The Aim Is Love

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Knowledge only becomes eternally significant when it inspires us to love better. 

As I was reading 1 Corinthians, I came across the familiar chapter on love.  After strolling through the recognizable list of all the things love is and isn’t, I was surprised to find a verse I’ve read many times: “as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”  You see, I thought I knew this verse; in fact, I’d have said we were good friends.  Every time I’ve been unable to truly grasp something in the Bible, this verse would comfort me that I’m not alone.  He’d reassure me that, eventually, I would understand.  For all the times I’ve googled to remember where this verse is, I must have always ignored that it’s in the chapter that describes the importance of love.  So, naturally, I wondered “What are you doing here?”  I was surprised to hear the answer: “Reminding you that knowledge doesn’t last, but that love does.”  You see I enjoy trying to understand things, especially things I read in the Bible.  In a way, I’ve spent a lot of time pursuing knowledge.  But seeing this verse in context was like looking at the picture on a puzzle box and being surprised to see that the piece in my hand didn’t quite fit in the way that I thought.

Now, I can point to several verses that encourage us to seek knowledge, insight, understanding, and wisdom like “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, or “their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness”.  However, the verse in 1 Corinthians suggests that there is more to the story.  Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is altogether unprofitable, because “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”.  So, if our chief aim isn’t knowledge, then what is?  Thankfully God left the answer not far from the question – our aim is love.

At the same time, verses like 2 Timothy 3:15 – “from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” – suggest that knowledge and wisdom still have a virtuous role to play.  In fact, both first and second Timothy emphasize the importance of sound doctrine and good teaching.  With that emphasis in mind, 1 Timothy 1:5 still makes plain that “the aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  If we have the right aim in studying the Bible, then it has the power to change us.  Getting to know God’s character inspires a sincere faith; after all, “we love because He first loved us”.  Understanding the actual goodness of sound doctrine can root and ground our conscience on a sure foundation so that we aren’t “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine”.  The Scripture’s ability to “discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart” can convict and purify our hearts.  So it is that if we have the right intention and an appropriate dose of humility as we seek understanding, we find that studying the Bible can overflow into genuine love for God and for others.

In this way, the value of knowledge is preserved rather than simply “passing away”.  Knowledge only becomes eternally significant when it inspires us to love better.  We cannot settle to simply know things about the Bible; instead, we must humbly seek the truth so that upon hearing it we are changed into the image of Christ.