Good knowledge, bad knowledge

I recently took a trip with a Millennial or two, and while their photos might be good, they missed many of the moments while they Insta-posed and selfied their way around ancient sites. This phenomenon is not limited to the next generations. Take a ride on a subway, a bus or a plane: observe how many people are absorbed in social media. Sporting events, concerts, beaches and construction sites... the same gadget-driven-distractions.

There is no question that knowledge can be useful. What we tend to ignore is that there are different types of knowledge, and if we don’t discern the difference we will be so full of the wrong kind of knowledge there will be no space left for good knowledge.

King Solomon the Wise puts it this way in his first chapter of Proverbs:

29 Because they hated moral knowledge, and did not choose to fear the LORD…31 Therefore they will eat from the fruit of their way, and they will be stuffed full of their own counsel.

If I am honest in looking at life, mine and others, the issue is not that God does not give counsel, but that I/we are so full of bad counsel we don’t have space in our hearts for real truth, moral knowledge. The net result is that we eat the fruit of bad counsel.

It is an ongoing challenge to take the filter the things that flood our mind. I have to ask myself: am I consuming moral knowledge (not relative knowledge, or moral-free knowledge) or am I filling up on unfiltered rubbish?

PS: Part of what drives this dearth of moral knowledge is the falsity that everything should be tolerated, and all things are relative. This is a topic for another blog.