Charity Edifieth

"Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth" (1 Corinthians 8:1). One of the biggest dangers of gaining knowledge is that intelligence so often falls in love with its own brilliance. We think up this great idea that we know is going to make the world a whole lot better, we devise a plan that is utterly foolproof, and all of the moving parts fit together perfectly, like clockwork. But then we go out into the real world and all of these dratted humans with their own intelligence and agency and agendas have their own ideas about how to fix the world and they can't see or won't accept our brilliant plan. They won't fit neatly into our grand design, and we have been so entranced by our own brilliance that we see the only option is to either coerce and hammer them into place or to else get rid of them entirely so they are not gumming up the works. After all, with a plan as great as ours, the ends justify the means. This is how knowledge puffs us up, like a balloon. We get so excited by all the ways that our plan is going to make everything better, in every possible way, and we start filling out all the ways we are going to save everyone from all pain and sorrow and frustration and no one will ever have to worry about anything ever again. It's exciting. Our plan has puffed up so much it can swallow the whole world and everything in it. But the moment we first try to put it into practice, the moment when the rubber hits the road, or, perhaps more accurately, the moment our latex balloon hits the cold hard point of reality, it bursts, deflates, shrivels and withers. In our heads, we have the illusion of control and perfection, but the world isn't perfect and neither are we and neither, in point of fact, is our plan - it only appears that way. So what is the alternative? Knowledge gives the illusion of growth because it puffs us up, but charity edifieth. Charity actually does build us up. With our brilliant plan for saving the world, all of the people in it are either mindless, obedient cogs, or else dangerous elements that must be eliminated. But charity isn't concerned about saving the whole world. Charity is all about saving our next door neighbor. As we love those around us, we become interested in them and we see them for who they really are and we can recognize their great value. They have gifts and perspectives on life that we would never have dreamed of in even our most brilliant, world-saving schemes. We begin to share with one another our gifts and talents and we are both so enriched and edified that we want to do it again. So we find another neighbor, and now there are three of us, each sharing our gifts and recognizing and bringing out the best in each other and building each other up. Intelligence dreams of saving the world from the top down, with all kinds of programs and committees with complicated acronyms, but like a puffed up balloon with no internal structure, it collapses under the weight of its own expectations. But charity does the hard work of actually saving the world from the ground up. It's not glamorous, it won't get us famous or recognized, it won't puff us up. But every small act of kindness, every self-sacrificing service, every smile and encouraging word and shoulder to cry on and helping hand is another brick in the new, better world that we are edifying through charity.