Knowledge can be pursued for one of two reasons. Power or love.
Our first parents reached for power when they took fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Power to be like God. Power to be autonomous in decision making. Power to know. We know the results. Death and destruction reign.
For two years, I have been asking myself why the NAPARC water I swim in feels so dirty. I fear part of the problem is the cerebral nature of the Reformed tradition. It is steeped in intellect. It is highly rational, logical, and deep. It’s what attracted me to it. As a teenager who grew up in low-church circles, I was hungry for depth. Reformed theology assured me that God is brilliant. There are answers to my questions. I love this aspect still. God used it to keep me in the faith all those years ago. But people love knowledge for one of two reasons. To horde power, or to give away love. What if the intellectual nature of our tradition is part of tinder fueling the authoritarian dumpster fire we see raging out of control?
Seminary has taught me that knowledge itself cannot and will not save. Aimee Byrd highlights this on a recent podcast. Sanctification and knowledge are not the same thing. In fact, knowledge apart from sanctification becomes a weapon to use on innocent sheep. It becomes a method of coercion; a rod to shame sheep into selfish compliance. This is why spiritual abuse is so heinous - a pastor uses the power that comes with spiritual knowledge to manipulate a sheep. Paul knew this. His words are strong- one with spiritual knowledge without love is nothing.
If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
1 Cor. 13:2
But there is a better way. Knowledge steeped in love is safe. Healing. Life.
The first Adam failed, plunging the world into death. But the second Adam came to reveal the Father. To give life…life abundant. He promises, “Abide in me and I in you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commands, you will abide in my love.”
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not keep record of wrong-doing.
It rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things.
It hopes all things.
Endures all things.
“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.”
Intimacy begets knowledge. If used to exert power, knowledge insists on its own way. It is irritable and resentful. It keeps a record of wrong-doing. Anyone who grew up with siblings knows this reality. I know your secrets, your sins, and your insecurities. I can throw that in your face at any point. Or worse, I can use it to blackmail you with mom. Knowledge is power. And it is ugly.
Unless I lay down that power and chose the better way. When confronted with your weakness, I remember my Lord’s patience with me. His kindness. The way he rejoices when I achieve even the smallest aspect of living in truth. And my knowledge of his love drives me to love you in the same manner. In this manner, knowledge is beautiful.
The knowledge of God, theology, history, and even people packed in a seminary education is immense. And used correctly, it can be a balm to a wounded soul. Just this morning I was listening to a lecture about the proper interpretation of 1 John 3:6. What happens when you have parishioner who comes to you troubled. Their NASB 1995 says, “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” They still struggle with sin. Does this mean they do not know God?
Your seminary education gives you two options. The first would be to scoff at their ignorance. “Don’t you know, the Greek here can carry continuous action….” The second option is that of a parent with a beloved child who tenderly explains the better interpretation with all humility. “Oh I can see why you would be troubled by that. I’m so glad you were brave enough to ask. Let’s look at other translations and maybe I can explain the grammar behind this text.” The first option humiliates. It is arrogant and rude. It uses the question of another to prop up one’s own pride of knowledge. The second grants precious assurance. It is patient and kind. It gives knowledge away freely, so that others too may steward it. It encounters the person as someone to love.1
“When people are not encountered, they are exploited.”
KJ Ramsey
I confess, this piece may be for me more than anyone else. Writing this piece is a knife to my heart. I see the ways knowledge has puffed my heart up. I am the Reformed jerk we all hate. I grieve that. I long for knowledge to be a means of loving God with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself. I hate that this paradigm has come to me only in my final semester. But I am grateful. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning.
Lovers are the ones who know the most about God. The theologian must listen to them.
Hans Urs von Balthasar
A dear friend continually reminds me that God grants us eyes to see problems in order to pray about them. She is a lover. I, the theologian, must listen to her. As I survey the NAPARC landscape, I am reminded that the knowledge of the Reformed world’s deepest and darkest secrets are so that I can pray on her behalf. I pray that the Lord would utterly transform our churches. That our seminaries would overflow with professors and pupils who abide in the love of Christ. That our pastors would hunger for knowledge not so they can rule, but so that they may love others better. That our elders would rely on the Book of Church Order (BOC) as a tool to love, not a weapon to destroy.
Knowledge can be power. But it can also be love.
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”
37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.[l] 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
Matt. 22:34-40
“Obedience is not so much a keeping to the rules as acts of selfless love. Obedience is an honouring; it opens the opportunities to serve God without personal desires.”
Lucinda Vardey
See KJ Ramsey, The Lord Is My Courage(Grand Rapids: Zondervan Reflective, 2022), 138.
Love is definitely the most important thing. ❤️
John 13:34 NIV
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.