“I know, I know, I know!”  It is infinitely difficult to deal with someone who is, as a former work mate of mine used to say, “blessed with knowing.”  The Corinthian Christians had a good bit of the “know-all” spirit among them.  So long as they maintained that spirit, they were on the high road to nowhere so far as gaining any real spiritual maturity.

     Sometimes we all need to come to earth with a resounding thud.  Under the Holy spirit’s direction Paul provides the vehicle for the Corinthians to get their feet on the ground spiritually.  The book of 1 Corinthians is one where Paul dishes out strong doses of spiritual reality to the congregation for their own good health.  One such dose we find before us today.  We find here a bold statement, the construction of which reminds us that truth never dresses for the occasion.  Paul emphatically declares, “And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.”  Here is a humbling statement which ought to put a strong check upon our pride of what we think we know.  We see here what the person taken as the example thinks.

     He thinks he knows.  How often do we think we know something.  No one else is quite so discerning on an issue as we are, or so we think.  It is an all-too-common opinion among us.  Paul goes on to add information as to exactly what this person knows.  He says, “He knoweth nothing.” That is a big revelation to the would-be “know-it-all.”  If we think we have the knowledge on a particular thing, we know nothing.  What a great leveler for our pride!

     The one word of hope in this text is “yet.”  The grace of God working in the heart over time will bring even a “know-it-all” first to humility, then to both knowledge and wisdom.  Paul points out what this individual needs.  He needs to know that “he ought to know.”  What we ought to know, we can learn at the feet of Christ.  What we want to have is enough spiritual wisdom to realize that we know nothing and need to be taught everything.  That is the strong dose of reality we ought to receive with great humility.

Where the Bush Burns
Tomm Tice