puffing knowledge / building love

About every other day I wonder what knowledge is.

Not knowledge about, or knowledge of, something. I think I understand what that means.

What is knowledge itself? This is what I don't know.

This morning I read: knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Hm.

There's a big difference between puffing ... and building. I can puff right now: puff puff (there, I just did it). But to build something, well now that takes some effort.

My friend Dan just replaced the roof on his house -- and he was incognito for 8 days. He was building, not puffing. To build something, you've got to know what you're going to build. You got to have the money to build it with. Then you need to get the materials, cut them, nail them. And so on ... I'm getting tired already.

But here it says that knowledge puffs up. Only love builds up.

There is a problem with this logic. It would have been more logical for Paul to say:

Point 1: If your knowledge puffs you up, you are still ignorant.

Point 2: Here is the kind of knowledge you should have so that you do not get puffed up.

Point 3: And oh by the way, speaking of knowledge, let's relate it to the love of God. What's really important is to love God, who knows you.

Huh?

Point #2 is totally missing.

And #3 seems to be another topic altogether.

Are you saying, Paul, that knowledge alone -- that is, all knowledge (whatever knowledge is) -- puffs up? That there just isn't a kind of knowledge that fits into #2?

Are you saying that Paul?

And are you saying this: Stop worrying about what knowledge is, because the more important thing is to love God, so that you will be known by him?

Is that what you are saying Paul?

Logos2Go

1 Corinthians 8.1-3 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Of course, the larger context here has to do with idols. But I don't think my thoughts on knowledge in general voids the passage's relevance for food sacrificed to idols.

The comparison between puffing and building is not my idea. It comes from Vincent's Word Studies http://www.godrules.net/library/vincent/vincent1cor8.htm