1 Corinthians 8:1b English Standard Version (ESV) we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

Since knowledge puffs up and love builds up, then our focus should be on the love, not the knowledge.

John 15:10 English Standard Version (ESV) If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

1 John 2:10 English Standard Version (ESV) Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him^[it] there is no cause for stumbling.

John 8:31 English Standard Version

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

The abiding presence, the Word, the Truth, and the Light are all required to conform us to the will of God for His Son Jesus Christ. Once we accept that what is happening to us is for His benefit, we might stop looking at this as things that benefit us.

1 John 2:14 English Standard Version (ESV) I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Have we overcome the evil one? Father is the mature state of a young man. Notice they have matured enough to know “Him” whereas the strong young men has the Word abiding and overcomes the evil one.

The maturing process or conformance, happens by the abiding presence of all three, word, truth and light. Each has its own effect upon the soul. It is not enough to focus on just one aspect of His abiding presence, it takes all three.

1 Corinthians 2:11 English Standard Version (ESV) For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

John 14:3 English Standard Version (ESV) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

There is an irresistible draw in this verse that creates in us the desire to see Him come to take us away. That draw is so compelling because we grow weary of this world and all the evil in it. We just want to be with our Lord. That is the natural desire of people in love, they want to be together.

We can focus on studies of that event to the point of ignoring what our Lord has said before He declared His return. He is preparing a place for us. Perfect understanding with our perfect God requires a perfect relationship with our God. Because we are human and not yet perfected, what we come to understand has to be what we need to know by revelation from our perfect God to perform His will in our lives.

Think of it as a “need to know” basis.

1 Corinthians 8:1b English Standard Version (ESV) we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

Knowing that God is building us up to be the pure spotless bride, one prepared for His Son, one worthy to be His bride, God will not allow us to be puffed up with bloated egos. We will receive that which we can digest without doing harm to our souls. The soul or the mind, will and emotions of a living human being is fraught with imperfections that need a makeover.

Seeking to understand on our own those things that we are not prepared to receive will lead to ignoring what needs to happen to prepare us for the conforming process.

Romans 8:29 English Standard Version (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.