How can knowledge be harmful? - Knowledge/learning - TouchPoints

Isaiah 47:10-11You felt secure in all your wickedness. ‘No one sees me,’ you said. Your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have caused you to turn away from me and claim, ‘I am self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone!’ So disaster will overtake you. . .

Knowledge is harmful when it leads us to think we no longer need God. If we rely on our own smarts to make it through this life, we will be deeply disappointed in the end.

1 Corinthians 8:11So because of your superior knowledge, a weak Christian, for whom Christ died, will be destroyed.

Sometimes it is easy to complicate the simplicity of the message of the Bible with all the doctrine wemay know. If you are a learned student of the Bible, be careful not to let your head knowledge of the Bible get in the way of the heart message of the Bible. If newer Christians get the impression that their knowledge is more important than how they live, they may stumble in their faith.

James 2:19You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that "we all have knowledge" about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. [2] Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much. [3] But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.

1 Corinthians 13:1-2, 4-8If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. [4] Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud [5] or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. [6] It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. [7] Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. [8] Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!

Knowledge can never make us right with God. It does not give us a heart like his. Demons know a lot about God, but they hate and oppose him in every way! Knowledge without love often leads to arrogance and pride. This is why it is so incredibly important that we develop our hearts as much as our heads. Just as knowledge and truth guards our hearts against lies and temptations, love guards our minds against selfishness, pride, unkindness, and other sins. All the knowledge we build on earth will be old news someday, but love gives us something to live for and rejoice in eternally.