1 Corinthians 8:1-2 English Standard Version

Food Offered to Idols

1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

We all have knowledge but what makes anyone an academic?

As a noun it is a teacher or scholar in a college or institute of higher education. It is the institution that defines the academic.

The adjective is the pursuit of knowledge and its secondary definition explains its rhetorical irrelevance. “It’s largely academic.” That is knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

Here we must come to terms with knowing Christ Himself rather than the literary work of the bible.

A man of letters knows letters but does he know Christ? He can but it will not be seen in his academic achievements, it will be seen in how he loves.

Academically there is much to be learned from the bible but it has no value if it does not answer the question “What am I to do with so great a love?”

1 John 4:7-12 English Standard Version

God Is Love

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

It is not a question of “if” God loves us, He has proven that to us. His love in us is transformative and we are not what we were.

That is our witness.