Puffed Up or Built Up?
Introduction: The Peril of Smart Christians
We live in an age of information overload. At no other time in human history has so much knowledge been available to so many people with so little effort. With a few clicks, we can access ancient texts, theological treatises, and fierce doctrinal debates. This can be a tremendous blessing, but it also carries with it a profound spiritual danger. The danger is that we can become theological hobbyists, collectors of correct opinions, who know all the right answers but have forgotten the first thing about love. We can become the kind of Christian who can win any argument on the internet but can't live at peace with the brother who sits in the pew next to him.
This is precisely the problem Paul confronts in Corinth. The city of Corinth was a bustling, pagan metropolis, and the marketplace was full of meat that had been offered in sacrifice to various idols before being sold. This created a crisis of conscience for the new believers. Some Christians, whom we might call the "strong," understood their theology. They knew that an idol is "nothing in the world" (v. 4). It's just a block of wood or stone. Therefore, the meat is just meat, and eating it is no big deal. They had the right knowledge. But other believers, the "weaker" brethren, had just been converted out of that very idolatry. For them, that meat was spiritually radioactive. Their consciences were still tender, and to see a fellow Christian eating that meat could tempt them to participate in a way that would violate their conscience, entangling them once again in their old paganism.
The strong, "smart" Christians were becoming arrogant. They were looking down on the weaker brethren as superstitious and unenlightened. They were flaunting their liberty, causing their brothers to stumble, and in doing so, they were tearing down the very church that Christ died to build. Paul's response is a master class in pastoral theology. He does not deny that their knowledge is correct. He affirms it. But he immediately subordinates their correct knowledge to a higher principle: love. What good is your theological precision if it becomes a club to beat your brother? What good is being right if you use your rightness to destroy the church? This passage is a necessary and bracing corrective, not just for the Corinthians, but for every generation of Christians who are tempted to believe that being smart is the same thing as being mature.
The Text
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;
but if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.
(1 Corinthians 8:1-3 LSB)
Gaseous Knowledge, Solid Love (v. 1)
Paul begins by quoting the Corinthians' own proud slogan back at them, before delivering a sharp rebuke.
"Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." (1 Corinthians 8:1)
You can almost hear the sarcasm in Paul's opening. "Oh, yes, about the idol meat. We all know, don't we? We're all in on the secret. We've all got the 'gnosis'." This was the proud boast of the Corinthian intelligentsia. But Paul immediately exposes the emptiness of this kind of knowledge when it is detached from love. "Knowledge puffs up."
The Greek word here for "puffs up" is a vivid one. It means to inflate, to blow up like a balloon. Knowledge by itself, knowledge as a mere intellectual possession, creates an illusion of substance. It makes a man big in his own eyes. It fills his head with hot air. But a balloon, for all its size, is fragile and hollow. It has no structural integrity. This is what intellectual pride does to a man and to a church. It creates arrogant, self-important individuals who are easily popped by the slightest provocation.
The contrast could not be sharper. "But love builds up." The word for "builds up" is oikodomeo, from which we get our word "edify." It is an architectural term. It means to build a house, to construct something solid, lasting, and habitable. Love takes the raw materials of knowledge, the bricks and lumber of true doctrine, and it actually builds something with them. It builds up the brother. It builds up the church. Knowledge that is not governed by love is a demolition ball. It smashes into the weak places in the church and leaves a pile of rubble. Love, on the other hand, is the master builder. It handles truth with care, knowing that the goal is not to prove how smart you are, but to build a holy temple for the Lord.
The First Step in Wisdom (v. 2)
Next, Paul dismantles the very foundation of their intellectual arrogance.
"If anyone thinks that he has known anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;" (1 Corinthians 8:2 LSB)
This is a devastating critique. The man who is confident that he has "arrived" intellectually, the one who thinks he has mastered the subject, is demonstrating by that very confidence that he hasn't even begun to learn properly. The problem is not with the content of his knowledge, an idol is indeed nothing, but with the manner of his knowing. He has "not yet known as he ought to know."
How ought we to know? We ought to know with humility, recognizing that we are finite creatures and God is the infinite Creator. We see through a glass darkly. We ought to know for the purpose of worship and service, not for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. And we ought to know in the context of the body, for the building up of the saints. The Corinthians knew a fact, but they did not know the purpose for which God had given them that fact. Their knowledge was a personal possession to be proud of, not a tool to be used in the loving service of their brothers.
True Christian knowledge always produces humility. The more you truly know God, the more you realize how little you know. The man who thinks he's a theological giant is really just a spiritual toddler who has learned a few big words. The beginning of all true wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord is the death of intellectual pride.
Known by God (v. 3)
Finally, Paul reveals the true foundation of all Christian identity and knowledge. This is the bedrock.
"but if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him." (1 Corinthians 8:3 LSB)
This verse turns the entire Corinthian worldview on its head. They were basing their spiritual status on what they knew, on the knowledge they had acquired and mastered. Paul says that is entirely the wrong way to look at it. The ultimate issue is not how well you know God, but the staggering, glorious fact that He knows you. The verb is in the passive voice: "he has been known by Him."
This is the voice of sovereign grace. Our relationship with God does not begin with our intellectual quest for Him. It begins with His gracious, electing love for us. Before we ever sought Him, He sought us. Before we ever knew Him, He knew us. As Paul says to the Galatians, "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God..." (Gal. 4:9). That "or rather" is everything. To be known by God in the biblical sense is not merely to be observed by Him. It means to be chosen, to be set apart, to be loved with an everlasting love.
This is the truth that demolishes all pride. My standing before God does not depend on my theological acumen, my spiritual performance, or the strength of my conscience. It depends entirely on the fact that He, in His free and sovereign grace, has set His affection upon me and knows me as His own. The one who truly understands this cannot be arrogant. How can you be puffed up when you realize that everything you have is a gift? The one who loves God, the one whose heart is turned toward Him in covenant loyalty, is the one who has understood that he is first the object of God's love. This is the only knowledge that matters, and it is the only knowledge that builds.
Conclusion: Liberty in Service of Love
The lesson for us is pointed and clear. Our theological knowledge, our understanding of Christian liberty, our doctrinal precision, all of it must be the servant of love. The central question is not, "Is this lawful for me?" but rather, "Does this build up my brother?" The strong are not given their strength to run roughshod over the weak, but to protect them, to bear with their scruples, and to patiently lead them into greater maturity.
We must constantly examine ourselves. Does our knowledge make us more patient, more humble, more gentle? Or does it make us irritable, argumentative, and quick to look down on those who don't see things as clearly as we do? If our doctrine is not producing love, then we have not yet known as we ought to know.
The gospel is the ultimate corrective to this puffed up knowledge. For the gospel tells us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did not wait for us to get our theology straight. He came to us in our weakness and ignorance. And the pinnacle of all knowledge is not to be able to exegete a difficult passage, but to know that you are known by Him. When that is the foundation of your life, your knowledge will cease to be a balloon of pride and will become the trowel of a master builder, used for the glory of God and the good of His church.