![]() ![]() I remember thinking, I don't get that at all. Verse 17, he writes:įor 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.ġ8 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.ġ9 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."Ģ0 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?Ģ1 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. I had no trouble following Paul's argument until I got to verse 17 of chapter 1, where he launches a sustained attack on human wisdom that goes on for almost three full chapters. He starts out with a greeting, followed by a rebuke for people who were lining up in factions behind their favorite teachers. Before I got past the first chapter, it seemed as if the apostle Paul had me by the throat. But I started reading anyway.Īnd right away, the Word of God attacked my worldview head on. So I flipped through the pages and was disappointed that 1 Corinthian was longer than I hoped. I had never read a while book of the Bible beforeCnot even Philemon. What does this mean to me, in my situation? I was reading the Bible like a pagan would read the daily horoscope.īut when it fell open to the beginning of 1 Corinthians, the idea came to me that I might try to read the whole epistle. I'd spot a verse and treat it like a private oracle. So I wasn't looking to read more than a verse or two of Scripture. That was my whole religion: I thought goodness was embodied in wisdomCspecifically, philosophies gleaned from the wealthy, successful, famous, and elite minds. (To be perfectly honest, I knew I had little hope of ever being cool, but I was willing to settle for being sophisticated, which, being translated, meant that I wanted to be worldly-wise.) My highest goal in life was to be both cool and sophisticated. In short, follow the zeitgeist C the spirit of the age. I told myself, There's a world full of wisdom out there, but you have to listen to the trend-setters, the celebrities, the beautiful people. Above all, don't be narrow-minded, naive, old-fashioned, unlearned, or out of step with the times. Study and glean the best ideas from all the world's religions. And by that I meant: Make the most of yourself. I had grown up thinking the way to please God is to be good. That is perhaps not where you would think to send a self-satisfied teenager with a head full of liberal doctrine on a quest for gospel truth. And it fell open to the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. So I opened the Bible and kind of teased it open toward the back pages (because I knew enough not to get into the minor prophets). (I owned one of those Bibles that closed with a zipper cover, and I kept it zipped so that it would stay in mint condition.) But that night I was feeling melancholy and looking for something that would make me feel good about me. I was a churchgoerCbut in a really liberal denomination. ![]() I came to Christ at age 17, when I opened my Bible at random one night, thinking I would read a short verse or two. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2, and we're going to zero in on verses 12-13.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |