No Human Wisdom

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

NO HUMAN WISDOM

1 Cor 1:13-17

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

NIV

This is the continuation of Paul’s discourse, right out of the gate, regarding division among this new church. We have considered how things have not changed that much in our post-modern church and so now we look into some of the rest of what he says. Paul makes the point, and at least, most denominations today baptize in the name of Jesus, although there are some who baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, while others baptize only in the name of Jesus. However, we are at least not baptizing in the name of some preacher, which is the point Paul was making. What we see here is something special regarding how Paul was sent to them. He was not there to be a baptizer but to be a preacher. This too might relate to our lives in that same sense. Our role in the church, as in the world, is to preach the gospel. This does not apply only to those who have gone to a bible school or seminary and have received the hand of fellowship, or the degree or certificate, or the certification of ministry, or license, or ordination, or whatever each demonization calls those given the right to become a pastor of a church. This applies to all of us who believe in the name of the Lord. Has not Jesus told us all to go out into the world and preach the gospel? Again, we have considered this before and it may not mean that we should all go traveling the world, as we pay missionaries to do that for us. But we have been called to go into the world of business, engineering, medicine, construction retail,  manufacturing, or whatever profession or trade there is. Whatever we have been called to in order to make a living here in this world, we also have been called in some sense to be a preacher, or at the very least, a witness. Our life should be a witness for Jesus, yet at the same time, we need to speak about him as well. We all cannot actually preach, that would not be right to preach a sermon at work. But our words are preaching in a sense. What we say, says volumes either for or against Jesus. But we cannot conjure up those words, for they would be of human wisdom, for that Paul says empties the cross of Christ of its power. Whatever we say needs to be inspired by the Spirit. Our words need to come from the power of God, and not from us. This may be the fallacy with many who have learned the skill of preaching at some seminary or biblical type school. Learning the correct format of sermon preparation has become the norm today. Again, we have to earn the right to be a preacher, learning all the right ways, the right speaking skills, etc. Yet it may be all but from human wisdom. This is not to say all preachers come from human wisdom, for it is certain many are inspired by the Lord and preach the word with the wisdom from God. This too should relate to how we approach life and how we should be prepared to hear wisdom from God before we speak about the things of the Lord. If we look to Him, He will give us the words we need to say when we need to say them, and to whom we need to say them. There is a difference between human and divine wisdom, and we should not rely on this human wisdom.