Pure Wisdom

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

PURE WISDOM

1 Cor 1:18-25

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."  

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 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 man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

NIV

If only the wise knew how foolish there were, it would make things so much better. But unfortunately those who think themselves wise are stuck in their own self-made mud. We all know people of this kind, those who have made intelligence their God. Our whole human system has been based on being wise, learning from who they think are great scholars, men who learned from other men who they thought were great scholars, yet all of that wisdom was of the mind of man. We who believe know that man’s wisdom is but foolishness to God, but they are blinded to that fact by their self-edification of their wisdom. They reject the wisdom of God for their own which is so puny compared to His. We can see this kind of thinking even creeping into the church over the past hundred years or so. It would seem the only path to having wisdom from God is to attend a Bible college and learn from other men, the meaning of scripture, or the method of preaching, or how to be a missionary, or Christian education director, and all sorts of other titles of leadership. It would appear that only those who have graduated are qualified to receive the coveted recognition of men, ordination. Is this not also foolishness to God? In the next few verses which we see later, God called simply men to be His plan for spreading the Gospel message. Yes they learned from Christ, and that is what we need to do. We need to learn from Christ, not from men. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We need but know Christ, which is also the very Word of God and we will have all the wisdom we will ever need. Men demand diplomas, degrees given by other men, acknowledgments, accolades; recognition of completion of learning the wisdom of other men, God demands a willingness to be used by Him for the benefit of His kingdom. Which is better, to be called a man after man’s ways, or to be called a man after God’s own heart? Yes, we can be guided to certain ways of thinking by what men may say or write, but in the reality of truth, What God has said and had recorded is the only guide to thinking and understanding truth, and that is pure wisdom.