1 Corinthians 8:2,3 – True knowledge

If anyone is presuming to know anything, he knew not as yet according as he must know. Now if   anyone is loving God, this one is known by Him.

The value of knowledge is certainly not trivialized by Paul. How often did Paul appeal to the knowledge of the Corinthians? “Are you not aware that….?”   But true knowledge is always modest. It also makes you aware of what you don’t know yet. That also makes us curious. This attitude is the opposite of the arrogance whereby one’s own knowledge is puffed up and set against the ignorance of others.

Another characteristic of true knowledge is that it causes one to love GOD. The word “know” in Scripture therefore means fellowship or communion. “Adam knew his wife and she became pregnant”. True knowledge is never purely intellectual, it is, above all, love for GOD.

The sentence in verse 3 has a strange twist. One would expect something like: Now if anyone is loving God…really knows Him. But it reads: If anyone is loving GOD, this one is known by GOD. The highest knowledge is the knowledge that GOD himself has. The fact that the one GOD knows me (and loves me) that causes me to love Him.

Delen: