Years ago, when I worked at a small publishing company outside Portland, I’d get together every couple days with a former seminary professor named Ross Tunnell. Ross had left seminary work and was doing graphic design, but was widely considered to be one of the smarter Old Testament teachers in Portland. I made a deal with Ross, saying that if I bought lunch, he’d teach me the old testament. And Ross took me up on that offer. We probably met more than fifty times over two years. It was a terrific arrangement.
Ross passed away only a few months ago and I’ve been thinking about those lunches, of all that I learned. But last night I remembered the greatest lesson Ross ever taught me. I was thinking about this lesson because while surfing around on the internet, I saw a minister somewhere speaking very arrogantly about how he had some bit of theology figured out and somebody else didn’t. I think maybe it was a moment of weakness for said minister, but nevertheless it helped me remember something Ross once said.
We were driving back from a conference in Salem and I was going off about some bit of scripture, explaining it to Ross as though he’d never come to the same revelation. I must have talked for about ten minutes, perhaps condescendingly (a way of speaking that prevents true dialogue, and also prevents anybody from disagreeing with you, at least in public) and Ross just sat there and listened. I don’t even recall what scripture I was talking about, but when I was done, and when I looked over at Ross to give an affirmation to my unparalleled intellect, he sat quiet. Finally, I asked what he thought. And Ross just stared straight ahead and said “I think knowledge puffs up.”
I was embarrassed, to say the least. There have been a thousand times since, though, that I wish Ross was standing next to me when I’ve made equally as embarrassing tirades.
Of our fifty or more meetings, that’s the lesson I remember best: Knowledge puffs up.
And I think this is the thing that ruins many a seminary student. Knowledge. It’s not that knowledge is bad, it isn’t, it’s good, very good according to Solomon. It’s just that knowledge is incredibly powerful and dangerous. It has to be handled with care, like a radioactive material. It can easily explode and kill many, pushing people away from the church (unless of course they agree with you.)
A good test for me is to come back to the fruits of the spirit. Is my knowledge producing these characteristics: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control?
If we acquire knowledge before we are emotionally healthy, that is if we are insecure, we are going to use it to boost our own ego and compare ourselves to others. The desire for knowledge will be like a need for a drug, then, pacifying a wounded spirit through comparative associations. Entire theological camps have been built and bolstered by this needy, angry, gluttonous desire for knowledge. But if we have confidence, if we are secure, knowledge humbles us. We realize that we did not invent truth, we simply stumbled upon it like food on a long journey. Knowledge will then produce the fruits of the spirit.
Seeking knowledge, then, is like tending a vineyard. It’s just farming. But you aren’t the one who produced the fruit, God is. You’re just a farmer, just a guy who makes and distributes wine. It’s blue-collar work.
Ross was one of the most humble men I’ve ever met. And he was also one of the most intelligent. Those two combinations are sadly rare. These days I’m wishing I knew what he knew, in more ways than one. Goodbye old friend. And thanks for the lesson.
I’m intelligent and humble…oh…wait. Nevermind.
Don, as always, you speak to the heart. I actually just got in a knowledge-puffed argument yesterday about (of all things) football. It ended with wounded egos and a less-enjoyable Sunday.
Of all of the “fruits of the spirit,” I think humility is the easiest one for me to forget. Thank you for posting this. Commencing de-puffing…
I just read a blog by tomsims titled the mmmmmmmm’s of life. In one of his sentences he wrote: Invest your life where it will bear fruit. Powerful statement!
Must be why Peter wrote “Add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge.” Because knowledge on its own can be dangerous. Faith and virtue make knowledge palatable, useful. Good words there, Don–thanks.
[...] Knowledge Makes a Secure Man Humble. [...]
Thanks. I needed to hear that.
Don,
I love this post, if only because i’m acutely aware of it in myself. I just graduated from Oxford and now i work for a church, and the first few months i was here it shocked me how much i put people down; how smug, arrogant and just plain blind to it i was. We need that reminder of how knowledge can be a shell, and we need the people who will call us on these things when they catch us doing them.
More and more i see people in the church who are talented and gifted in so many ways using those gifts in ways that are hurtful and damaging, and even being praised for it. That’s not the way that things are supposed to be, and we need people who will speak up against that so desperately.
Thanks again for your thoughts, dude.
Makes me thankful that I’m a simple fruitloop whose faith is strong only because of God…I have known many who went to different seminaries loving God and came out with NO relationship left…only LOTS of knowledge.
A wise and wonderful post! I have screwed up in this area more times than I can count. I think it’s very hard to respond gently to what you feel like are lies and deceptions that feed on the ignorance of others. (That’s not to say that we don’t all have massive areas of ignorance. It’s just that we sometimes do feel like we know some things based on the amount of time and energy we’ve spent learning them.)
I think another litmus test is to ask yourself if you have to “win” the argument. If your ego is somehow tied up in the issue or interaction, you’re headed for trouble. That being said, I do think it’s possible to be disgusted by certain things and speak strongly against them without necessarily slipping into arrogant self-righteousness. Possible, but difficult. Especially when it comes to politics. Still a work-in-progress with this one.
My friends and I talk about the subject of knowledge often. We’re Seniors at a Christian university and have had the privilege of taking classes with some amazing professors who taught us something valuable: The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. I couldn’t agree with this statement more. Thanks for this post and all of the truth behind it.
Well said Don. I work at a Bible College, and that’s something we’re always trying to instill in our students. Knowledgeable pastors without humility/love can be very destructive forces.
Thanks, Don, for this lovely post. What powerful words and thoughts. I’m grateful for the reminder to be less puffed up!
Peace be with you,
Tara
Ironically spoken from a non-seminary graduate who writes a book about his life being grandiose and attempts to extract theology from his liberal lens of postmodernism. No wonder our churches are so ineffective.
Thank you for this reminder! I like the practical question: “Is my knowledge producing these characteristics: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control?”
Great stuff Don. I can call you Don right?
I have found myself involved in similar threads of conversations like the one you described here. Because I have read some book or some bit of Scripture I now am enlightened and will be sharing that with the first person willing to listen to my sound wisdom. So totally convicted…thank you.
Reminds me of T.S. Elliot’s commentary,
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge;
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
“The only wisdom we can hope to acquire / Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.”
-T.S. Eliot
[...] to be gleaned from it but at the time was not sure what. Then today I was reading a post by Donald Miller where he was talking about how knowledge puffs up and somehow my brain connected what Donald was [...]
Whew, what a relief… I’m kind of a moron which excuses me from puffed up dialogue. Unfortunately, my idiocy hasn’t done me any better in producing the fruits of the spirit. Fortunately, I have a couple of Rosses in my life to help me along.
Definitely a lesson I need to learn to remember. Thank you for that don.
It sounds like your friend, Ross was a wise man and frankly, I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for your own “wisdom dispensing abilities”. Not to give you a big head but, I think you hit the nail pretty square most of the time, though, I’m sure like the rest of us you miss sometimes too. “Ouch! that was my thumb.”
Anyway, I like what you said about the blue collar work and farming. Nothing too glamorous there to be sure but, it’s so true. Though knowledge may be power, if it’s not harnessed (or coupled with humility), it will run away with you. Too, I really like the quote Luke posted by T.S Elliot regarding humility. Power/Knowledge I think is the ultimate validation, it says, “look at me! and what I’ve achieved.” But humility, humility says something else altogether, it says, “despite myself, look at what God achieves through me.” To be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that humility is God’s “Secret” weapon. Just ask Joseph:)
It is always awesome when that “light” goes on in my muddled brain! But, how I share that information needed to be done with thoughtfulness and not impulsiveness. Think before I speak. How will this affect the person I’m in conversation with? Even something negative can be positive if done with a little bit of thought first. I hate it when I let knowledge puff up!! Then I have to go back & clean up after myself. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to keep on learning how to be more full of those fruits of the spirit. Thanks for the reminder.
What a richly human and amazing story you have shared! To have a friend like that is to have found a pearl of great value. I too find myself saying good-by to your friend. I feel like he was mine too!
Hmm… do we have any schools for humility? We have them for knowledge. Maybe the school for humility is called life.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
Wow…I stumbled upon this literally during a conversation where I was letting my knowledge puff me up, and I was hurting someone close to me. But this broke me. I realized I have been letting my envy for a relationship she has distort my view of it and look down on it so that I can feel better about myself even though I don’t have it. Thanks Don
. I’ll just add this to the list of ways you’ve changed my life.
Condescension, PRIDE, I have been struggling with that myself lately. I love this post, and although eloquently written, I found the most compelling words have already been around for some time now, thanks for using them.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
nice point, dood. I tried to make that point (knowledge puffs up) on Facebook and the bible college and exegesis, escatology, soteriety, innerancy and etc. people jumped all over me and said “Not SCRIPTURAL knowledge!” They seemed to think that scriptural knowledge would humble one, or that one was “safe” from arrogance when pursuing it. I stuck to my guns but I don’t know how many I convinced. I mean, for Christians, being correct about everything is Job #1, right?
I knew this already.
Wonderful…scathing…truth. So many comments are saying the same thing: we are all guilty. Sometimes we can see clearly why people may be drawn to Jesus, but repulsed by believers– claiming to be His followers, we are often so unlike Him. I am always going back to your writings…and thankfully.
I remember sitting in seminary listening to young men just out of college debate the theology of hell. My prof teared up and said do you know anybody going there! This would not be a discussion.
Who the hell cares?!
“But if we have confidence, if we are secure, knowledge humbles us. We realize that we did not invent truth, we simply stumbled upon it like food on a long journey. Knowledge will then produce the fruits of the spirit.”
I like that. It really is all about the fruits of the spirit, and humility. That is where Christ is seen in our lives by those around us.
Great post!
It is humbling to be given the grace to understand God in a deeper way. Also, it is good to remember that God is infinite and even if we think we know…we have no idea. We have so much farther to go. God is always revealing himself in deeper and more amazing ways. Thankful for that reminder, and that we haven’t reached the end of the road.
I love Cliffs Notes!
[...] his blog Monday, Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz) wrote, “And I think this is the thing that ruins [...]
[...] post is about humility and knowledge. Take time to read it here. He tells a tale about how knowledge puffs up. Its a struggle we all deal with, ok, maybe just [...]
So well put. Very insightful, Don, thanks for sharing.
Thank you. I needed to hear this. Yes, knowledge can be acquired but humility can only be cultivated through God’s Spirit.
Ouch. And thank you, that’s good to hear. Something I struggle with for sure.
Wow! You get it. I struggle with this over and over again, while I am studying at Bible college. I am amazed at just how quickly my heart can be led astray by the enticement of biblical wisdom.
Then, I look at Eve who was allured by the promise of greater knowledge. May the Lord, purify and preserve our hearts, that we would be good stewards of the knowledge He gives to us.
“If anyone speaks do it as though you speak the very words of God, saying only what is good for the building up and edifying of others, not ourselves.”
Bible college, seminary, books, articles, commentaries, blogs, discussions, teaching, & pastoring are elements that continue to reveal to me how limited my own knowledge is. I blame my limited capacity to think deeply as well as the finite nature of my life in which I have the opportunity to gain knowledge. Acquiring (the right kind of) knowledge is generally a good thing. Ironically, the acquisition of knowledge is the very thing that teaches me how little I know, esp. in light of God’s endless sea of knowledge & wisdom (Rom. 11). How humbling.
Truly, naivety does not generate awe & wonder & a realization of personal smallness nearly as much as discovery, insight, & awareness do. So, how do we reconcile the person who gains great knowledge (relatively speaking) and yet, ends up proud? Puffed up worms (albeit, God’s image-bearing worms) seems a bit ridiculous. And yet, in our insecurity & rebellion against faith & trust…we struggle.
How silly fallen man is…attempting to veil our helpless, dependent condition is like trying to disguise a fat man with a Speedo. That which “hides” his insecurity-causing condition is that which accentuates it.
Sumbit. Serve. Kneel. Bow. Least. Last. May my life be increasingly characterized by words like this…as I grow in knowledge.
Thanks for the teaching, Don!
PS: I’m a pastor in the Portland area. It’d be fun to connect some day. May God continue to bless you through using you, brother!
I am a George Fox, non-traditional student, headed for seminary…I hear what you are saying, BUT….
For years now I have been corralled into the pasture that said, “Don’t question, don’t think too hard, don’t pursue higher education, and for God’s sake, don’t bring up uncomfortable conversations in the church”!
And while I am taking this gift [my education] as an opportunity to do all of those “forbidden” activities freely…… [as your post has stated], it would be good for me to allow the pendulum to swing back to center and temper my learning frenzy! So I appreciate what you are saying.
But I must admit, ANY attempt to subdue the gaining of knowledge at this point in my life, makes me bristle just a bit:( What is worse….a church without knowledge…left to exert only power and influence…leaving huge opportunities for sociopaths to fill the pulpits and control the sincere, yet ignorant masses..or a church with all knowledge, and no humility….?
So I write this in guarded defense of knowledge and its pursuit, and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform it into the WISDOM that would temper its ever-destructive potential to wound.
Looking for the balance right now,
So thanks for the post.
G
Don–It’s been so interesting in 2010, but the Lord is just funneling his truth to me through you lately. what a beautiful journey! wine field worker
Whoa, whoa, whoa… Back up (to the first photo). There are Cliffs Notes for the Old Testament?!
What have I been DOING with my time?!
Kidding… (sort of)
Very good word!
” If you educate a devil you don’t get an angel you get a clever devil!
The heart that is in tune with God’s spirit feels God’s love and uses knowledge to love and bless others. However a covetous heart will use knowledge to self worship and hell will follow.
I felt God guided me to this post so that I can look at my own life for a second.
thanks
yours and Ross’ thoughts on knowledge haave been a launching pad for some soul searching tonight Don, thanks again for your thoughts, Tim
I wish that this post didn’t resonate so loudly with me but resonate it does. I have just waved off a great friend after a good talk in the evening sun – and I’m now replaying our conversation (which, in part, included a few thoughts around parts of ‘Blue Like Jazz’) in my head to see how many times I told him something he already knew.
Yours
Less puffed than I was a while ago
[...] If this resonates with you in any way or pricks your conscience as it did mine, you might like to read the full post entitled Knowledge Makes a Secure Man Humble. [...]
“If we acquire knowledge before we are emotionally healthy, that is if we are insecure, we are going to use it to boost our own ego and compare ourselves to others”
Damn…
good stuff man, good stuff.
Correction: It’s not fruits of the spirit. It is fruit of the Spirit.