Real Knowledge (1 Cor 8:2)

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. - 1 Corinthians 8:2

Studying theology can be dangerous business. There are so many different topics to study, and so many different opinions to consider. Sometimes it can bring more confusion than clarity.

Perhaps the greatest danger, however, in studying theology is the spiritual pride and complacency it seems to bring about in so many souls.

Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees so harshly, not because they were terrible people, but because they allowed their great learning to blind them to the reality right in front of their eyes.

They looked down on others because they knew more about the Bible than they did.

Just knowing how to verbalize correct answers to questions is not nearly good enough, and can sometimes even be counterproductive to our spiritual development.

"How can knowing the right answers to questions ever be dangerous?" you may ask.

Because if we are not careful, such knowledge can easily cause us to "confuse the map for the territory" to borrow a 20th-century philosophical phrase.

Just as possessing a map leading to buried treasure is not at all the same thing as possessing the buried treasure itself, possessing correct theological formulations about God in our brains is not at all the same thing as possessing God Himself.

The more one comes to know God, the more he should realize just how utterly beyond comprehension God really is. Human words cannot come close to conveying the power, glory, wisdom, and love that God is in His innermost being.

So inadequate did God Himself consider words for communicating His nature to humans that He had to incarnate Himself into our world in order to finally communicate His true nature to us.

Moses and his inspired law can bring us to the edges of the promised land, but only Yeshua can bring us through the threshold into paradise.

So sacred did the ancient Jews hold the name of God that they replaced YHWH in their Scriptures with "LORD," so as to protect the holy name from ever being uttered by unclean human lips.

Now through the Incarnation, we have not only been given access to the name of God (Jesus) but we are encouraged to call upon this name repeatedly throughout the day.

However, we cannot take for granted the price that had to be paid to give unclean lips like ours access to call upon the very name of the living God. Every place our feet now touch should be considered holy ground.

The great Chinese sage Lao Tzu recognized the limitations of language when he said, "Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say."

And yet he said that...

Language may be inadequate, but it is necessary.

There are good and bad ways to use language in order to formulate theological ideas, and we must use good theology to correct errors in bad theology.

But at some point it becomes just plain sad watching people argue over the most intricate details of the map when our lost world is not waiting for someone of heroic intelligence to decipher the map but is simply waiting for someone to go out and find the divine treasure the map so clearly speaks of.

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’

and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him

and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.

But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating.

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

Luke 12:43-48