The truth or facts of life that a person acquires either through experience or thought. The greatest truth that a person can possess with the mind or learn through experience is truth about God (Psa 46:10; John 8:31-32). This cannot be gained by unaided human reason (Job 11:7; Rom 11:33). It is acquired only as God shows Himself to people-in nature and conscience (Psa 19; Rom 1:19-20); in history or providence (Deut 6:20-25; Dan 2:21); and especially in the Bible (Psa 119; Rev 1:1-3). Mental knowledge by itself, as good as it may be, is inadequate; it is capable only of producing pride (1 Cor 8:1; 13:2). Moral knowledge affects a person’s will (Prov 1:7; Phil 3:11-12; 1 John 4:6). It is knowledge of the heart, not the mind alone.

The Book of Proverbs deals primarily with this kind of knowledge. Experiential knowledge is that gained through one’s experience (Gen 4:1; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 John 4:7-8).

The apostle Paul’s wish for the church at Colosse was that they might increase in the “knowledge of God” (Col 1:10)