Knowledge. It is dangerous, and yet beneficial. Knowledge is the most fertile soil in which pride can grow. Unless we know (intimately, not cognitively) God, and His love for us, all knowledge will do is breed arrogance. (1 Corinthians 8:1)
One of the larger problems that the American church is facing is how we use knowledge. Don't get me wrong, I think every Christian has a duty to know as much Scripture, doctrine, and theology as possible. However, that knowledge must be tempered with love. It is not our knowledge that causes issues, but rather how we wield it. Scripture is a sword that we are to take up against the real enemy, that is satan, yet we typically prefer to use it a club to bludgeon our brothers and sisters and even worse, the lost.
Now Scripture definitely has a purpose for encouraging and correcting our brothers and sisters,( II Timothy 3:16-17) and for reaching the lost. However, we should not use Scripture as a means of proving our points or winning our arguments. I see far to many "christians" that think they are the only people who can understand the Bible properly (and I am guilty of this at times) But I am beginning to learn that God has revealed Himself to all people through His word, and He is far more concerned with what He has written than He is with what I think about it.
It is time. Time to stop this non-sense. Time to stop sitting and debating trivial things like Armenian vs. Calvinism, whether or not it is ok to drink alcohol, should a Christian get a tattoo, and other such things. The ultra "conservative" Christians need to learn to show grace to those who disagree with them and the ultra "liberal" Christians could learn to give up some things to avoid causing their fellow Christians to stumble. It's time to take our knowledge of the Scripture, temper it with His love, and unite around His gospel. There is a real enemy present (Ephesians 6:12) and he likes nothing better than seeing Christians up in arms against each other instead of united in arms against him. There is an entire world out there that is lost and bound for eternal separation from the love of God in hell and either we don't believe in hell or we just don't care enough about them to share with them the good news of Christ.
So, it's time. Let us not be known as hypocrites and self-righteous people, but rather let us go in both knowledge and love to a lost and dying world, and let us wield Scripture as a sword against one foe, not each other.
"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another"
(John 13:35)
