NOTES for Co1 8:2-3
According to the meaning of the Greek text, Paul's words can be understood either in the sense that a person confident in his knowledge does not really know anything, or in this way: that all the knowledge of such a knowledgeable person, whatever and however much he may know, is worth nothing compared with the true knowledge of which he has no idea. In essence, here the apostle again returns to the theme of poverty that he has already touched on more than once in his epistle to the Christians of Corinth. And also to the theme of "folly for Christ's sake," or rather, of what this world considers folly when it looks at Christians and their life.
For the poverty of which Paul speaks after Jesus Himself, and of which even earlier, centuries before Christ's coming, one of Israel's great prophets, Isaiah of Jerusalem, had already spoken, presupposes a corresponding attitude not only to property or social status, but also to knowledge, religiosity, piety, and even one's own ascetic "achievements."
God's poor person does not consider anything listed above to have any independent value, including knowledge, and not only theoretical, speculative knowledge, but even mystical experience, which at first glance reveals far more than any speculation.
God's poor person understands perfectly that everything listed above, including knowledge and even mystical experience, does not in itself bring him nearer to God. And being in God's presence, the only thing that has meaning and significance in spiritual life, does not depend on the person. A person can only ask for such closeness and strive for it, but he cannot attain it or deserve it by his own powers so that it belongs to him by right or by merit.
And if so, then every human knowledge as such is worth nothing, and a person who thinks that he knows something, first, does not understand what is main and genuine in spiritual life, and second, is mistaken, taking for genuine what is not genuine. The second, as a rule, follows from the first. This is the spiritual delusion of which the apostle reminds us, considering it dangerous enough: it creates the illusion of spiritual life and a spiritual path where in reality there is neither one nor the other.