I just finished reading a most delightful post that touches on the idea of snobbery without actually using the word itself. This is of great interest to me because I am an incorrigible snob. Being analytically inclined, I've given extensive thought to this topic. Why do people almost universally use "snob" as an epithet, and should it be understood differently?
You've likely read my earlier post about tea snobbery, in which I discussed this a bit. I have used my tea snobbery to cultivate a taste for tea that allows me to enjoy the beverage more fully than I could before. When I was in the process of learning about tea and trying new varieties, I was an unpardonable snob. Anything packaged in a teabag was unacceptable, as was any water that came straight from the tap. I couldn't bear such primitive rubbish, and I made sure everyone around me knew it. The ability to articulately decry something as trash made me feel superior to anyone who couldn't. I'm told there's a word for that, but it didn't come up in my autobiography about humility.
Enough about tea. The very same process happens in all sorts of people with all sorts of expressions. Consider photography. A person who learns some of the mechanics of photography can very easily come to consider himself an expert, and he'll show little discretion in tearing apart the pictures his friends take for fun. (I've done that.)
Consider music. A person who studies music more or less formally may develop some solid reasons for liking and disliking various styles. He may even talk about his opinions in an interesting way, thereby enriching his interested friends. Snobbery comes in when he preaches about the pitiful failures of humanity in poor music, thereby declaring himself more well-informed (and generally better) than the person who produced the music. (I've done that.)
I could go on with examples from food, language, movies, and any form of art, but I trust that my point has been communicated. It is one thing to be well-informed, and it is quite another to try to show oneself as being superior to someone else. This is an expression of pride, the antithesis of worship.
Yes, yes, I've brought worship into this. Criticize me for overspiritualizing if you must, but this is important. What are we if we're not made to worship God? And what are tea, photography, music, food, languages, etc. if they aren't vehicles through which we are meant to worship God? I thus find it incredibly important to study and make oneself well-informed about... well... just about anything! Before I appreciated tea, it was just another hot beverage. Now that I know something about it, it's an incredibly complex system through which people have harnessed some of God's beauty. Before I knew anything about languages, they were just different ways of talking. Now I see them as unique tools of communicating the glory of God. Coming to appreciate these differences requires something of a level of what I call "snobbery."
The trouble is that most people use that word differently. Common use of "snobbery" denotes a truly evil system whereby a person takes a vehicle for God's glory and uses it for his own glory. If my grammar is better than yours, I can either take the opportunity to show you some of God's beauty as expressed in language, or I can show you how impressive it is that I understand something complex. This is evil. This is sin.
So go on, Christian, be a snob! Just be sure your snobbery is exalting the right Person.