Today’s post is
a reprinted article from churchleaders.com and is by Francis Chan. The original article can be found at THIS LINK. Here is the
article, and I pray this will give you much to think about as it did me. Read on…
Knowledge
is essential, but it’s not sufficient. It takes knowledge for me to write this.
We need to think. We must know the truth.
But
knowledge alone is not sufficient for the Christian life. It’s not enough just
to have knowledge. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:2: “If I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Think hard. But know
that it’s not enough. Paul says even if he had all knowledge but didn’t love,
he would amount to nothing. In other words, you can be brilliant and worthless.
It
would be like a great basketball player who never misses a shot but keeps
shooting into the opponent’s basket. He may say, “I was five for five today
from the three-point line,” but his teammates would respond, “But you’re
killing our team! You’re shooting at the wrong basket!” He answers confidently,
“But I did not miss.” That is the kind of attitude that Paul is confronting
here. You might be brilliant, but you’re killing our team. You’re not
building up the brothers; you’re making them feel dumb and wounding their
conscience. You’re not stirring them up to love and good deeds. You just keep
making them feel inadequate. By your knowledge, this weaker brother is being
destroyed!
Your
brilliance is worthless if you’re not building up your brother—and even worse
if you’re destroying him with your knowledge. So when you look at people, do
you love them? Do you think, Let me use my knowledge to build this person
up?
What
Christians Say to Each Other … So often when I read statements on blogs (or tweets)—comments
that brothers will write to those who are supposed to be fellow brothers—I
think, “Where is the love?” It burdens me. I can’t believe some of the things
Christians say to each other in person—and maybe especially online (when you
don’t have to look them in the face). How is what you’re saying supposed to
build that brother—or anyone else who hears it or reads it? Our knowledge
should be pressed into the service of love. It should serve to build each other
up. That’s what love does. It builds up. It looks to help others, not hurt
them.
True
Knowledge … It
is such a danger to puff yourself up and imagine that you’re a brilliant
person. It’s like the school bully who imagines himself as the hero because he
is the strongest. He can beat anyone up. But everyone else knows that he’s not
a hero but a jerk. If he were a real hero, he would defend the weak. He would
be lifting them up, using his strength to care for them and protect them, not
to bully them.
In
the same way, with biblical and theological “knowledge” come the intellectual bullies
who seem to know so much and imagine themselves to be so knowledgeable. But
Paul is saying that they may be only imagining that they are knowledgeable,
because if they really knew, they would use their knowledge not to weaken
others but to strengthen them. Not to tear them down but to build people up.
That’s what love does.
A
Closing Challenge to Thinkers … Thinkers, let’s not fool ourselves: To
“be conformed to the image of [Christ]” is what we were predestined for, right
(Rom. 8:29)? We’ve been predestined to walk as
Jesus walked. It’s great if we have thought hard about Jesus and wrestled with
doctrines such as predestination, but my prayer is that this information
becomes true knowledge and that we actually become like him and that our
knowledge doesn’t make us arrogant so that we gloat about it and show off what
we know. My prayer for me, and for you, is that everyone we come in contact
with would feel our love for them and be built up. That they would see the
fruit of our having said, “How can I lift them up with this knowledge that I
have?”
Let’s
not fool ourselves and imagine that we know so much. Maybe we don’t know
anything at all. Maybe some of us have been using our knowledge to tear our
brother down and hurt that brother for whom Christ died. Let’s not be guilty of
the Corinthian error.
So I’m asking God even
right now as I write these final words that he would give me love for others. Oh,
God, let me believe what I’m saying. And I hope that you would think
through your words and how you can build others up and think about others as
brothers and sisters in Christ—so much so that when unbelievers see it, they
will have a glimpse of God.
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