No Puffing Up

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

NO PUFFING UP

1 Cor 8:1-3

8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But the man who loves God is known by God.

NIV

Although this whole chapter is regarding eating food that is sacrificed to idols, we think we should take a side bar, so to speak, to think about this possessing of knowledge which can make us puffed up. Paul is talking about having knowledge about the food that was sacrificed to idols, which is a meaningless sacrifice because any idol or god of this world is not the Almighty Father, the one God in heaven and on earth. However, over the years we have met certain Christians who are puffed up because they believe they have the knowledge, in fact, more knowledge than most others. Perhaps it is due to their putting so much emphasis on their education or training, or their skillset. Maybe it is true that some have a higher level of training or education, but that does not mean they are above others in their walk with the Lord. We have known those who put more trust in their own skills or training or education then in the Holy Spirit when it comes to the things of God. Paul makes that clear when he states that a man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. The basis of our whole life is loving God. When we love God, we are known by God who sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We have also known men who were giants in spiritual matters, who professed they were revelation knowledge preachers. That is without any formal training or formal education, they relied solely on the Holy Spirit to reveal all the truth to them. We would do good not to put too much trust in our formal training or our learned knowledge through worldly methods and look to the Holy Spirit, trusting completely in God for all we need to know about Him. He has told us that he does not hide the truth from us. Paul already spoke, in chapter 2, about what was revealed to him, not by the spirit of this world, but by the Spirit of God. The Prophet Amos speaks of the same thing as he states, “He who forms the mountains, creates the wind and reveals his thoughts to man”. It would be good not to be puffed up regarding anything we know, especially those things we can learn from worldly methods, because we might learn through or with denominational bias, and we should not be puffed up about even that which has been revealed to us by the Spirit. The best we can do is love our Lord God, as we are known by Him, then we will build each other up.