his readers with the character and importance of true knowledge before drawing their attention to the dangers of that “knowledge falsely so called” which was being pressed upon them. True knowledge is founded in practical religion; it is that knowledge which, according to the OT, starts with a proper attitude towards God: “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7; cf. Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). Right knowledge, according to Paul, leads to right behaviour;30 and here right knowledge