I had just started my first year of Bible college and was driving back from Maula Prison, where I had gone to interpret from English to Chichewa for my professor, O. Palmer Robertson, who preached there every Thursday afternoon.

He asked me what I was appreciating most about Bible college, and I immediately replied, “The knowledge of Scripture I am gaining every day.”

Smiling, he replied, “But remember, knowledge puffs up… with knowledge, also cultivate a great love for Christ.” He was quoting from 1 Corinthians 8:1, “This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

Ever since then, this has stuck with me.

The world does not lack knowledge. There is so much information out there now, and we can easily acquire it at our fingertips. Whether all that knowledge is helpful or not is a topic for another day.

Yet, for God’s people, what we need alongside the knowledge of Scripture is a deep love for Christ—the fountain of all true knowledge—and a love for Christ’s church, which is His own body that He died for.

The Puritans used to highlight that knowledge should enter through the head, trickle down to the heart, and translate into the hands for good works. Knowledge that trickles down to the heart can hardly be puffed up. It’s only when knowledge stops with the head that it breeds self-conceit.