Being 'puffed up'... A conversation I had with a brother who voiced some disagreement about the extent of my 'plunge' into the world of books, studying, etc.  It's remarkable how often I hear about the 'dangers' of dwelling too much into theology, yet get almost nothing (except in sermons) about not knowing ENOUGH, or being stagnant in one's study of the Word of God (as per Heb 5:12-14...).
"...Alwyn, I've learnt not to depend on my on understanding but just trust His Word. If He says it, that settles it. No one could ever fully understand all the creation of God, neither has any scientist claim to 'know it all.'"

And I doubt anyone would claim to know it all, especially if one is a child of God.  Note though that it's because I trust His Word that I seek to defend, proclaim and explain it to those MASSES of people out there who find it hard or are unwilling to do so.

I believe that much of the complex questions flying around in our heads and in our society are actually 'posed' by God to stimulate and encourage us to even stronger and more responsible thinking.  I'm not saying that such issues are the MOST important things in life (of course they aren't) but they usually serve as an avenue to a more genuine understanding of who God is, His purposes and His plan for a deeper involvement in our lives.
 

"It's by faith, Alwyn, that we believe that He exist and He does! And we cannot win man to God with our own theologies, and thoughts. I've tried.  The work of conviction still belongs to Him."

I absolutely agree the work of conviction is His and His alone.  Yet our theologies and thoughts are also His INSTRUMENTS towards that work.  And even faith must be 'grounded' in the historical truth of the resurrection and the reasonableness of Jesus' claims and teachings.

Furthermore, the directive in 1 Thess 5:21, "Test everything..." implies at least a strong enough grasp of the theological CRITERIA whereby we do our testing.  Also, Hebrew 5:12-14 encourages me to keep on striving to develope my intellect in Him...

What all this suggests to me is that we have to do WHATEVER WE CAN if only because we've been bestowed the 'honour' and responsibility by the Spirit to so spread, defend and (if required) 'prove' His Word and truth (see Acts 9:22).

In so doing, again, we learn more of our God, more of His creation and more of His heart of love for us all.
 

"Brother, pursue righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Knowledge puffs up, lettersdoes kill, too much of both of these only builds up the outer man. The bible says, 'Be still, and know that I am Lord.'"

I thank you for your admonishments.  Surely I need to continue living out the balance of faith and reason in my pilgrimage.

Just a quick comment on that 'Knowledge-puffs-up' phrase:

I ALWAYS seek to qualify statements like those with passages like 2 Peter 1:5, "..add to your faith goodness; and to goodness KNOWLEDGE...".

In fact, the phrase is really "Knowledge puffs up; loves builds up" which seeks to warn against knowledge WITHOUT love, not knowledge per se!  Also, in its historical context, the passage was a thinly veiled indictment of the Gnostic teaching (most probably present in the Conrinthian situation) that salvation was only for the initiated i.e. those possessing otherworldly knowledge of a special, mysterious and exclusive kind.  In this case, the verse has simply nothing to do with a child of God seeking to learn more and more about his heavenly dad...(smile)

Paul, therefore, did not hold that knowledge was 'inherently' bad or dangerous.  It merely needed to subordinated to love.

A similar idea - love being the ground and purpose of knowledge - is presented in 1Cor 13:2, yet only a chapter earlier we see that the 'message of wisdom and knowledge' is in fact a spiritual gift provided by the Spirit for the good of the Body of Christ (1Cor 12:7,8).

I hope you don't mind the brief 'Bible study' I presented above (if this letter has made you feel uneasy pls let me know at once), yet I'd personally encourage you to continually seek to add knowledge to faith (2Pet 1:5!) and never fear any 'consequences' resulting from this, because Love will always be guiding you as to the proper usage of both.  There are MANY ways in which deeper (and sometimes 'complex' thinking) builds up our faith and love for God, my friend...(notwithstanding Lk 18:17 and 1Cor 1:20, of course).

Finally, alluding to a verse you sorta quoted above, our pursuit of the righteousness, peace and joy of the Spirit (Rom 14:17) was really a reminder that the kingdom of God is much higher priority than our self-indulgence (in, for example, food).  And - this is what I wish to bring out - in the immediately preceding verse comes the admonishment to disallow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil (Rom 14:16).

Although Paul's entire discussion was in the context of refraining from non-kosher food (in order to 'disallow' the Jews from 'speaking evil' about the gentiles' faith and life in Christ, something they no doubt 'consider good'), the maxim-like quality of vs.16 could, I trust, apply to our defending the faith.

(Agreed I'm going out of context, *grin*, but...) I suspect that the apostle would not be happy with a overly relaxed attitude towards the intellectual foundations of our faith, especially if the world hammers at it and 'speaks of it as evil' (or untruth, which is almost the same thing).

And it is this latter directive - to defend what we consider as good from being put down by evil - which forms some of the blood cells pumping through the veins of apologetics and theology performed with love for the glory of Christ.
 

Regards,
AL

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