The Useless Wisdom of Man

[audio]

1 Cor 1:17-2 and assorted other scriptures

Preached 10/11/2014   (previous)

 

I. INTRODUCTION

Last week we talked about (what/why/how)

• The importance of a Christian seeking “the knowledge of God”: commanded/practical
• The benefits of seeking “the knowledge of God”
• The practice of seeking “the knowledge of God”

It would be interesting to take a survey (I won’t) to find out how many people spent this week doing real Bible study or reading good theology books (especially the people who said nice things about the sermon!).  I would ask that everyone talk to someone else about what they read/learned this week (on their own) before leaving today.  Peter commands us to

1 Peter 3:15 “… in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” 

This is our command to be ready to speak to unbelievers about the gospel, in personal terms.  But that is not our only responsibility – what church meetings are for is given by the writer to the Hebrews:

Hebrews 10:24-25   ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

That is the job description of a Christian: don’t forsake church, and don’t just sit and receive when you are there, but stir up each other to love and good works.  In fact, the imperative is to “consider” (observe, consider attentively, fix one's eyes or mind upon) how to do this, and “stir up” is the word from which we get paroxysm and means to incite or irritate!

 

But why does God constantly have to command us to seek the knowledge of Him

• Isn’t it self-evident that we should?
• Aren’t the benefits obvious?
• Shouldn’t we want to as Christians who “love God”?

Well, the truth is that we are fallen, and in our natural state we hate everything about God.  When we become a Christian, we are made a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), given a new heart (Ez 36:26, 2 Cor 3:3), indwelt by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 1:14) and taught by the Holy Spirit’s anointing (1 John 2:27).  In fact, the definition of a Christian in Romans is one of those who “those who live according to the Spirit [and]  set their minds on the things of the Spirit.: (Rom 8:5).  Yet Paul warns in Romans 7-8 that the old flesh still hangs around to afflict us, leading him to say

Romans 7:24-25    ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Since as a non-Christian we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”, when we become a Christian there is a HUGE culture shock.  Those of you who like me can remember their conversions will remember two things:

• Suddenly the Bible made sense and seemed reasonable
• Then you realize that a lot of what you knew was wrong.

The second step takes years – frankly it never ends.  It’s not just an example of the old rule of computing – GIGO (garbage in- garbage out).  It is that even (to continue the computer analogy) the operating system was full of bugs.  In that analogy, we get a new OS, but the BIOS is still broken and the hardware is flaky, and we are waiting to be installed on a new, flawless set of hardware.  In the mean time we must purge the old data, don’t download viruses from shady websites, and remember not to call any of the old BIOS routines that take us down the wrong path.  (he he)

Leaving behind the computer geek talk I will talk about my own life.  I became a Christian at the age of 18, after spending my JH and HS years proudly proclaiming how I was a free-thinking atheist.  Fed on a steady diet of public schooling, science fiction and the general culture as experienced through my friends, I had a mixture of beliefs and “facts” and a general world view that I was pretty comfortable with, and which I was prepared to defend before others.  When Jesus grabbed me and made me his own (called me) I suddenly found myself in a different world, with people who

• Had a different language
• Believed different things about the origin of the universe
• Had a different personal morality
• Wanted to please Jesus rather than man
• Etc., etc., etc.,…

What ensued was a screeching turnaround in my entire world view. In many ways it was excruciating.  So many of my cherished ideals came crashing down, many not without a great fight in my heart.  I had been given “the mind of Christ” but my habits of thinking were set.  Even 36 years later (my spiritual birthday was about a month ago) I am still fighting the war described by Paul in 2 Cor 10:

2 Cor 10:5   We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

You see, it is NOT enough to just learn “the knowledge of God” in the abstract sense.  We must conform our thought patterns to it and eschew the wisdom of the world.

Paul contrasts the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of God in our main text today.

1 Corinthians 1:17-25   ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." ²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

 

II. God’s Wisdom Trashes Human Wisdom

Right off the bat we get a good impression of God’s opinion of our lofty human wisdom, right?  Not only is He NOT impressed, He makes it clear that he will go out of his way to expose it for the folly that it is.  In fact, He is going to make it foolish through his own plans.

 

IIA. The Foolishness of the Gospel  (17-18)

One of the most interesting things in the first verse of our passage is when Paul says that if he had used words of eloquent wisdom that the cross would have been emptied of its power.  Isn’t the gospel elegant?  Haven’t great preachers given moving sermons on the gospel, cleverly and beautifully elucidating the wonder and glory of the gospel?  Of course they have.  What did Paul mean? 

Remember that we are reading from a letter about a divided and divisive church.  There were factions, and actual fighting and argumentation had broken out between different groups.  This is one of Paul’s first statements about it in this letter of correction sent to the church, where he goes back to the first principles of their conversion.  How did they become Christians? Was it because Paul was a better speaker and rhetorician than the many others plying their trade in Corinth at that time?  No!  Paul had purposefully avoided using the culturally accepted way of swaying public opinion by clever speech, because he didn’t want to make “disciples of Paul”, but “disciples of Jesus”.  He avoided using “wisdom words” and just shared with them “the word of the cross”.

I remember when Billy Graham came and had a (crusade) in San Diego last.  I had never been to one before, and I went with great anticipation to hear the words of such a veteran evangelist.  Surely his golden and practiced speech would be a guide to be for a better and more effective presentation of the gospel.  What an opportunity to hear the expert give an advanced lesson in gospel speaking.  What I heard actually surprised me (though it should not have).  His talk was similar to what you might hear an adult say when speaking to children at a VBS.  He simply presented Christ and the gospel.  He kept the points simple: sin, judgment, the cross, faith, forgiveness.  I don’t remember the words because there was nothing special about his delivery – just the authority of scripture and the love of God.  Like Paul.

I have, on the other hand, heard evangelists who were so clever that all I can remember is how smart they sounded or how eloquent they were.  The goal of these preachers seems to be to gain followers for themselves, to ratchet up the number of people coming forward in the emotion of the moment (most of whom never go to a church for the rest of their lives), or to grow their own church to be a “phenomenon” with thousands of members.  I have done this myself – once I had a Buddhist co-worker actually ask me (a dream come true) about what I believed as a Christian. I still remember my attempts to sound clever and not say anything wrong – and I never got around to the gospel.  He never asked me again, and I never seemed to get the opportunity again to speak about it again.  I presented the gospel of “you should consider this belief system because it is clever, as I will demonstrate to you by my well thought-out speech” instead of the simple gospel of Christ who loved him and died to save him.  As it turns out I did not make a convert for Jesus or for myself – I emptied the cross of its power.

In this passage Paul describes two “words” (Greek logos).  In verse 17 he speaks of “words of eloquent wisdom” (Sophia logou) and in verse 18 this is contrasted with the word (logos) of the cross.  They are incompatible.  In addition, note that he describes two types of people: 

• Those who are perishing
• Us who are being saved

As we saw last week from 2 Cor 4, the unsaved are blinded to the truth, and we are saved when God says “let there be light” in our hearts “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  It is not, therefore, our doing.  We do NOT figure it out on our own.  Not only are we saved by grace through faith, even that faith is a pure gift from God, not due to man’s choice or wisdom.  As Paul quotes in Romans 1 “there is NONE who understands, there is NONE who seeks for God”. There will be nobody in heaven who boasts that he was smart enough to choose to obey the gospel by human wisdom.  Not one.

1 Corinthians 1:18   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.

God calls us, enlightens us, and then saves us when we respond to that light.  Before that enlightening, it is not that we do not understand the facts of the gospel – they are so simple that a young child could understand them.  Many people think that 1 Cor 2:14 says “the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit…” leading one person to tell me (years ago) that “if it makes sense, it is not God’s wisdom”.  That statement is ABSURD.  The verse really says that “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God”. (accept dechomai – to receive or accept)  Why?  “…because they are folly to him”.  (moria – foolishness – we get moron  from that word).   In other words, an unenlightened person (the entire human race) looks at the gospel and says “I can’t accept that”.  Why? Paul continues “because they are spiritually appraised”.  (judged)

There are two types of wisdom.  Human wisdom rejects the things of God – ALWAYS.  God’s wisdom is not reachable by human wisdom, but is only given as a gift from God.

 

IIB. The Foolishness of Man’s Wisdom  (19-24)

As he proceeds he makes a series of statements about the wisdom of man:

• God is actively its enemy:

1 Corinthians 1:19  ¹⁹ For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

• God actually made sure that human wisdom was not a qualification for salvation.  The worldly wise man, the religious scribe, and the debater have do advantage – even a possible disadvantage.  This pleased God to do:

1 Corinthians 1:20-21  ²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

• Human wisdom always wants “something more”. People may have widely differing points of view, but they still reject the simplicity of the gospel, but God could not care less about our demands that He conform to our thoughts:

1 Corinthians 1:22-23   ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 

• And the power (effectiveness) of salvation is in the simple wisdom of God’s gospel:

1 Corinthians 1:24   but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

Which echoes Romans 1:16 

Romans 1:16   For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

 

IIC. The Foolishness of God???  (25)

Finally, Paul uses a crazy expression to show just how much better God’s wisdom is than man’s

1 Corinthians 1:25  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

There is, of course, no foolishness of God, but even if there was, it far outstrips any of our wisdom. 

Is there any doubt about this subject now??  ;-)

 

III. Rooting Out Human Wisdom

So knowing how God feels about human wisdom, what are we to do?

1 Corinthians 3:18-20   ¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," ²⁰ and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile."

Intellectual pride is not only a poison, it is self-perpetuating.  The first step is to humble ourselves before the word and God’s revelation.  God knows our thoughts, we do not know his.  Also, he made our brains.  C.S. Lewis put it this way (in Mere Christianity):

“When you argue against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.”

Part of rooting out faulty human wisdom is to resist the temptation to seem wise to others and turn back to the world for guidance.  We must also be humble when we are confronted by God’s truth by others:

Galatians 4:9-11, 16    ⁹ But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. ... ¹⁶ Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

If we react with anger when lovingly confronted by scripture, it is a sure sign we are operating under the world’s wisdom!  That should be an immediate warning flag that we are in grave danger.

We must walk in Christ and “study to show thyself approved” (to quote the AWANA verse), building up our knowledge of God so that we recognize the counterfeit that the world will constantly be throwing at us to try to trick us:

1 Timothy 6:20-21   ²⁰ O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," ²¹ for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Colossians 2:6-8   ⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ

If we don’t “take every thought captive” we will be vulnerable to be taken captive by every passing fad and idea.  The only inoculation is to be rooted in Christ.

How do we recognize when our thoughts are worldly?

• “Oh, that sin is not so bad”.  [Lowered standards of holiness]
• “It’s okay to cuss if I am around others who also cuss, as long as I don’t do it at church”.  “It’s okay to cuss online if I use asterisks for some letters or just use an acronym WTF or OMG [impure speech]
• Dividing the body of Christ over non-essential issues [church names/decorations, IBYC]
• Caught up in odd or strange doctrines – more interested in them than the simple gospe
• Unspiritual priorities in time management
• Defaming/ridiculing/suing church members in front of unbelievers
• Disobedience or carnality regarding communion
• Rejecting parts of scripture that don’t conform to modern cultural norms
• Embarrassed of the gospel
• Anger at teachers/preachers in church if they step on your “golden calf”

Let us be clear what the ultimate source of worldly wisdom is, which was hinted in the previous verses by the phrase “according to the elemental spirits of the world”.  First of all, realize that the world hates Jesus – He said so himself. This is the motivation of worldly wisdom. (some examples here?)

John 15:18-19   ¹⁸ "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

2 Timothy 3:1-7    ¹ But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ⁶ For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 

Note that worldly wisdom denies the power of God, and is based on a hatred of holiness, preferring pleasure to God.  In the world’s wisdom, people can spend their entire lives learning and never get even a piece of the truth.

There are hidden, spiritual sources at work.  The natural man is completely open and unprotected:

James 3:15   This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

1 Tim 4:1-2   ¹ Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, ² through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,

So what do we do?

1 Tim 4:6-7, 13-16     ⁶ If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. ⁷ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; ... [more exhortation] ...  ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. ¹⁵ Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. ¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 

2 Timothy 14-17   ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

 

CONCLUSION

I mentioned in my own testimony how hard it was to conform to the mind of Christ as an adult convert, unlearning much of what I thought I knew and embracing ideas that were formally offensive to me.  This actually may be harder for someone to do who is saved at an early age and does not really remember their salvation as a traumatic change.  We are constantly bombarded with the world’s way of looking at things, and it is very easy to incorporate worldly thinking into our own if we do not constantly check our every belief and idea with scripture. 

Every human culture (and subculture) is different, and their ideas are different.  The people in Corinth had to deal with meat sacrificed to idols, which seems like a weird problem to us, but we have many similar issues.  The problem is not to know all the wrong of our culture, but to learn God’s truth.

Only one thing is common between all human wisdom: “they did not receive Him because they loved darkness rather than light”.  As John wrote:

1 John 2:15-17   ¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life--is not from the Father but is from the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 

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