Superficial vs. Spiritual Wisdom...Continued from page 2

Paul then rhetorically makes reference to people who are known to be wise, brilliant and clever debaters, people who have the wisdom of this world. He refers to Jews who want miraculous signs and Greeks who are looking for eloquent philosophies. As appealing as all this is, he underlines the most elementary of spiritual truths, ". . .but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength" (1 Corinthians 1:23-25).

Then he gives two examples.

Example #1: "Take you for example." He talks specifically about the believers at Corinth. He notes that many sophisticated fraternities or sororities screen those applying. They want people who are wise according to worldly standards. They want powerful people. They want people of noble birth. He bluntly reminds them that not many of them were that wise, that powerful or of noble birth. In fact, later he will remind them that, if they're going to be arrogant about their spiritual sophistication, they need to remember their origins. "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers-none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

It is helpful, isn't it, to remember our roots? None of us is perfect! Every one of us is a sinner. Some of us are sinners who have never received God's grace. Some of us are sinners but for the grace of God, and we are clothed in His righteousness, based on His graciousness, not on our own brilliance, power or sophistication. We can't buy our way into the Kingdom of God by our intellect, our power or our connections. The reality is that God loves us. We are His chosen people!

Example #2: "Take me for example." Paul is saying that he knows that he is very intelligent. He can hold his own in intellectual repartee with the brightest of people, he continues to declare that he didn't come to Corinth with the goal of impressing them with how smart he was. He writes, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Do you follow me? Let's not get so haughty and prideful, so arrogant in our intellectual and spiritual sophistication. Remember the message of the Christian faith is not one of highly sophisticated philosophical musings. It is an elementary word, the word of the cross. The minute you and I forget that, we begin to develop a prideful elitism. Like our party leaders, we pride ourselves in our own intellectual sophistication.