In our society we value information and knowledge. We pursue it at great cost (just consider the price of a college education). In many situations, knowing the right answer is what matters most, and knowing more than someone else is the way to win.
Many people who study religious stuff also pursue knowledge, often making the most minuscule of distinctions over trivialities that normal people care nothing about. This is the epitome of the age of modernity, elevating knowledge above all else.
I know people with great knowledge. They dispense it freely, often with little regard for others. They use knowledge as a weapon, hurting people with it as they smugly attempt to elevate themselves. In the process they end up being cocky and condemning.
This is how some preachers preach and how some of their followers act. In the wake of their unfiltered rhetoric, they leave a trail of bodies. Though they love knowledge, they don’t love people.
Yes, I study the Bible, too. But I don’t lose sight of why. More knowledge isn’t my end game.
Paul understood this. In one of his letters, he writes that love trumps knowledge. In another dispatch, he says that without love, we’re hosed.
I don’t study the Bible to obtain more knowledge but to know more of God, the God of love. That’s all I really need to know.
[Ephesians 3:19, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, and 1 John 4:8, 16]
A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.
