[1] "Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. [2] Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. [3] But whoever loves God is known by God."
I am not focusing on Paul's commentary concerning food sacrificed to Idols, but on his statement concerning knowledge and love. Although this is a bit of a generalization, I think there is much truth in what Paul writes, especially concerning God. We can spend our entire life trying to know God, and never come to an end of new revelation, for He is unfathomable. God speaks of this prophetically through the prophet Isaiah when He says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."(Isaiah 55:8-9)
Paul's statement that "those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know" is saying exactly the same thing. Even when we think we know God, we don't really know Him fully. We are all on a journey of discovery, and He is infinite and Eternal, and we will never come to an end of Him. To think we know Him well enough is prideful, or puffing oneself up. In my thirty-plus years of following God, I fell like I am just starting to know Him, so I must agree with Paul. It is fine to recognize that we know Him, but we should never think we are an expert. :-)
Love, in contrast, is more constructive, or as Paul says, it "builds up". This could also be translated as edifies, and the sense is that it adds to, as in building a house. Paul says that knowledge puffs up, as in inflating a balloon. I think this is a good word picture, one builds a permanent addition, the other has the image of increase but very limited substance. Paul says that those who love God are known by God, and one could say the opposite is also true, they know God.
I think what Paul is speaking about here is relationship versus head knowledge. When someone is in relationship with someone, they know them in a way that all the studying of the facts concerning them, and reading their writings can never reveal. Part of that understanding comes from the dynamic exchange that occurs within a relationship. In real relationships there is action and reaction, thoughts that generate responses, creative exchanges of ideas and thoughts, all of which are spontaneous, and new. Knowledge is based on past experiences, relationship has that but much more.
For example, I have been married to my sweetheart for 29+ years. I know her very well, yet I am am constantly learning about her. When we talk, I gain insight and understanding, adding to my already extensive collection, but there is always something new, refreshing and alive about our conversations and discussions. In these exchanges, I am learning about her, she is learning about me, and I am growing in my love for her! If I had stopped learning about her after 10 years of marriage, Paul's statement about knowledge would have been very accurate, 'I think I know her, but I don't know her as I ought to know her' for clearly there was much more.
So my encouragement this morning is to continue to press into relationship with God, into loving Him, and conversing with Him. I will never come to a place of knowing Him fully, but I can always be learning and expanding, building on what I have learned. He is equally desirous of relationship with me, and in that I take comfort, for relationship with Him is thus attainable.
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