The Danger of Knowledge

In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve they could eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they disobeyed and ate their eyes were opened to a world they had not known. Knowledge can be dangerous; knowledge without wisdom that is.

The more that I study for my upcoming board exams; the more I find myself stressing out and worrying about the health and wellbeing of my family and friends. It is a hard thing to know all the ways our bodies can mess up, all the complications that can happen and all the things that can end a life. I find myself not wanting my father to run or play sports because he is the prime age for a heart attack and has a few risks factors. Yet, at the same time this week I noticed a few things going on in a family member and almost starting freaking out because the signs I saw could either be several minor things that happen to be all at the same time, or it could be something serious needing prompt attention. I sat contemplating the situation but could not live with myself unless I knew there was no danger.

So what do you do? Do you call out potential though unlikely danger and freak everyone out around you and very possibly look like a paranoid hypochondriac medical student who doesn’t know anything, or do you not say anything and lose sleep praying that everything is okay? And then how do you live with the decision you have made? How could you live with yourself if your gut was right and it was serious and you didn’t say anything? See knowledge, knowledge without wisdom, is very dangerous.

On the flip side, what if I think I know exactly what’s going on in a patient and confidently move in the direction I am sure is correct, and I am actually missing something, or maybe I don’t know it all, or maybe I’m way out in left field? What happens when I am sure a patient is fine but really they are dying and I don’t catch it? These are things that help drive my study of medicine, but more than that, they drive my pursuit of Christ. My knowledge no matter how much I study or how long I practice medicine will be deficient. I will never be able to perfectly care for every patient of mine no matter how much I want to. I am inadequate, period. But, thanks be to God, when I am weak, then I am strong! He is the answer. You see if I trust my knowledge, I am lacking, but when I abide in Christ and am lead by the Holy Spirit inside me, then my knowledge becomes wisdom. God made each of us and He is intimately acquainted with everything going on in our bodies. I have the most powerful diagnostic tool in my arsenal because the very God who made my patients is living in me. So when I am debating with myself if something serious is going on or something small, my first diagnostic test is to get on myknees.

Then I am not confident in my knowledge but in His guidance, in His infinite wisdom. This is the kind of physician I want to be. One who goes to my knees before the lab. It’s not about what I can do with my knowledge, but what wants to do through me as a tool. Don’t get me wrong I am still most certainly going to study as much as I can, because it is still my responsibility to not waste the education God is giving me, but I am not studying for a degree, or for my patients, or even to be a good physician. I study as an offering, as worship, and I long for it to be an acceptable offering, a sweet smelling aroma before my Lord! Proverbs 2:6 says “For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” I heard it said once that wisdom is the application of knowledge. I like that definition because without knowing how to use knowledge the right way what good is it? According to Proverbs not only does God give us the understanding and knowledge in the first place, but He also is the one that shows us how to use it the right way. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and discipline” He is the answer, in searching for Him, we find everything we need.

So what about you? God has given us each a unique type of knowledge and understanding to use for Him. Even Adam and Eve in the garden, when their eyes where opened to sin and evil, what good could come from that? I mean it almost seems as though it would’ve been better if they had never sinned and as a human race we remain perfect as God created us, right? So, maybe ignorance is better than knowledge? Has it ever occurred to you that without sin and imperfection we would not be able to know God completely?  Without sin and punishment, how would we know grace or mercy? So then do we sin just to know more of God’s mercy and grace? Paul deals with this in chapter 6 of Romans “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Basically, if we are truly God’s redeemed, He has so changed our hearts that we no longer want to sin because we want to glorify Him.

The point to all this madness, God has given us all knowledge and understanding.  The knowledge of good and evil (your conscience), understanding in a certain field or business, and for those of us to whom He chooses, the knowledge of Himself (Is 43:10 “You are my Witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, to know and believe me and understand that I AM. No god was formed before me, and there will be none after Me.”).  So we all have knowledge, the question is, will we be wise with the knowledge we have or will we fall prey to its danger (using it apart from God, in our own strength).