12 Apr Public Journal :: 011 • Love Over Knowledge

It’s been a while since I’ve written for my public journal. The author of Ecclesiastes tells us there are seasons for everything under the sun. I’m coming out of a season where I felt led to focus on other things. I’ve still been creating music, but more under the radar. I’ve still been writing, but more private journal entries between me and God. I’ve also been working on a book about relationships which I hope will become very public at some point in the near future.

This last season also featured a great deal of reading and learning. There are many benefits to educating oneself. It’s the joy of those benefits that keeps me engaging with personal growth. 

However, lately I’ve noticed a negative side effect from my pursuit of learning. More accurately, my growth journey shines a flood light on some undesirable traits at the core of my being. More specifically, I’ve sensed a nasty strain of self-righteousness in myself that makes me sick to my stomach. 

How does this self-righteousness express itself? It causes me to judge the thoughts and actions of others as if the thing I just learned 20 seconds ago gives me a license to look down on other people. The irony is that if you were to rewind the tape 20 seconds to the moment before I learned whatever piece of new knowledge I’m triumphantly wielding, I would likely be just as guilty of whatever judgment I want to pronounce on someone else. 

As the biblical writer Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, “…knowledge makes us feel important.” I can’t tell you how much I hate seeing this in myself. Sometimes it’s daunting to face the unfortunate truths about the darkness that is in my own heart. 

However, this challenge only remains daunting when I forget the implications of what Jesus did for me.

Jesus came to start something new. We just celebrated Easter which highlights Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, signifying the beginning of the end. The end of what? The end of sin’s reign over creation——the same sin that pollutes my heart. 

So although I see a very real ugliness in my own heart, I can know that this ugliness is not the final state, nor is it an accurate representation of the direction in which my heart is moving. The only reason I can draw these conclusions is because of the hope that comes through Jesus. Jesus is the only person who claimed to have the ability to change my heart——that innermost part of me——into something radiant and beautiful.

The antidote to my self-righteous heart is love. Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate expression of love: He endured the ultimate pain and loss at the ultimate cost to Him solely because He knew it would benefit us. That’s love. There was nothing in it for Him but our well being. Yet His love for us is so great that our well being motivated Him enough to be crushed on our behalf. He took the consequences of our sinful hearts upon Himself and offered us freedom in exchange. This is what the author of all knowledge was willing to do for me.

My response? To use my knowledge as a platform from which to look down on others? That would obviously be both foolish and disrespectful. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reminds us that even our best pursuits of knowledge can only ever end in us “knowing in part”. I believe in a time beyond time where we will know in full. But, more importantly, I believe that Jesus, who does know in full, gave us a simple blueprint to keep our priorities in order:

“I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.” (John 13:34-35 AMP)

Based on this blueprint, my prayer becomes, “Father, may my expressions of love always surpass my pursuit of knowledge.” Even when knowledge passes away, love won’t (1 Corinthians 13:13). The fact that love endures is proof that the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love (Galatians 5:6). 

Knowledge is meant to enhance one’s ability to love. Viewing knowledge through this lens changes our approach to gaining it, as well as how we’ll use it once we get it.

If I were to apply the premise of this writing to my pursuit of musical growth, I would be motivated by the fact that attaining more knowledge and proficiency enables me to better serve music. In this way, effective practice empowers richer forms of love and, as a byproduct, enjoyment.

Jesus constructed this approach such that it deals with our fatal heart flaw: selfishness. Notice that His way of handling knowledge doesn’t make it about ourselves.  When we prioritize loving well, our egos are put in their place and our relationships, with both people and things, reap the benefits.

Knowledge in service of love.

Questions for Journaling or Discussion:

1. How do the implications of this approach to knowledge impact you? 
2. In which areas does your knowledge most tempt an ego-driven response? 
3. How may your pursuit of knowledge in a particular area empower you to love others better? Pick one specific relationship and examine it through this lens.

“Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others to grow [in wisdom].”

– 1 Corinthians 8:1b (AMP)