Knowledge Puffs Up

In passing during the message on Sunday, Brenna Rubio mentioned this little, potent verse of scripture:

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. - 1 Corinthians 8:1

Paul is writing about a moral dilemma that the church was facing about who gets to be included in the community and who is being sinful. The situation was very different that what we face today - he was writing about what to do with people who eat food sacrificed to idols. But the core issue is exactly the same: who is out, who is in, and how should leaders make decisions around the importance of theology.

The way that Paul positions the conversation is to make very, very clear that the goal is love. It doesn’t matter how much you know or even how much faith you have - it matters how you treat real people who are standing right in front of you. Will you love them? Love is always theologically correct.

Do a little mental catalogue of your last 24 hours and when you felt like you were right. How much did being right help the person you were talking with? How did you do at loving them? Is there an approach that might have included more love? Talk with Jesus through that situation and ask for his perspective on it. And then ask for the grace to do today a bit more like he might have you do it.