We must also see the difference between the growth of life and the increase of knowledge. Knowledge is not life. Today in Christianity there is too much knowledge. Comparatively speaking, many people have too much knowledge, although they know too little of what they need to know. There is too little genuine life. Mere knowledge is teaching and doctrines, whereas life is Christ Himself. As we have clearly seen, the growth of life is the increase and expanding of Christ, not the increase of knowledge. Knowledge is something in the soul, but life is something in the spirit. If we subtract the knowledge that is merely in the soul, then whatever is left must be in the spirit.
The first Epistle to the Corinthians deals with this matter. What the Corinthians had was merely knowledge in the soul. Therefore, this book tells us that knowledge puffs up (8:1). All those Corinthian believers were soulish, having much knowledge in their soul. Therefore, the apostle Paul exhorted them to exercise not their soul but their spirit, not to learn more knowledge but to contact the Lord more and more. It is in this book that he says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (6:17). The soul is something full of knowledge, but the spirit is full of Christ. In this book we have the contrast between Christ and knowledge. Christ is the very life in the spirit, and all else is merely knowledge in the soul. Whatever we know, regardless of what it is, even the knowledge about God, may be mere knowledge in the soul. The Corinthians considered that they knew many things, so the apostle Paul dealt with them to tell them that whatever they knew was only in the way of knowledge in the soul. Rather, what they needed was the real experience of Christ as life in the spirit.
Knowledge is something in the soul whereas life is something in the spirit. Whatever we have in the soul is only knowledge. We may even have much knowledge in the soul about Christ, but what we need is not to open our mentality to knowledge but to open our spirit to the Lord. Today we need one thing: to open ourselves to the Lord, to contact Him, and to let Him come in to fill us, saturate us, and make His home in us that we may be filled not with the knowledge of God but unto all the fullness of God. This is the one thing we stress in these days.
The growth of life is different from the manifestation of the miraculous, supernatural gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. It is a real tragedy in today’s Christianity that many Christians consider the miraculous gifts the same as life. The donkey of the prophet Balaam that spoke in human language is a very good illustration to show that miraculous gifts are not something of life (Num. 22:28). What the donkey spoke was a genuine, real tongue. Many people today proclaim that they have spoken in tongues, but I doubt whether they have spoken in a genuine tongue. However, even if someone speaks in a genuine tongue, that still is not life.
First Corinthians deals not only with knowledge but also with gifts. Not only knowledge but gifts also are in contrast to Christ. Verses 22 and 23 of chapter one say, “For indeed Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.” Signs and wonders are something miraculous and supernatural. We have to be careful in speaking about gifts, because this matter is very complicated. I must speak the truth to say that in all my Christian life I never saw a person who stressed speaking in tongues who was a genuinely spiritual person. It is hard for almost any brother or sister who insists on speaking in tongues to know life.
Here we have a difference. Life is one thing, and the manifestation of gifts is another. We do realize that the proper manifestation of the gifts is for life. However, the manifestation of gifts is not life itself. Life is Christ, and the growth of life is the increase and expanding of Christ. The Corinthian believers at that time cared the most for speaking in tongues, but in chapter three Paul told them that they were not only childish but were even infants (v. 1). They spoke in tongues the most, yet they were infants because they were distracted by speaking in tongues. The proper use of speaking in tongues is to be a help for life, but the Corinthians were distracted by this matter, so they were frustrated from knowing Christ as their life.
Knowledge is not life and neither are gifts. Any kind of gift is not life, because life is simply Christ Himself. Therefore, the growth of life is the increase of Christ. It is not the manifestation of any kind of gift. To speak in tongues and to heal people miraculously are the manifestations of gifts. These are for life, but they are not life itself.
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