Secret and Hidden Wisdom

Reading:  1 Corinthians 2:6-10
    
    Paul has been reminding the Corinthians that his preaching work among them was “not in plausible words of wisdom”(1 Cor 2:4).  But that doesn’t mean that the message does not contain wisdom.  “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although that it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.  But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory”(1 Cor 2:6-7).  There is brilliance, insight, and deep meaning in the gospel, but it is not the type of wisdom Greek philosophy prizes.  Nor is it the style of wisdom that informs “the rulers of this age” of the best way to govern and consolidate power.  It is instead something “secret and hidden”—overlooked, disdained, taken for granted, and ignored.

    Especially is it secret and hidden because it is not produced my human insight or experience.  “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’”(1 Cor 2:9).  Human beings could not have concocted the story of the cross, nor could they conceive of the future glory that awaits those God blesses.  We do not think our way to Jesus; often our thinking is what leads us away from him.  Instead, we perceive it only as God reveals it to us through his Spirit (1 Cor 2:10), here mediated through the apostles (1 Cor 2:12-13).

    Paul wants us to stand in awe of a God who can save the world in a totally unexpected way—even using “the rulers of this age” to unwittingly accomplish it (1 Cor 2:8).   It is a lesson in humility:  we can never, ever predict God’s next move or reduce him to a formula.  But there is also great wonder here:  if we can trust this God and go along with his unexpected plans, he has prepared great things for those who love and obey him.  We cannot even imagine what good he has in store for us!

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One Thing to Think About:   What is the “wisdom of this age” in my time?  Does it acknowledge Jesus?  

One Thing to Pray For:  Willingness to rely on what God has revealed about himself—not just my thinking 
 

Just Jesus

Reading:  1 Corinthians 2:1-5
    
    Paul is still correcting the Corinthian tendency to divide based on men, stressing that God’s goal is that “no human being might boast in the presence of God”(1 Cor 1:29).  Here he recounts his time in Corinth:  “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified”(1 Cor 2:1-2).  Paul again (as in 1:17) insists that his preaching was not awesome and eloquent or full of the elaborate sophistry that characterized speech in the Greek world.  His message was just Jesus—stark and unvarnished.  He told the story of God made flesh, sacrificing himself to take away the sins of the world.  Paul wanted his listeners to leave encounters with him impressed with Jesus, not with Paul.

    He also stresses that he was not that impressive because of his “weakness” and “fear” and “much trembling”(1 Cor 2:3).  Paul is just a guy, utterly unworthy of veneration.  “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”(1 Cor 2:4-5).  Some arguments are so elaborate that we forget the reasoning but remember the genius of the speaker; Paul was not so.  He mentions “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” which may mean that he performed miracles in Corinth to confirm his message.  Yet even this was not to exalt Paul, but the God empowering him.  The goal is for them to put faith in God, never “the wisdom of men.”

    God has chosen to spread his message through humans (“jars of clay,” 2 Cor 4:7).  This has always held the danger that we will fixate on the person spreading it rather than the God he is declaring.  Paul’s answer to this is to “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  Just Jesus.  Such preaching might not be full of hot takes on the issues of the day—it might not build his “brand”—it might not wow the masses—but it will express faithfulness to the message and exalt Jesus.  We need to preach “just Jesus”—and value such preaching—and put our faith in the God behind it.

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One Thing to Think About:   Why do we tend to exalt humans?  

One Thing to Pray For:  An appetite for the simple message of Jesus—and not the opinions of man 
 

Boast in the Lord

Reading:  1 Corinthians 1:26-31
    
    The cross is God’s unexpected way of shaming the “wise” of the world (1 Cor 1:19-20).  By saving people through a brutal act of sacrifice, the limits of human wisdom and judgment are exposed.  Yet it is not just the cross that does this, but also the people whom it attracts.  “For consider your calling, brothers:  not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong”(1 Cor 1:26-27).   Paul is not insulting the Corinthians, but pointing out the reality:  they are not the most impressive people by worldly standards.  He has simultaneously humbled the wise and exalted the “foolish” and “weak.”  

    What is the point of all these reversals?  “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God”(1 Cor 1:28-29).  The goal is to eliminate human arrogance and boasting.  In the cross, he has begun to fulfill the promises that “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted”(Matt 23:12, Luke 18:14) and that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”(James 4:6, 1 Pet 5:5).  Meanwhile, Christians know that they are the weak, low, and foolish—yet by God’s grace they have “righteousness and sanctification and redemption”(1 Cor 1:30).  They also cannot boast in themselves; their newly exalted station is God’s gift.

    “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  Where do we find our meaning, value, and identity?  God wants us to find it in him, not ourselves or other people.  Paul is quoting Jeremiah, through whom God says, “Let not the wise man boast in wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me”(Jer 9:23-24).  I bring nothing worthy of boasting, but I can boast in the goodness and mercy of my God.

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One Thing to Think About:   What kinds of things do I tend to boast in?  

One Thing to Pray For:  The humility to acknowledge that all that I have is a gift from God
 

The Foolishness of God

Reading:  1 Corinthians 1:18-25
    
    Paul muses on the gospel Jesus sent him to preach, which he describes as “Christ crucified”(1:23, 2:2).  “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”(1 Cor 1:18).  This remarkable message—of a promised Savior who instead of delivering, dies for his people—is viewed in different ways by different people.  “Those who are perishing” see it as ridiculous, while “to us who are being saved” it looks like God’s mighty hand is behind it.  Paul insists that God anticipated these different reactions and is using them to humble the “wise” (1 Cor 1:19-20).  “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the follow of what we preach to save those who believe”(1 Cor 1:21).  All their learning and thinking did not get them closer to God, so God chose something “foolish” to reach them.

    “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”(1 Cor 1:22-24).  Expectations matter.  Jews demand signs—majestic proofs of God’s presence and working.  They find in the cross something decidedly less majestic than the great signs of Moses.  Greeks seek wisdom—brilliant insight into the nature of life and the world.  They find in the cross something harsh, brutal, and gruesome.  But those with eyes to see—and a heart humble enough to reconsider their expectations—find in the cross both power and wisdom.  Only God could achieve such a thing:  “for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”(1 Cor 1:25).

    Even today, the unbelieving world looks at Jesus’ atoning death as foolishness.  It is not scientific enough—not aggressive enough—not modern enough.  Believers must embrace the fact that we see in the cross something that others do not see (often because they feel they are too “wise” for such “foolishness”).  Yet even God’s “foolishness” is wiser than men.

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One Thing to Think About:   In what ways do I struggle with the message of the cross?

One Thing to Pray For:  Strength to withstand the opposition of those who ridicule the gospel
 

Christ Did Not Send Me to Baptize

Reading:  1 Corinthians 1:14-17
    
    The divided allegiances in the Corinthian church stem from an improper elevation of men (“I follow Paul” and “I follow Apollos”). Paul asks, “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?”(1 Cor 1:13).  The obvious answer is no, yet he is making the connection between baptism and the one we subsequently follow.  Why be baptized into Christ and then follow Paul?  “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius”(1 Cor 1:14).  This is an odd statement because it sounds as if Paul wants to limit the number of people baptized.  The reason Paul is thankful that he baptized so few is not because baptism is problematic, but “so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name”(1 Cor 1:15).  He then seems to be racking his brain to remember who else he baptized in Corinth:  “I did baptize also the household of Stephanas.  Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else”(1 Cor 1:16).  

    Why all this discussion of baptism?  Paul has a point to make:  “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power”(1 Cor 1:17).   Paul is not saying that Jesus doesn’t want him to baptize people or that baptism is unimportant.  His point is about who performs the physical act of baptism.  Paul’s mission is to preach the gospel, pointing people to Jesus and reconciling them to God.  Gospel preaching does not leave people as followers of men, but of Jesus.  When people respond to that gospel, it doesn’t matter who baptizes them—yet without the gospel being preached, all the baptisms in the world mean nothing.  This is Paul’s true purpose.

    It is a mistake to think that Paul is denigrating baptism with this statement.  After all, Paul teaches people to be baptized (Gal 3:27, Col 2:12) and was baptized himself (Acts 22:16).  He is correcting the mentality that the people who teach and baptize are of special importance.  What matters is Jesus who died to make salvation possible, in whom we believe, and into whom we are baptized.  

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One Thing to Think About:   Do I tend to think of certain people as more important than they are?

One Thing to Pray For:  Faith in the power of the gospel of Jesus