1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 8.
Christian Liberty in the Matter of Eating Meat Offered to Idols. 1 Cor. 8, 1—13.
Knowledge and charity: V. 2. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. V. 3. But if any man love God, the same is known of Him.
This axiomatic saying the apostle amplifies: But if anyone has the idea that he knows something (he is herewith definitely told that) he has never yet learned as he ought to, he has not yet obtained the real basis of true knowledge. Just as soon as a person shows any conceit as to his spiritual knowledge, this fact proves that he is still far from possessing that full, deep, penetrating, exhaustive knowledge which is contained in Christianity.
For the more a person in all humility and under the gracious guidance of God studies the wonderful doctrines which God has given to men in His Word of grace, the more this humility must increase, the more he will confess: We know in part only, and a very small part at that. Self-conceit and real knowledge are incompatible in spiritual things.
On the other hand: But if anyone loves God, this person is known of Him. If the faith of a Christian has found its proper expression in love toward God, from which flows love toward his neighbor, 1 John 5, 2, then he also knows that his knowledge of love is the result of God's having known him. If God knows any one in this way, it is an effective knowledge, Gal. 4, 9; Rom. 8, 29, it brings him into communion, into sonship, with God, into the most intimate relation of mind and spirit.
Naturally this includes also this, that every person that is the subject of such an effective knowledge on the part of God will know God in turn, will grow in knowledge day by day until the day of the consummation of all hopes and knowledge. To know God as Him that has known us in Christ, that is the childlike knowledge which does not puff up, but is, on the contrary, a constant spur to us to imitate the great love of God which bent down to us in our misery and wretchedness and brought us salvation.