Knowledge that Edifies

1 Corinthians 8:1–3 AV

Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him.

Tonight we’re going to begin a new section of 1 Corinthians. The Corinthian believers had written to Paul asking him to address several topics that had become issues within the church. We’ve already looked at two of them: whether Christians should marry during a time of intense distress, and whether a man should allow his virgin daughter to marry in such times. Chapter 8 takes us to their third question, viz., whether it’s appropriate for Christians to eat meats that had been sacrificed to idols.

Since most of us can’t remember the last time we went to the store and saw goat meat labeled “offered to Zeus,” we may not appreciate just how big an issue this was. But in the ancient world it was a huge problem. Individuals would take their sacrifices to the temple. Part of the animal was burned in the fire, and the rest was divided between the worshiper and the priest. Since the priests generally had more meat than they needed, they often sold their share in the market. Thus, it was hard not to have contact with meat that had been sacrificed.

So, the early believers in Corinth needed help. Should they eat sacrificed meat at a pagan temple? While the answer to this seems obvious, Christians in the third century weren’t given much choice. They could either offer sacrifices like this or die. The only way to avoid death was to obtain a certificate from the priest affirming that a sacrifice had been made. Many Christians did so. It created a huge controversy in the church. Or what about eating meat at their neighbor’s? Should they first ask their neighbor where his meat came from? Should they buy meat from the local butcher, knowing that it may be a priest’s offering? And if even if their conscience allowed them to buy and eat such meat, should they serve it to other Christians? Should they tell them where it came from?

Paul answered all of these questions in his response to the Corinthians. But before he did so, he addressed a much more important issue — arrogance. That’s what today’s text is about.

Knowledge Puffs Up

Notice how quickly Paul switched from things offered unto idols to knowledge in verse 1. He said, Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. He just skipped right over the question that the Corinthians asked. Then he added that knowledge puffeth up or makes a person think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

What does this mean? Is all knowledge bad? Does knowledge inevitably lead to arrogance? Not really. We’ll see in a minute that there is actually a kind of knowledge that produces exactly the opposite effect. And you can probably think of a few Scripture passages that commend knowledge. In John 17:3 Jesus said, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Eternal life is the knowledge of God. Likewise, Peter wrote that God has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue (2 Pet. 1:3). Later in the same epistle he also exhorted his readers to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (3:18). So, knowledge by itself is not necessarily a bad thing. The Christian faith requires a certain amount of it. Our catechism calls it “certain knowledge” (HC 21).

Most commentators believe that Paul was actually quoting the letter from the Corinthians when he said, We know that we all have knowledge. That is, they had claimed that all true believers have knowledge. Paul agreed with them. In fact, the ESV even puts the phrase “all of us possess knowledge” in quotation marks. They’re probably right about this. However, we have to ask what Paul meant by it. Was he being sarcastic, as if to say, “You folks claim to have a massive amount of knowledge. Really? Should I take you seriously?” After all, in verse 7 he wrote exactly the opposite. There he said that not every man had the same knowledge.

On the other hand, it seems more likely that the knowledge that the Corinthians claimed was a limited knowledge. In this case it was limited to what God is and how he is to be worshiped. You can see that in verse 4. Paul reminded them that they knew that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. Thus, they shouldn’t fear idols or meats sacrificed to them. Two verses later he added that they knew that there is but one God, the Father, and that this one God is known most perfectly in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom he made the universe. This is the God who commands us in the present and determines our future. He is the one to whom we owe everything.

Although all of the Corinthians understood these things intellectually — after all, Paul must have taught them about eating meat sacrificed to idols during his eighteen months with them — for some it had not yet filtered down into their everyday lives. That’s why Paul wrote what he did in verse 7. Not everyone had successfully unbound his conscience from the restrictions of his former pagan beliefs.

We have to understand that these kinds of changes come very slowly for some people. Think of it this way. How long did it take before first-century Jews who converted to Christ were comfortable eating ham sandwiches or wearing garments of mixed fabrics? How long does it someone coming from certain non-Reformed church backgrounds today to be comfortable drinking alcohol, dancing or playing cards? Or how many times do you have to hear sermons on worrying before you finally learn to trust Jesus even in the hard times?

But the fact that some of the Corinthians were not yet fully sanctified wasn’t the problem. The problem was the so-called knowledge of those who thought they were sanctified. Their knowledge had turned into arrogance toward their brothers and sisters in Christ who had not yet come to the same convictions. It was causing others to stumble. It was injuring their walk with the Lord. Yet, the knowledge of the super-sanctified had puffed them up to the point where they believed that the damage they were causing others was unimportant. After all, truth was on their side.

Knowledge without love destroys, but knowledge with love edifies. As Paul wrote, Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. Those in Corinth who were parading their knowledge before others did not love their brothers as they ought.

Knowledge or Love

In verses 2 and 3 Paul presents us with two possible scenarios for how this plays out. The first, in verse 2, is of a man who has knowledge and nothing more. Paul wrote, And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

Those who claimed, We all have knowledge, did not know as much as they had supposed. Note that Paul broadens the issue of knowledge far beyond the ironical question. What he wrote applies to everyone who makes a claim to know something (if any man think), every subject of knowledge (that he knoweth any thing) and every knowledge claim (he knoweth nothing). In one sentence the apostle wiped away all their pretenses. None of their knowledge was what they thought it was. None of it was any good. It was lacking in some fundamental ways.

It’s hard to bring out the full meaning of verse 2 in an English translation. The brethren in Corinth were not just claiming to know isolated facts about the Bible, like Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees or Jesus grew up in Nazareth. They were claiming to have come to state of certain knowledge regarding meats offered to idols. Their knowledge of this matter was, in their opinion, complete and unassailable. Yet, Paul reproved them with a very simple statement of fact: they do know nothing as they should know it.

It’s often true that the more confidently a person boasts of his knowledge, the less of it he actually has. And it’s just as true that braggarts of this kind despise reproof. It just irritates them to no end when someone refuses to share their opinion of themselves.

But why would Paul tell the Corinthians that they didn’t know anything like they should? Certainly, they knew the things we mentioned earlier, viz., that idols are nothing and that there is only one God whom we know through his Son. Paul commended them for this. So, was it really true that they didn’t understand even these things in the right way?

The answer is yes. That’s exactly what Paul meant. Listen to what Calvin wrote on this verse:

That man, therefore, who thinketh that he knoweth something, or, in other words, who is insolent from an empty notion of his own knowledge, so that he prefers himself before others, and is self-conceited, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. For the beginning of all true knowledge is acquaintance with God, which produces in us humility and submission; nay more, it prostrates us entirely instead of elating us. But where pride is, there is ignorance of God — a beautiful passage! Would to God that all knew it aright, so as properly to understand the rule of right knowledge!

In fact, Calvin argued this very point at much greater length in the first book of his Institutes. The only way that we can really know ourselves or anything else in the created universe, he wrote, is by knowing God first. The fact that he is the sovereign creator reminds us that we are dust and ashes. His mercy teaches us that we came into this world as sinners under the condemnation of our first parents. His grace and love impress upon us the profound truth that in our salvation he did something for us that we could never have done for ourselves. Only when we see ourselves in the light of divine self-revelation can we have the humility, integrity and love that adorn real knowledge.

Interestingly, Paul provided one answer to the incompleteness of the Corinthians knowledge is given in chapter 13. It’s obviously not an answer they had considered, since they were convinced that their knowledge was already complete. His answer is that the Bible would soon be finished. Then and only then would the church have everything it needs. Listen to what he wrote: Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away (vv. 8–10).

At first these verses seem to suggest that knowledge itself — the very possibility of knowing anything — will someday be abolished. But that’s not really what it says. The men who wrote the 6000 books in my personal library all thought that they knew something. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have written so much. And I suppose that we’ll all know even more in heaven than we do now. After all, eternal life is knowing God. Rather, Paul meant that the knowledge that existed when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians will cease only in the sense that partial knowledge will be replaced with a more perfect knowledge. In the not-too-distant future, the church would have that perfect knowledge in the finished New Testament.

This emphasizes, first of all, the importance of God’s revelation. Knowledge of God doesn’t come from chanting a meaningless phrase ad nauseam while in a trance-like state. Nor do we acquire it from the world’s great philosophers and scholars and scientists. It’s not determined by public opinion. And it’s certainly not whatever any particular individuals would like it to be. God alone knows his mind, and he alone is able to reveal it to us, which he has done in his Word.

Further, this stresses the importance of every believer abiding in the scriptures. If you want to know anything as you should know it — whether of God, of yourselves or of the universe — that’s the only place you’ll ever find it. Scientific theories are always subject to revision. That’s why we call them theories. Philosophies come and go with every generation. Only the Christian faith has withstood the test of time and promises that it will endure forever. So, read your Bibles! Learn there about the God who drew you unto himself with irresistible cords of love and saved you. Behold in them the glory of the only Savior of men, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Knowledge and Love

This takes us to the second of Paul’s scenarios in verse 3. If the first addressed those who had knowledge without love, the second speaks to those whose knowledge is grounded in love. Verse 3 says, But if any man love God, the same is known of him. True knowledge can be found whenever and wherever a person loves God.

Interestingly, though, the last half of this verse is somewhat ambiguous. Did Paul mean that the man who loves God is known by God or that God is known by the man who loves him? Most commentators favor the first option. In fact, Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian, translates verse 3 like this: “But the man who loves God is known by God.” He then went on to explain that when God knows someone it means that he approves of him, i.e., he recognizes that such a person has the right kind of knowledge.

Naturally, God’s knowledge of a man entails more than just putting the right name to a face. In 2 Timothy 2:19 Paul wrote, Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. That is, the Lord loves those who belong to him. For God to love a man means that he called him and chose him. But God does not know false professors of Christ in the same way, as will be evident in the day of judgment when Jesus will say to them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity (Matt. 7:23).

However, I prefer the latter option. In Greek the general rule of thumb is that a pronoun’s antecedent is the nearest matching noun. Here the noun closest to the pronoun the same is God. That is, God is known by the man who loves him. This has the advantage of preserving the link between a believer’s knowledge of God and his love for God that we spoke of earlier. It also places the responsibility to know God and to love him in our hands. We can only do these things by his grace, of course, but we must do them. If for no other reason, we must do them as a testimony to his grace and mercy.

In this evening’s text, the apostle Paul said very little about the question that the Corinthians asked, but he will as we make our way through the next three chapters. Instead, he addressed a more fundamental question.

We may not have to worry too much about meats offered to idols. But we cannot avoid dealing with knowledge. Every one of us has opinions about how other believers should live. Unless our opinions are based on the precepts of scripture and presented in love, they mean absolutely nothing. That’s a hard less to learn. Paul put it this way: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing (1 Cor. 13:1–3).

Love, according to our Lord Jesus Christ, is the greatest commandment. It requires knowledge, but it doesn’t stop with knowledge. The two must go together. Just as God’s knowledge of us implies his love for us, so our knowledge must be ministered with love as well. Amen.