A seminary student criticized the administrative practices of the leaders in his church: “You are doing things wrong. Your way is not what I have been taught in seminary. You must listen to what I am saying.” Not only did the seminary student criticize the leaders of the church, he also insisted on imposing his newfound knowledge on the church. As a result, a bitter and divisive spirit arose in the church. It did not end well (see Titus 3.10).
Sadly, the seminary student may have been right as far as his knowledge was concerned. But somehow his knowledge became more important to him than the health of the church. And his knowledge did not lead to Christ-like conduct, as “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5.25 NIV).
The apostle Paul warns us: “We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know it as he ought to know it. But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him” (1 Corinthians 8.1–3 HCSB). The Bible is not against knowledge itself. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge” (1 John 2.20 HCSB). All followers of Christ are urged to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3.18).
Yet knowledge that is in keeping with the Spirit of Christ is always tempered with love—for God and for others (especially for his church). Knowledge without love can easily lead to arrogant imposition of one’s “superior knowledge” on others. “Because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 8.11 NLT). The danger, of course, is that we may not even be aware of what we are doing. Our sense of being right can overpower everything else. We may even insist that “my way is for the benefit of the church.” But being right does not always lead to doing right if the Spirit of Christ is not leading us. “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8.9 NIV).
That is why Scripture exhorts us always to keep knowledge and love together, all for the benefit of Christ’s church: “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4.7–8 NIV). “We will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church” (Ephesians 4.15 NLT).
—Keith Y. Jainga