and what you do with knowledge that

makes it either profitable or puffy. I'll say

it again. It's your motivation, your attitude,

and what you do with knowledge that makes it

either profitable or puffy. Speaking of that,

don't raise your hand or shout out any names

whatsoever, but have you ever met a professing

Christian who has a ton of theological knowledge,

but lacks humility and love in the way they display

it? Smart people, well -read, study and read

a lot, can make all kinds of arguments. They

love to engage in debates. They love taking contrarian

positions. so that they can impress you with

their nuanced ideas. But the thing is, they don't

wield their knowledge for your benefit. It's

not for your benefit. It's not to build up the

body. It's a self -gratifying knowledge. It's

a self -glorifying knowledge. They've acquired

knowledge for the purpose of what? Impressing

other people. All that study has made them puffed

up. And what's really sad about it is oftentimes

these same folks lack self -awareness. They can

at times fool some people and gain a following,

but most of the folks aren't actually that impressed

with them because they see through it. They see

the lack of humility. They see the lack of care.

And Paul describes this so well in the famous

love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. You've probably

heard this passage a hundred times, and yet think

about it in this context. If I speak with tongues

of men and of angels, would that be impressive,

by the way? You'd be impressed by somebody that

can speak that way. The tongues of men and angels.

But I don't have love, I become a noisy gong

or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy

and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, this

is hyperbolic language, right? Because obviously

none of us can have those things, but Paul's

making a point. If we knew all of those things,

that would definitely be impressive. But I don't

have love, Paul says, I'm nothing. May we have

ears to hear. that statement and protect us here

at Oak Hill from falling into this kind of self

-centered knowledge. So that's the first thing,

arrogance. Second thing is, this type of knowledge

reveals actually how foolish such a person really

is. Look at verse two. If anyone supposes or

imagines that he knows anything, he is not yet

known as he ought to know. So catch that. Paul's

saying this know -it -all faction in Corinth,

supposes that they know everything they need

to know about this issue. We've got it figured

out. But in supposing that, they've actually

revealed the opposite to be true. This is an

important truism. When the day comes that you

think you've got everything figured out, be sure

of this, you don't know as you should. Just write

that down as a truism. It means that you lack

a crucial aspect of wisdom, which is the limits

of your own knowledge. Knowing that there's always

more to learn. Always, and therefore always a

need to remain humble and to remain teachable.

That goes for all of us, right up to the elder

team. Always humble, always teachable. I remember

Dr. MacArthur wrote this in his commentary on

1 Corinthians. I probably should have put it

on the screen because it's hard to process, but

listen to this. He says, true knowledge is the

process of passing from an unconscious state

of ignorance to a conscious state of ignorance.

That's great. In other words, you become truly

knowledgeable when you realize that you don't

know everything that you could or should know.

That's when you're actually knowledgeable. It

requires humility, doesn't it? But the puffed

up person doesn't see it this way. Their minds

are closed because, again, they've got it all

figured out. They are superior to everyone else

in their knowledge. They don't need to listen

to anybody anymore. In fact, they're not even

open to learning because they feel sufficient

and justified in all the things that they've

studied. So when you meet somebody who's overconfident

and arrogant in their display of knowledge, what

Paul's saying is that's actually a sign of foolishness.

It's foolishness. And on the flip side, when

you meet somebody who is knowledgeable, which

is a good thing, but shows humility and a true

care for you and a care for the body of Christ

as they share their knowledge, that is a sign

of wisdom and maturity. And those are different

things, aren't they? That's somebody who's concerned

about the building up of others and by extension,

building the body of Christ. So before we move

on, as you hear this type of argument about arrogant

self -serving knowledge, I want you to think

about some of the places in your life where you

might bump into this so that you can be on guard.

Obviously, it can be found in the church, right?

I've known folks like this. You probably have

as well. But the warning I want to give you this

morning is this type of knowledge, this arrogant,

self -serving knowledge is everywhere on social

media. And you may not even, it may come at you

and you're like, you're just, you're like, have

a neutral mind on and you're not being discerning

and it can seep into your heart. Beware of this.

And yeah, I'm talking about professing Christians

online. Self -appointed experts who come off

as knowledgeable. They do know a lot of things.

And they put themselves in the place of a teacher,

but their motivation is not a godly one. They

aren't looking to build up you or the church.

They're looking to build up their own profile

and their own following. And the worst of them,

I hate to say this, are the online apologists

that you'll find on places like X or YouTube

or TikTok. They're the worst of them, and they

come from all variety of Christian backgrounds.

Their goal is always views, subscriptions, and

the chance to brag that they win every argument.

That's all they do. Oh, I cooked this guy. Right?

I know that sounded weird coming from an old

guy. I get it. But that's like their faith. I

cooked this guy. That's what they're after. They're

not there to build you up. They're there to build

themselves up. And they often do in a way that

is crass and divisive and lacking in grace. They

show no fruit of the Spirit in the way they display

their knowledge. Bunch of noisy gongs and clanging

cymbals. Now, I'm not saying that the Internet

is completely devoid of good resources. There

are some good, healthy sites out there and some

good apologists. By the way, they're usually

smaller in subscriptions. Because you know what

sells these days? All the conflict and all the

cooking. that takes place, right? So look, when

you go online, even if you're searching for Christian

content, you've got to be discerning. You've

got to look at the heart and the motivation behind

what you're hearing. Even if it sounds really

knowledgeable, ask the question, what are they

building up here? By the way, if you need recommendations

on some good sites, some guys that do have a

right heart, I'm happy to help you with that.

Okay, let's add some balance here now. into the

mix because again I don't want anybody walking

out of here today thinking oh knowledge is really

bad in fact the opposite is true all over the

pages of scripture you will find commands exhortation

and praises for seeking out knowledge for learning

for being rooted in sound doctrine so knowledge

itself is not the problem knowledge itself doesn't

automatically puff you up again it's your approach

your motivation and your display of that knowledge

that makes it either foolish or fruitful. So

here's just a quick sampling of places in the

New Testament where this is talked about. In

Colossians 1 .9, I'll do this quickly. Colossians

1 .9, Paul says that he and Timothy have not

ceased to pray for the Colossian believers and

to ask that they would be filled with the knowledge

of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

That is not an anti -intellectual statement at

all. We should be engaging our minds to understand

these things, to have wisdom. Romans 15, 14,

he writes about the believers there. I'm convinced

that you yourselves are full of goodness, being

filled with all knowledge. 2 Corinthians 8, he

exhorts the church, abound in everything, in

faith and utterance and, yes, knowledge. Romans

12, 2 famously says, be transformed by the renewing

of your mind. Your mind, the thinking, the learning.

Paul even praises doctrinal knowledge as a weapon

of spiritual warfare. In 2 Corinthians 10, saying,

we demolish arguments and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God. We do that with

what? With doctrine, with truth. It's actually

a spiritual weapon that we can wield. So there's

no question, Paul looks favorably on the acquisition

of knowledge, of understanding truth, and being

nourished by sound doctrine. He prays for it,

he commands it, he applauds it. Then if you look

at the Old Testament, if you just looked at the

book of Proverbs, It is a treasure trove of verses

that connect wisdom and life with knowledge.

I'm going to read this really fast. It's not

going to be on the screen. Listen to all this.

These are all Proverbs. Fools hate knowledge.

Knowledge is pleasant to the soul. Take knowledge

rather than choiceless gold. Wise men store up

knowledge. Through knowledge the righteous are

delivered. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.

Every prudent man acts with knowledge. The sensible

are crowned with knowledge. The tongue of the

wise makes knowledge acceptable. The lips of

the wise spread knowledge. The mind of the intelligent

seeks knowledge. The mind of the prudent acquires

knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

I'm almost done. It is not good for a person

to be without knowledge. There is gold and abundance

of jewels, but the lips of knowledge are a more

precious thing. That is not a subtle list, is

it? Over and over again in Scripture, we're commanded

to seek out knowledge, and we're warned of the

consequences if we don't. The truth is, friends,

every Christian should strive to be a theologian.

Did you know that? Why? The word theology just

means what? The study of God. And if you're a

Christian, the call on your life is to know God

and to seek to know more about Him. And the more

diligent you are to study to know about Him,

the more deeply you will come to know him. Now,

one of the problems in this is in modern day

churches, what do we do? We say, I'll outsource

that to the professionals. They're the guys who

do the study. They're the guys who are trained.

They know the Greek. They know the Hebrew. We'll

outsource all of that. I just want to show up

on Sunday and be spoon fed. But the call is for

you all to acquire knowledge. All the things

we just saw. And I don't mean that everyone has

to become a professional academic or a scholar.

You don't have to all study the Hebrew and Greek

and learn every aspect of systematic theology

in church history. You could. But that's not

the call. But bit by bit, year by year, patiently,

Sunday by Sunday, we're all called to seek after

knowledge and to acquire it, to store it up in

our heart, in our inner man. Who is God? How

does he work in our world? Who are we in relation

to him? What kind of being is Jesus? How are

we saved? Where does grace come from? How does

faith operate? How does the Spirit guide us?

What's the purpose of the church? And so much

more. We're all called to be theologians in these

things. And it's a lifelong process. That's the

cool thing. I'm not saying, hey, be this next

week or a month from now. We're all in this process,

growing and learning, trying to be teachable

in all things. It's a lifelong process, and we

can embrace that process. We can enjoy the challenge.

And here's the thing, you guys. It's that acquiring

of knowledge about God and knowing him on a deeper

level that actually fuels our worship. It fuels

our worship. I've always loved this quote from

John Piper. Listen carefully to this. He says,

The theological mind exists to throw logs into

the furnace of our affections for Christ. Look

at that. That is a great statement. Some of us

don't think that way. Do I have to acquire knowledge?

Yeah, that's a log to throw on the fire that

fuels my worship. Intentional theological study

as an expression of love for God will only deepen

your love for him. As you find out more about

him, you will love him more deeply. The more

we read, study, meditate, apply the word of God,

the more we find ourselves in awe of God. Again,

going back to Piper, he says this, like a great

ship on the horizon, the closer we get to the

Lord, the larger he looms. So balance here, right?

Knowledge can puff you up, but we are still called

to acquire knowledge, to seek after it with all

of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So let's

make sure we understand that. Okay, let's bring

it together now. And really look at what Paul

is aiming at in this chapter. First, pursuing

fruitful knowledge, but making sure we pair it

with something important. Love. Love. Knowledge

is essential, but it's not sufficient on its

own. The starting point is right. You have to

lean into sound doctrine, but knowledge and doctrine

cannot be the end of the matter. Otherwise, we

all just become a bunch of individual noisy gongs.

And you know how annoying that would be? All

knowing things, but failing to love in our learning.

And you know what? There are churches out there

that fall into that category. There's so much

about doctrine and knowledge that they're out

of balance. May the Lord protect us from that.

Knowledge makes one arrogant, but love edifies.

If knowledge is your end goal, then you haven't

learned the foundational truth about knowledge

that biblically it doesn't end there. Your knowledge

is incomplete until it's fulfilled in love. So

the mature Christian is able to study, learn,

know many things, and he has the ability to apply

that diligent study in strengthening other believers

and helping the local church grow healthier.

That's the goal, because he has knowledge plus

love. Even Luther in the 16th century, this was

happening, this has always happened in churches,

by the way. Look what Luther said way back in

the day. He said with Christians are great riches

of spiritual knowledge and great treasures in

the way of spiritual gifts. But there are to

be found few indeed, few who make the right use

of such gifts and knowledge, who humble themselves

to serve others according to the dictates of

love. It's always been with God's people. We

have to fight against this, right? It's a great

challenge for any believer in any church to strive

to balance knowledge and love in a healthy way.

And if you'll allow me, if I can go on, it's

Reformation Month, right? A little bit of a rabbit

trail into church history on this, because this

has been rampant in the church for 2 ,000 years.

And we talk about the swinging of the pendulum.

You know we do this, right? We get all excited

about a new thing and we swing the pendulum over

here and we get out of balance and then we go,

oh no, we've gone too far. And what do we do?

Do we move to the middle? Oh no, we swing the

pendulum back this way. And so if we can see

that in the pages of church history, it helps

us to go, no, no, we're not going to fall into

that trap, right? There have been many periods

in church history where Christians have done

this. They swing the pendulum. All knowledge,

no, all love, right? Over -emphasizing one to

the exclusion of the other, and it shouldn't

be this way. First of all, I think it's an interesting

thought experiment to consider, why do we do

this? Why do we jump into movements and swing

the pendulum all over the place? I don't really

know the answer to that, but I know we get excited

about new ideas, don't we? We get excited about,

I'm part of a fresh new movement, right? And

then we want to be as hardcore about it as possible

because I'm 100 % bought in and I'm this and

I'm that. I don't know what it is about the human

side. Even in my lifetime, I've seen a number

of trends come into the church that all the direction,

the energy of the church was moving in that direction.

Everybody got behind it. And then 10 years later,

we all look back and went, ah, that wasn't very

good. I mean, literally, I could walk down a

list of those things where now we're like, that

did not bear fruit. So we've got to be careful.

This is not about swinging the pendulum. It's

about staying balanced on two very important

biblical principles. But in terms of these swings,

I'll give you a few examples of this. Back in

the 12th century, there was a French theologian

by the name of Peter Abelard. He was from the

University of Paris. He was a philosopher. And

he developed a form of Christian thought that

today we call medieval scholasticism. And it

was all about a way to approach Scripture and

the walk of faith. through logic and reason.

It was ultra strong on knowledge and the rational

side of Christianity, which for many was very,

hey, this is a new and exciting movement, right?

Well, there was a monk named Bernard of Clairvaux

in France who actually sought to have Abelard

condemned as a heretic by the Pope. Bernard's

theology emphasized the whole other side of the

coin, the devotional side of the spiritual life.

He said, look, he said, he said, Abelard is talking

about intellectual pursuits that are beyond the

finite mind. We shouldn't even waste our time

with it. And all he did was talk about deepening

our faith and increasing our love for God that

could only be tied to what he said was the heart.

And there's a theological error in that, which

we'll get to. All about spiritual disciplines,

not about intellectual pursuits. And so you have

this rivalry in this period of time between the

scholastics and the monastics. And people were

swinging the pendulum all over the place. Interestingly,

then you also see in the Reformation period and

the post -Reformation period, remember the focus

of the reformers was on correcting the poor theology

and doctrine coming out of Rome. So the reformers

emphasized the building of doctrinal systems.

We already heard this morning, the writing of

creeds and confessions that I would argue were

necessary for reform. it was predictable that

at some point there would be a pendulum swing

away from that kind of deep intellectual pursuits.

And that happened in the 17th century in a movement

coming out of Germany known as Pietism. And they

moved away from all that doctrinal stuff. And

the Pietists, you know, what they saw was these

Lutheran churches were becoming very good at

defending the faith, but not so much godly living.

And that can happen to us, right? We can get

so intellectually focused on knowledge that we're

not living in godly ways. And the pietists said,

this is not good. And so they moved away from

doctrine. And they strongly emphasized the individual's

internal relationship with Christ. And that's

it. It's just about me and the Lord in my private

prayer closet. Pietists. And then you had John

Wesley in the 18th century. He fell in with a

group called the Moravians who were ultra devout

in their idea of disciplined communal life. And

so Wesley championed ideas in England that became

known as what? Methodism. Methodism, emphasizing

internal faith, religious experience, holy living.

But guess what came out of that movement? A lack

of doctrinal seriousness. It was put on the shelf

for all this other stuff. Have you seen Methodist

churches today? There's almost no doctrine, right?

They're either so liberal or so heretical that

they've completely abandoned the faith. Then

come the Puritans into the American colonies,

right? Heavy focus on education. Founders of

universities like Harvard and Princeton. Pioneers

of aspects of the scientific revolution. Strong

emphasis on the study of theology. Overcorrection.

Because the swing of the pendulum happened again.

Many perceived a coldness among the Puritans

and the Congregationalist churches in New England.

And that led to a series of revivals in the 1800s,

the great awakenings in the American colonies.

And yes, a lot of good things came from the awakenings,

but if you really drill down deeply into the

great awakenings, most of it was based not on

doctrine, but on spiritual experience. Lots of

charismatic activity, all the feelings going

on, but these people would get saved and go back

into their churches and they're not teaching

foundational biblical truth there. It's all still

my feels. And so even the great awakenings had

a measure of problem with it. By the way, it's

not a coincidence during that same period that

you had the growth of these, they call themselves

revivalist religions that were heretical and

dangerous. The Mormon church and the Jehovah's

Witnesses develop in the 1800s. Seems like the

enemy used this lack of sound doctrine in that

period to pick people off and drag them into

these cults. And then you have the sad truth

that the lack of theological knowledge in that

period weakened the church's ability to respond

to a whole bunch of intellectual attacks that

were coming on all fronts. The empiricism of

the Enlightenment period. the skepticism of German

higher criticism of the Bible, the development

of Darwinian evolution, right? And finally, the

church failed to confront the liberalism that

infected all of our mainline denominations in

the early 1900s and also produced the out -of

-balance Pentecostal movement. All of this came

about because we didn't balance these two things.

And in this sense, all of these things developed

because there was a lack of intellectual biblical

knowledge. in this country. And so you see the

fruit of it, and it's not pretty. These movements,

by the way, brought about another swing of the

pendulum in our lifetimes, and we call it fundamentalism.

Sorry, there it is. Fundamentalism, another swing

back. Well, now we got to change that. Everything's

been about feels. Now we have fundamentalism,

right? This moralistic movement that emphasizes

strict lifestyle choices and retreating from

the world into our institutions. Now we point

our fingers at the world and judge them rather

than engage unbelievers. Pendulum, pendulum,

pendulum, back and forth, all over the place.

It's exhausting, isn't it? And sometimes this

debate about knowledge versus love gets wrongly

framed. It's called the head versus, how many

of you guys have heard this phrase? Head versus

heart. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. It's a false

dichotomy. That is not language that the Bible

ever uses. Head versus heart. When we look at

Scripture, be it the Old Testament or the New,

what we see is an integration of those concepts.

It's all categorized as our inner man, right?

Our thinking, all these things, it's our inner.

I take a position called dichotomy. We are dichotomous.

We're two parts. We're physical and we're incorporeal.

Big word, right? We're body and soul. We're body

and spirit. Soul and spirit being synonymous

with each other. So this is all our inner man.

We have our outer man. We have our inner man.

And the Bible uses all kinds of terms for this.

Our heart, our mind, our soul, our spirit. But

those things are not to be divided up and not

pitted against each other. Our knowing and our

loving both come from that one integrated place

of our inner man. That's where everything is

happening. Thinking, feeling, understanding,

desiring, willing, discerning, choosing, loving

from our inner man. So it's not head versus heart.

And you see this all over in scripture, but I'll

give you Philippians 1 because this is such a

great example of it. Paul says this. He says,

it's my prayer that your love may abound more

and more with knowledge and all discernment.

So he seems to think that's all one integrated

thing, isn't it? So that you may approve, that's

also an act of the inner man, approve what is

excellent. And so be pure and blameless for the

day of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness

that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory

and praise of God. Paul doesn't pray for knowledge

instead of love or love instead of knowledge.

He prays for love that is marked by knowledge

and discernment, integrated. Do you see it? Two

other key passages I want to look at this morning

that teaches the same thing. In Ephesians 4,

I'm going to put them on the screen. In Ephesians

4, we see another place where Paul talks about

building up, edifying, Through knowledge and

love. Ephesians 4. You probably know this passage.

And he, God, gave some as apostles, some as prophets,

and some as evangelists, and some as pastor teachers.

For what purpose? Why did God give us those people?

For the equipping of the saints for the work

of service. Okay, and to what end? To the building

up of the body. Well, what does that mean to

build up the body of Christ? What follows then

are four things that define what it means to

be built up as a church body. Here they are.

Until we attain to the unity of the faith. So

number one is building up means unity. And of

the knowledge of the Son of God. Number two,

knowing Jesus more and more. To a mature man

to the measure of the stature which belongs to

the fullness of Christ. Third thing, growing

in spiritual maturity. As a result, we are no

longer to be children tossed here and there by

waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,

by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful

scheming. Number four of building up, stability

and doctrine that protects us from deception.

So our pursuit of knowledge shows us what is

true and love directs how we use that truth for

the good of our fellow members. Make sense? Then

Paul goes on. This is really the key part of

this passage. Speaking the truth in love. Seal

that in your mind. Speaking truth, knowledge,

in love. We're to grow up in all aspects into

him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the

whole body, being fitted and held together by

what every joint supplies, according to the proper

working of each individual part, causes the growth

of the body for what? for the building up of

itself in love. The body imagery here, guys,

is stunning, isn't it? Each member of the local

church is connected to the other. We're fit and

held together, right? And all of us relying on

what? The proper working of each individual part.

It's beautiful, right? And when that happens,

what happens? Growth of the body. But notice

again what sparks it. Speaking the truth in love.

Speaking the truth in love, which is done, by

the way, in multiple settings. It happens from

the pulpit. It happens in small groups. It happens

in normal, ordinary conversations that we have

together. Speaking the truth in love. Knowledge

of the truth communicated with care and concern

for the people receiving it. Knowledge alone

will make you arrogant, but knowledge expressed

in love will build up. You catching it? Here's

the other key passage. This was our call to worship

from earlier, from 2 Peter 1. It says this, His

divine power has granted to us everything pertaining

to life and godliness through the true knowledge

of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

For by these He has granted to us His precious

and magnificent promises. so that by them you

may become partakers of the divine nature, having

escaped the corruption that is in the world by

lust. Peter says these are fantastic, beautiful

things to know. Knowledge of God and his power

in giving us everything we need. Knowledge of

his tremendous promises. But friends, listen,

just knowing about those things is not going

to guarantee that you're going to live a godly

life. Such lofty knowledge has to produce. character

traits in us, right? And this is what he goes

on to talk about. He says, for this very reason,

for this very reason, because of that knowledge

that you need to have, make every effort to supplement

your faith, and look at this list, with moral

excellence. And your moral excellence add what?

Knowledge. And add to your knowledge self -control.

And your self -control with steadfastness. And

your steadfastness with godliness. And your godliness

with brotherly kindness. And your brotherly kindness

with, there it is again, with love. As Peter

says, a true knowledge of him who called us by

his own glory will produce in us a laundry list

of things that build up the body of Christ. Including,

you see the last two? Brotherly kindness and

love. I read an article this week that this author

described knowledge in this way. I thought it

was really helpful. I'll share it with you here

as we close. He said, doctrinal knowledge is

to the Christian life what blood is to the human

body. Doctrinal knowledge is to the Christian

what blood is to the human body. Blood flows

through the vessels, and when it does, it gives

life to the whole body. But if you just collect

blood in a big bucket, And let it sit there?

That's unnatural. That's unhealthy. Because blood

isn't designed to be stored in a bucket. It's

designed to flow through vessels and veins and

arteries. In the same way, our knowledge, the

knowledge of doctrinal truth, is not meant to

be pulled in a giant theological bucket and just

sit there. That is unhealthy. That is unnatural.

Sound doctrine and a robust understanding of

God is meant to flow through the body. Flow through

the body, producing fruit, leading to worship,

making us more like Christ. So again, a Christian

should pursue knowledge diligently, but do it

while making love its regulating principle. Knowledge

asks this. Knowledge says, what is true? What

is true? And love asks, how can I take that knowledge

and display it in a way that builds other people

up? And that's important, by the way, for anybody

who teaches in the church. So anybody here who

teaches, elders, small group leaders, anybody

who teaches, our goal in teaching isn't to say,

well, what interesting things can I share with

the people? Or worse than that, things that will

impress them. Oh, I've done all this study. I've

acquired this knowledge. So how can I now go

out and impress people in my teaching? No. Our

challenge starts with this. First of all, what

does this passage teach me? That's where it starts.

What does it teach me? What does this passage

require of me as a response? What does it tell

me about my heart? How does this passage correct

me? And then, then, most importantly, after I've

done a personal inventory of my own heart, then

I can ask, how do I relay this knowledge to my

church family in a way that will challenge them?

and build them up in the faith. But do you see

the different motivation there? I first of all

dealt with the passage for me, from my heart,

so that God can challenge me. And then I don't

go to teach to say, how can I impress the people

with my incredible wisdom? No, how can I take

that which has humbled me and now bring it to

the people and say, guys, feed on this. This

is a beautiful truth. It will build you up. So

do we all need to strive towards knowledge and

sound doctrine? Yes. But then ask the question,

what is theology for? What is the study of God

ultimately for? Am I my brother's keeper? Has

what you know caused you to love your church

family more? Make sure you come back next Sunday,

because we're going to see how this practically

plays out in the life of Corinth in the first

century, and we'll talk about ways to bridge

the cultural gap. to our day today. Make sense?

Amen? All right, let's bow our heads. Heavenly

Father, thank you for the challenge of Paul's

words here that you, by your Spirit, carried

him along to write. And as we break it down and

parse it and we learn about knowledge and how

it can puff us up, and we look at love and how

it can build up, and Lord, our temptation, our

tendency is to swing the pendulum to all knowledge

or all love and to exclude the other. Lord, would

you protect us from that? Would you prevent that

from happening in our individual lives and in

the life of this church so that we stay balanced,

so we understand what true knowledge is about,

what it does for us, and how it challenges us

first so that we can then display it to others

and love them through the teaching of the things

that we're learning. God, it seems like such

a simple command when we stop and think about

it, but it's hard for us because We continue,

even as redeemed saints, to be sinners. And so,

Lord, correct us. Show us our own hearts for

everybody here who is looking at this issue now.

And especially for my brothers and sisters in

the room who are learned, who do study a lot.

Lord, may it humble us. May it drag us back,

maybe kicking and screaming, but drag us back

to the middle to say, how am I doing? And for

those that have just ignored study and don't

feel like they have to do. any pursuit of knowledge.

Will you encourage them, Lord, to again come

into the middle and to begin to do that for themselves

and to show them how that will help them to grow

in their knowledge and love of you. Keep us in

balance, Lord, for your glory and for our good

as a body. And thank you again for our time this

morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.