Scripture verse that caught my attention today: 1 Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
Observation: The last sentence in this verse is so true.
Application: The other day I had a discussion with someone about the 10 commandments. While almost everyone has heard of the ten commandments and understand them to be excepted Christian principles, few realize that there are at least a couple of different ways in which they are numbered. For example, Catholics and Lutherans number them one way, and churches from the evangelical or orthodox tradition number them another. Neither position is necessarily ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ since the Bible itself does not actually assign numbers to any of the commandments.
At any rate, the person I was in discussion with about this topic was from the evangelical tradition and didn’t know about this difference. At the time he seemed to more or less dismiss the difference with the comment “I just do it the way it’s in the Bible.”
Now,he’s a very great and very likeable guy, but honestly, that sort of got my dander up. His comment came across condescending in the first place and, ironically, clearly uninformed as well. His ‘knowledge’ (which in this case was even inaccurate) puffed up but, at least with me, didn’t build up.
But here’s the other irony—suddenly my own ‘knowledge’ was ‘puffing up’ but not building up! I found myself wanting to make a point. I secretly celebrated when another person, completely unaware of our previous conversation, tried to tell him the same thing! How ‘loving’ is that?
Thankfully, there are two commandments that actually are numbered in the Bible. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. And then he pointed out that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. My new friend and I were trying our level best to do the first, and we both struggled in our own ways trying to do the second. Hence we both demonstrated, and also hopefully discovered, how deeply we continue to need the love of Christ which, as the Bible says “urges us on.”
Prayer: Lord, you have so very much to teach. Thanks for all of the teachable moments in life that are found in our failures and our successes and everywhere in between. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Scripture Readings today included: Joshua 15-18 and 1 Corinthians 8)
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