If you had to choose, which would you rather have, love or knowledge? Should be a no-brainer. But I’ve been choosing knowledge more often than not. I can control knowledge. I cannot control love.
I Corinthians 8:1b-2
We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
Intellectually, I understand why love would be the best choice. This is what God has been teaching me over the last year. I know that. But, today, I see it with a clarity I’ve never seen before. Love tempers knowledge. Love takes knowledge into wisdom. Love takes me out of myself and into “other.”
In the realm of spiritual gifts, let’s say, there is the “word of knowledge,” but this word must be given in love or it becomes a weapon and a place of pride.
Love is universal. Knowledge is not.
Knowledge can grow in a field of love, but love is not a natural outgrowth of knowledge.
God is love [I John 4:8]. And it’s not that God isn’t knowledge, but that is not what drives the Holy Spirit.
I’m pretty smart. I have been given a a strong IQ and all that. I like to study. I love to read and learn. I enjoy building my knowledge base. I am intrigued by others who are smart. I can do knowledge all by myself.
But love cannot be practiced alone. Love is the essential ingredient to family, to koinonia, to community, to church, to peace.
May the mindfulness of the Holy Spirit keep me in a spirit of love this day.
Meditations from Zion 
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