1 Cor 1:18-31
Key Verse 18
Introduction
City Corinth was a cosmopolitan, third largest city (next to Rome and Alexandria) in the Roman Empire. It was a city of idols, all kinds of sins, from various kinds of people; like New York.
The Church in Corinth was established by Paul during his second mission journey. To do so he stayed in Corinth for 18 months, the second longest time (next to the time in Ephesus: 3 years) he spent. The volume that he wrote to this church (1, 2 Corinthians 48 pages/Romans 25 pages) was more than any other church of the time. The believers in Corinth were called ‘sanctified’ (v2) And yet, the believers of this church was entangled with so many problems such as division, problem associated with the poor and the rich, various immorality, sexual immorality, marriage problem, suit against each other, food sacrifices idol, idleness, spiritual gifts/pride (speaking tongue), and inappropriate ways of conducting the worship, and Lord’s supper.
To them, the first thing he addressed was on the matter of divisions in the church (1:10-4:21). Today’s passage (1:18-31) is the central theme of handling the issue of division. The primary causes of the division were human wisdom and human intelligence. The one and only remedy for divisions was Jesus crucified for God saved them not because their wisdom or intelligence was superior to others but because they believed Christ apart from all ‘human wisdom and intelligence’.
Out of so many problems, most of which were very serious enough to undermine the foundation of the Gospel, yet he considered the issue of the division was fundamental and primary over all other issues of the church that he at the outset of the letter talked on how to solve the division. Division within a church is the most dangerous for the body of Christ for it is the direct causes of disintegration over even a dissolution of the Church. Today’s passage provided us the fundamental causes of division and the solution for the divisions in the church.
I pray that at the end of this message, we all may uphold ‘Jesus crucified’ as the commanding principle of our lives, replacing the wisdom and intelligence that has been sitting on the driver seats of our lives so long for Jesus crucified is the wisdom and power of God for those who believe.
1. The world moves by and flooded with human wisdom and intelligence
Google made its success through google search engine in its effectiveness and capability. All like this so much that nowadays it seems that we cannot live without it. The reason is obvious because the knowledge or information provided by Google search is so enormous and all, pretty much all knowledge or wisdom that are out there is at our fingertip. The more you know, the more you look powerful and respected. Some of us went to spy museum and enjoyed it so much because if we have such ability to peek into the information on others, we may be able to take control of the situation; intelligence is part of our life in this world; M Rebekah could not pass RN exam on the first two attempts. She studied a thick book but she could not get the essence of the teachings because the material was so much that she could not digest all by herself. But one day she got an information packet from an old friend. In it was all the key questions and answers of the exam. After studying that, she passed the exam without difficulty. Like this wisdom on how to study and intelligence on what to study played a powerful role in her career. To meet the needs of people, many became experts in a particular area. What they say are authoritative on that specific subject. Such need created an internet search engines and many put up their expert's opinions on the internet, making them available on click of a fingertip. These are few titles of articles that I found on the internet.
How to Make $1000/Day from Anywhere in the World!!
Retirement Planning Explained - Best Retirement Plans Review
10 Habits of Healthy People - How to Live Longer
A Powerful Lesson for a Stress-Free Life
A Clever Lesson in Self Worth
These look valuable and supplant for the wisdom that we have. So we value the wisdom and intelligence so much that we spend so much time to look for and to study wisdom and intelligence. It seems that these are the mainstay of our lives; not only how much wisdom and intelligence one has would determine the success of life but also such life is considered and practiced as the norm of our lives.
But have you ever thought or have you ever thought seriously God as the source of our wisdom and intelligence in life? Do you think that you have considered the cross of Jesus in making these decisions, decisions on relationship, finances, all kinds of knowledge and intelligence? Most of us think that our belief in Christ and what we decide on these matters of life are two different things and irrelevant from each other.
In this letter, Paul teaches us that there is an astounding difference between the lives relied on wisdom and intelligence and the life that lives in faith on the cross of Jesus. Today I want you to consider this teaching and in 2018, I pray that Jesus crucified might be the first and primary source of wisdom and power for your life.
2. God destroys men’s wisdom and frustrates men’s intelligence. (18-21)
Paul saw that the cause of the division was the wisdom and intelligence of the world. What he meant was that even after becoming believers, their mainstay of operative tool of their lives was human wisdom and intelligence as they had been before they were converted to Christians. When one uses human wisdom and human intelligence as the way how to go by life, there is an unending discord and disagreement since everyone has different in their perspective of things though they had accepted Christ as their Lord. This was true then and it is true even now.
But at the beginning of this argument, Paul dropped a bombshell on such thinking;
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness 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; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Such way of thinking, living by human wisdom, and human intelligence are the ways of those who rejected Christ and would perish; that shall not be the way of life for the believers. The reason is clear; God destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate the intelligence of intelligent human beings.
a. Men’s mind operates in three aspects in search for life; first it is by wisdom. There is a wisdom how to win the hearts of others. There is a wisdom how to succeed in one’s career or scholarly endeavors. So wisdom is how to do things effectively so as to bring about a good outcome. Second, it is by the law, or moral aspect of life. Jews are well tuned in this aspect because God gave them the Law of Moses. But all people have moral codes of conduct. Pretty much every human beings know that when one violate the moral and ethical code of conduct, he or she would surely bear its outcome, good or bad. So all believes that good ethical and moral life bear a better life, though there is always a lingering doubts in the back of their hearts. Third, philosophers are the one who put together things of the universe in a reasonable fashion, including life, death and eternity. They are the one who put up a perfect system of understanding about universe and life in it. The experts of each of these three are well respected and honored. I often look at YouTube to find the way how to repair things around the house. Many of them are very useful for the videos are put up by the experts of that area. So is true to Wikipedia and books. Often we feel that we cannot live without. These are the source of human wisdom and intelligence in its entirety. Yet Paul raised these questions:
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
b. Even with the best of their efforts on these three aspects, they utterly failed to come to the right terms with God of the Holiness. In these rhetoric questions, Paul strongly denounced that among the believers there were none of the wise, the teachers of the Law and philosophers, a clear evidence of the fact that the wise, the teachers of the Law and the renown philosophers failed thoroughly to see the life in Christ and at the same time this served as the evidence of their futile effort in search for life through their wisdom, intelligence or the law. Nevertheless the world is after the wisdom, the law, and the philosophies of this world. They are so much absorbed and their minds are entrenched in them that they are unable to see the truth that God embedded on the cross of Jesus. It’s rather to say that the minds that are so much tuned in search for answers of life in such a way have been blocked by God. Now is the time of that crisis. Many, especially young generation, saw hopes in these and yet, they came to realize that it was just a phantom opera. We all, not just the people of the world but also, we believers as well, must be keenly aware of this. Then what is the way of life? Or, what is the most fruitful way of life in God?
3. Paul’s life that lived by Jesus crucified demonstrated the utmost wisdom of God
22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
While the some people of the world was looking for wisdom, and while others were looking for signs, Paul ran his life by preaching Jesus crucified. The reason why they do sought life in wisdom and signs was because they did not see the life in the cross of Jesus. They failed to do so because they tried to understand by their wisdom or by their law. In the best of their wisdom, Jesus crucified was a foolish thing. In the best of the law, Jesus crucified was a stumbling block. The result of these two different paths made a remarkable difference. Paul who lived and preached the truth of Christ Crucified bore so many lives and the Corinthian were the proof of the richness of the fruit. On the other hand, among the members of the Corinthian church, there was no one who sought life through their wisdom or through the law. Why?
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Those who came to God through Christ or those who came to have the ultimate fruit of life in Christ came to God in faith came to have such fruit of life purely because of God’s power and God’s wisdom. It had nothing to do with their wisdom or power. What they were unable to do, God did by his wisdom and his power. What was the thing that God could that men were not able to do even with the best of their wisdom? Or, what is Paul talking about here?
4. Jesus crucified, the wisdom and power of God (26-31)
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Before we proceed to talk about what God could do, it is good for us to find out the exact meaning of the word ‘Jesus crucified’. He started to talk about this in v 17, by turning from the word Gospel to the cross of Jesus. This is restated in v 18 as the message of the cross; in v 23, as he was talking about the foolishness of the Gentiles, he used the word ‘Jesus crucified’ and linked this word to the foolishness or weakness of God. Through this, it is clear that these different descriptions of Jesus crucified is the message attached to or derived from or embodied in the crucifixion of Jesus. The message of the Gospel is inclusive of crucifixion, death, and resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-3). But here Paul was talking about specifically how one sees the crucifixion itself, i.e. Jesus crucified. If Jesus was not the Son of God or could not be accepted as the Son of God, and if one failed to accept that God’s will and purpose was with the crucifixion of Jesus, then it is beyond the human ‘wisdom and intellect’ to know and taste the power and message of God in it. In this way, God nullified all that the wise, the strong, and the intellect had and boasted of.
Then what did God achieve through Jesus crucified? The world was unable to achieve or fulfill the requirements of ‘righteousness, holiness and redemption’ that God the father mandated from all sinful men. But God in his wisdom made this possible through Jesus crucified, a foolish thing to the eyes of men. ‘Jesus crucified’ looked as if the weakness of God to many and yet it is much stronger than all men’s power or efforts in bringing sinful men’s hearts to the righteousness, holiness of God through the power of redemption. How did God do this? In his wisdom, he nullified the strength or power of all the wise, and the intellectual by the cross of Jesus. Instead, he willfully and deliberately chose the foolish, the weak, the lowly, and the despised things so that they all might come to God by faith, only by faith, so that none of them came with a boast in what they attained to do. The best and living example was the Corinthians. When God chose them, none of them belonged to the group of the wise or the strong or the intelligent. Yet God imparted them the righteousness, holiness through the redemption of Jesus crucified.
What does this message tell us to do? The world is flooded with wisdom and intelligence. We all are drawn to them so easily and so much. They are helpful and seem to give us wisdom and intelligence for life but we must accept deeply in our hearts that the wisdom of the world never lead us to the life that God is offering. As we noted, Paul was not saying this to the unbelievers but to the believers in Corinth. The wisdom and intelligence of the world were stumbling block for the world to come to believe the life in Jesus crucified, then even after one accepted the cross of Jesus, they are still a stumbling block to follow Christ. As much as our mind and spirit hang on the wisdom and intelligence of the world, the more the life in Christ in us will dissipate from us and the more we will become like the people of the world. And we as a whole will be driven toward divisions. What are we to do?
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
At the end of this discourse, he testified how he lived while he was in Corinth. He devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. (Act 18:5 NIV) He did this in the synagogue and then the next door in the house of Titius Justus. He had a great fear of the attack from the Jews (Acts 18:9). But, God appeared to him and encouraged him to continue to do; devoting himself to preaching Jesus crucified for 18 months. It is noteworthy that the mission in Corinth was the first time it is said that he solely ‘devoted’ himself to the preaching of ‘Jesus crucified’ and the first time he stayed so long over 18 months for a single goal, preaching of Jesus crucified. Also, this was the first time in his mission journey that bore large Gentile converts in Macedonia.
The message of Jesus crucified is still the wisdom and power of God. It is a foolish thing to those who are perishing but to those who believe it is the power of God for all, even the weak, the lowly, and the ignorant. In 2018, I want all of you set your hearts and mind on Jesus crucified, the rich source of wisdom, and the rich source of power from God.
May God bless us all in 2018!
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