Knowledge Puffs Up? (Understanding 1st Corinthians 8 Verse 1).

 You often hear professing christians say "knowledge puffeth up", casually quoting a line in the 1st verse of 1st Corinthians chapter 8.


Now that's very pedestrian; a piecemeal attitude to the scriptures of truth can make a man dismember & quote lines of scripture over the years, which he yet has no true understanding of.

The right question to ask is what knowledge puffs up?

Those in the habit of quoting this line of scripture assume that if one is versed in the knowledge of God, it has the tendency of puffing him up but the truth is that true
depths in the knowledge of God abases & empties the soul of any self confidence & trust.
Measures of true revelations go with measures of dealings and emptying experiences under the hand of God.

One cannot truly & deeply apprehend the glory of God and not be slain by the revelation of his glory.

Isaiah saw his glory and spontaneously saw his wretchedness & unworthiness and declared "woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."(Isaiah 6:5).

In the new testament, John saw his glorious countenance as the sun shining in it's full strength and was slain, as he spontaneously fell down at his feet as dead. It took the Lord laying his righthand on him to quicken/raise him up, saying: "fear not I am the first and the last, the living one and i became dead but behold I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades." Revelation 1:12-18.

The depths of the true knowledge of God does not puff up but empties the soul, constituting the vessel a channel through which divine verities can flow out in edification without any pollution.
However, those whose hearts are not open & sincere enough to receive the truth, may still judge the vessel as exuding pride and not edifying anyone, just like the Pharisees & Sadducees were never edified by the words of Jesus but always felt he was arrogating so much to himself.

Q: In the context of 1st Corinthians 8 verse one what is this knowledge that the apostle refers to as that which puffs up?

God through the prophet Jeremiah clearly expressed that he would rather have us glory in the progressive understanding & knowledge of him than in any attainment in this life and the apostle Paul in the first chapter of his first epistle to the saints in Corinth lifted that scripture - See Jeremiah 9:23-24 & 1st Corinthians 1:30-31.

So when the apostle in the eighth chapter of the same epistle says knowledge puffs up, it is the basest of the knowledge of God, which any intelligent creature can possess without revelation, that he is referring to; a knowledge which is merely head knowledge and not real/practical as to command devotion to God...."we know that we all have knowledge"(1st Corinthians 8:1)....what knowledge?  👉🏼"we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one."(vs.4)....The knowledge that there is one God.

It is the knowledge which all Israel had yet it profited them nothing as there was no practical/real apprehension to command devotion to God alone; it was merely head knowledge. (Deuteronomy 4:33-35; 6:4-5).

Of this base knowledge, the apostle in the second verse says: "If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know".

He that thinks he knows is clearly one who is puffed up by what he thinks he knows, and that in itself shows that he knows nothing yet as he ought to.

To be vainly puffed up in the self assertion of attainment or acquisition of knowledge, is a mark of not having true/substantial knowledge of God.
A true/substantial knowledge/revelation of God will always empty & abase the vessel, making him see nothing but his inadequacies & frailty in the light of the sufficiency & perfections of God.

In the 7th verse the apostle went on to point out the fact that this base knowledge is not even in every man; of course there are pagans who worship all sorts of gods, and there are atheists who don't even believe in God and there are new converts, who in the past, were so given to idolatrous practices that they still struggle with the weak conscience/consciousness of idols and things sacrificed to idols.
They do not function in the knowledge/consciousness that there is one God.

Those who have not this basic knowledge are those who satan & devils have lied to & espoused to falsehood & idolatrous traditions for much of their lives, that even when they transit to the faith of Christ, their conscience needs to be purged of the consciousness of idols.

Brother James in his epistle(James 2:18-22) stated that even the devils/demons behind the dumb idols people worship as gods/deities, have this knowledge that there is one God, and went on to show how empty, unreal & vain such a knowledge is; it is such that even a vain man(vs 20) and the vile can possess this knowledge and still continue in their wicked ways.

He went on to show that our faith in or knowledge of the One Lord/God is not complete but empty/dead until it transcends this base/head knowledge and practically provokes us to obedience in loving that one Lord unreservedly.

He points out the fact that even devils have this knowledge that there is one God and he is the one Lord. They believe but not unto obedience of submitting in love but rather trembling among their ranks in awe of the prospect of a certain judgment.

This is the knowledge which Paul refers to as that which vainly puffs up.

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