Good questions.
Although there could be a strong argument for much of the information being taught in schools today not really being relevant to life; I would not call it useless. Learning to learn, in and of itself, is useful.
But does God care about knowledge? God DOES care about knowledge, but not just for the sake of knowledge. “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.” I Cor 8: 1b-3.
In today’s society knowledge is often the goal. Many people can spit out facts that they know in their heads, yet the problem lies in their lack of experience. “Professionals” are often those that have studied a certain field, but many have not tested the information in real life. Authors write about: ancient civilizations but have never left the library or tell others how to raise children yet, have never birthed a child themselves.
College students have access to knowledge like no generation before, but the knowledge is not being tested in real life. Fewer and fewer students are working through college. The field of experience is eliminated to allow for more prideful knowledge.
Even relating is weakened now days because of the technical dependence for communicating. Young adults are weak in face to face conversation that requires both talking and listening. They are used to sending out quick thoughts and ignoring others that bug them; there is a real disconnect when it comes to applying communication in love. Real relating requires thinking of others and not just one’s self.
So as Christians how should we view knowledge?
Knowledge is where we draw from to build our character and our character is where we draw from to form our conduct.
Our knowledge is what we know.
Our character is the reason we do what we do.
Our conduct is what we do.
All of what we know must continual be filtered back through a Biblical world view. Some of what we know is just fact. One plus one will always equal two. The reason we don’t float around in this life is because of gravity. These are facts. Yet, we can only accept them as facts because they do not conflict with God’s Word.
So the first test for any new knowledge we acquire is…does it line up with God’s Word? Does God’s Word confirm it or do we need to adjust God’s Word to confirm the new knowledge?
One plus one is confirmed when God created the earth and said first day, second day, third day.. Gravity may not be addressed specifically in the Bible, but we do not have to change anything in the Bible to accept that fact, so we can accept it.
So out of Biblical knowledge comes character, our reason for believing or acting the way we do. Our actions are shaped by our reasons for or against doing something. Our knowledge of gravity keeps us from wanting to jump off of high places. Our knowledge of God’s command to obey our parents, keeps us fighting to be respectful to them.
Out of our character comes our conduct, what we do. Because we have reason not to jump off of high places, we don’t. Our knowledge of gravity and the reasoning that provides, will even cause us to stay far away from the unstable edges of high cliffs. Our actions come out of our character which is based on Biblical knowledge.
The same equation plays out with obeying our parents. If it were not for God’s Word telling us to obey our parents and our accepting God’s Word as a guide for our actions, we may be tempted to yell at our parents and ignore their guidance. Yet, because we have knowledge and character we choose to obey out of respect for them and God’s Word.
To put this in the look of a formula:
Knowledge=Character= Conduct and Conduct=Character=Knowledge