Tips for Social Success - Tip #2

"Don't flaunt knowledge. You may think it makes you look smart and informed, but others may find you pompous. "Talking at" people is the kiss of death in making a good impression."

To be enriching, knowledge must be combined with love. We must learn how to share truth and knowledge in love, without singing our own praises!

In the Bible (I Corinthians 8:1-2), the Apostle Paul tells us that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up:
"If anyone fancies he knows anything, he does not yet understand as he should; but if anyone loves God, that person is known by Him." The "building up" given in Scripture here is like the way it is when building a house, where "puffed up" carries a meaning of being inflated like a balloon.

Paul is certainly not condemning knowledge, and of course, neither am I. Indeed, he was probably the most knowledgeable apostle of all; a highly educated and cultured man. That knowledge was put to great use in the service of God later in his ministry, but before his conversion to Christ, he used his knowledge to persecute Christians. Later he confessed that he esteemed everything he had before he came to know Christ, including his knowledge, to be quite useless and meaningless.

Paul also said: "Faith without works is dead." Likewise, "Knowledge without love is dead." In fact, knowledge without love is a dangerous enticements. Remember this: true knowledge comes out of love. True knowledge is a fruit of love. It is humble, not boasting, not attention-seeking. False knowledge is occupied with the "self" in a bid to impress others. It only puffs up the soul in pride.