We should not think of the inspired message as ‘just words.’ 30 Nor should we mistakenly treat knowledge as ‘just facts.’31 The words are essential and the facts are real. But they are not for the mind or intellect alone. Truth should reach our hearts and thoroughly transform us. Christians in Corinth, for example, learned an important fact: “An idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4). They arrived at factual conclusions: Since idols are not real, they do nothing bad to the food used in their worship. Such food itself cannot spiritually hurt a Christian who later eats it.32 Confident in this new knowledge, some Christians ate food that pagans had offered to their idols. Yet Paul warned them,
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know (1 Corinthians 8:1-2). M
They were puffed up (proud) about knowing facts. But they missed Christ’s main lesson of life – love.33 For in eating food from idol worship, they misled others who still thought of idols as real. Those people included “weak” Christians who followed the examples of “strong” members,34 and so sinned by doing what their consciences believed to be wrong.35
The knowledgeable members used the facts selfishly. Instead they should have thought about how to help others (“love builds up”) and how to love God (1 Corinthians 8:1-3). They “ought” to have known that true knowledge emphasizes relationships, first with God, then with others.36 The mark of true “disciples” is that they “love one another” (John 13:35).
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).
30. 1 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 4:20
32. 1 Corinthians 8:8; 10:25-27; Romans 14:14
33. 1 Corinthians 8:1 cf. 1 Corinthians 13:13; Romans 14:15; Ephesians 5:1-2
34. “Weak” and “strong” in 1 Corinthians 8 and Romans 14 refer to a believer’s level of knowledge, not to the level of his love or dedication. 1 Corinthians 3 likened Corinthian Christians to “infants” since they were so worldly and unloving. Among the worst were the members who were “strong” in factual knowledge, yet carelessly hurt the consciences of other members.
35. 1 Corinthians 8:7-13; 10:23-29; Romans 14:14,20-23
36. Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-34; Luke 10:27-28 cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; 7:9; John 17:26; Philippians 1:9; 1 John 4:8,16