{"id":7072,"date":"2026-03-11T12:08:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/?p=7072"},"modified":"2026-03-11T12:15:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T16:15:05","slug":"knowledge-isnt-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2026\/knowledge-isnt-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge Isn’t Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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As many of us can attest, being faculty in higher education often comes with an unusual level of fervor for gaining knowledge. We were the ones in primary and secondary school that actually looked forward to the first day of school.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The schedule and routine, learning new things, performing well: these are things we thrived on, and likely still do.<\/p>

I am no different. If you ask my family, they\u2019ll tell you that I am a perpetual student. Like many faculty, I\u2019ve had as many years of education past high school as I had prior to it, and I still love new learning.<\/p>

Knowledge Doesn\u2019t Always Bring Heart Change<\/strong><\/p>

I wish I could say my love of learning simply comes from an innate curiosity about the world, and maybe some of it does. But, selfishly, it often comes from a desire to perform well. I want to be valued. I want to have the right answers. I want others to want to be like me. Don\u2019t we all?<\/p>

What my walk with Jesus has taught me, however, is that knowledge for the sake of knowledge does not always bring heart change; but heart change \u2013 sanctification – starts with knowledge of who God is.\u00a0<\/blockquote>

If we don\u2019t intimately know our Savior, then our understanding of who He is, and who we are in light of that, will be marred.<\/p>

Tangled Up Motives<\/strong><\/p>

A women\u2019s Bible study author, Jen Wilkin, coined the phrase \u201cThe heart cannot love what the mind does not know.\u201d This idea has really resonated with me ever since I heard it.<\/p>

As I\u2019ve taken on teaching roles with high schoolers at my church, I struggle with the fear that I sometimes learn God\u2019s Word just to teach it well. My motives aren\u2019t totally wrong \u2013 I do want my students to reach a greater understanding of the gospel and deeper belief in God, but sometimes that motive gets tangled up in a desire to be the perfect teacher (as if God needs me to be a perfect teacher to get His message across.) How big I make myself!<\/p>

It May Take Years<\/strong><\/p>

Psalm 111:10 says \u201cThe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.\u201d Loving God comes from knowing Him. Reading the Word and gleaning more about who He is will help me to see myself and others in the right perspective.<\/p>

Knowledge, for the sake of knowledge, puffs up (1 Cor 8:1). It\u2019s not enough to bring heart change. But can heart change be achieved without knowledge?<\/p>

Knowing that the fear of the Lord starts with knowledge of Him reassures me that reading and studying God\u2019s Word will not be done in vain. I may not always experience immediate heart change; it may take years for a particular verse or passage to strike me the way it is intended, but I can trust that God is faithful to bring light to His Word at the right time.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Shellie Acocello<\/strong><\/p>

Health and Human Performance<\/p>

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As many of us can attest, being faculty in higher education often comes with an unusual level of fervor for gaining knowledge. We were the ones in primary and secondary school that actually looked forward to the first day of school. The schedule and routine, learning new things, performing well: these are things we thrived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45210,"featured_media":7075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2437],"tags":[2657,2722,3721,3717,3718,3723,3539,2510,3719,2683,3722,3720,2715,3521,3716,3475,3235],"class_list":["post-7072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-faith","tag-bible","tag-gods-word","tag-heart-change","tag-intellect","tag-intellectual","tag-know-god","tag-knowing-god","tag-knowledge","tag-learner","tag-learning","tag-motives","tag-perform","tag-performance","tag-sanctification","tag-shellie-acocello","tag-teacher","tag-teaching"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKnowledge Isn't Everything - Faculty Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2026\/knowledge-isnt-everything\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knowledge Isn't Everything - Faculty Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As many of us can attest, being faculty in higher education often comes with an unusual level of fervor for gaining knowledge. 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