"To you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men. O naive ones, understand prudence; And, O fools, understand wisdom. Listen, for I will speak noble things; and the opening of my lips will reveal right things." - Proverbs 8:4-6
"Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him." -I Corinthians 8:1-3
Proverbs continues to speak of the virtues and the continuous call of wisdom. Solomon strongly advocates seeking wisdom, on the one hand extolling its rewards and on the other issuing a strong warning against ignoring it. Among the rewards are riches and life, power and righteousness, honor and truth and knowledge. Despite that long list of virtues, nowhere does Solomon mention love and its relationship to wisdom.
In Corinthians 8, though, Paul tackles that relationship and foreshadows his monologue on love in chapter 13 as he explains one way to use knowledge in love. I think Paul wants to show the church one important way to act like the church, encouraging and building each other up. After all, we are the body, and we should function accordingly - in a healthy manner. A church body that attacks each other's consciences is like somebody with an autoimmune disease. You can quote me on that.
So this morning we were shown that knowledge is a powerful tool, but that it can be misused. Since we know God, we know love. Therefore our knowledge, just like all of our other gifts, can and should be leveraged for the encouragement of the church body.
Have a great weekend. I look forward to seeing you guys Monday. Including Bobby and Ryan.
Powell
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