Knowledge vs. Love

"If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know."

I Corinthians 8:2

I have not seen the movie The DaVinci Code yet; but, I read the book several years ago. I thought it was well written fiction; but, the conclusion was absurd. Yet, why do so many people flock to the concept of "hidden knowledge"? It was no different in the early church. There were those who taught that unless you had the secret knowledge [gnosis] you could not understand the secrets of the kingdom of God. Those teachers were called gnostics. Yet, Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth makes it clear. Knowledge "puffs up". Love "builds up". It is a lot easier to dialogue about hidden meanings and teachings than it is to go seek out the lost, the widow, the orphan or the alien in our land. After all, it was the knowledge of Good and Evil that got us all into trouble in the first place. Or as Paul puts it in I Cor. 13:2,

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Let us strive harder to to love God first and our neighbor as our ourselves.