Love & Knowledge

Paul writes to the Philippians, "I pray that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and depth of insight." It's quite striking, is it not, that all this knowledge and depth of insight flows from love. Love is the fertile soil from which knowledge springs.

This, quite obviously, is a different kind of knowledge than that acquired at university. It is spiritual discernment. It is the ready understanding of God’s will, God’s heart, in whatever situation. If you love your co-worker, say, and if you’re praying for him, you will abound in discernment concerning his needs, his issues, his spiritual condition. And you will become a powerful intercessor on his behalf.

But knowledge without love produces nothing but a quibbling kind of pride. In truth, it is not knowledge at all, in Paul’s sense of the word. It is merely a collection of mental trinkets. But love is the thing. Without it, we are, as Paul so memorably put it, nothing more than clanging symbols. A racket.

Thank God that through Jesus Christ He has awakened in us a potential to love people "aboundingly." Let us pursue His mission of love; let us be His instruments of reconciliation; His vessels of grace. Yes, let us love one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.