Revealed

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

REVEALED

1 Cor 2:10-16

10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.   14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

NIV

We are talking about the wisdom of God here as we just looked at yesterday, but now we know that our wisdom is because the Spirit has revealed God’s wisdom to us. The Spirit knows the very mind of God, His thoughts because He is the Spirit as He is Christ, a mystery to most, but not to us. Many people who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and thus do not have the revelation of the Spirit can only operate as one who has the spirit of this world. This world’s spirit is solely based on human comprehension because it is a creation of human thought. But we do not operate on human comprehension for we do not have the spirit of this world, we have the Spirit of God. Those without the Spirit are only left to function with human understanding, but we are able to understand and comprehend the Spirit of God and the truth He reveals to us, thus we function in a spiritual realm completely foreign to those of the world. The people of the world think they are wise with great understanding of the world around them and they make fun of those if us who simply trust God, and it is no wonder for they do not have the Spirit thus the truth of God, the wisdom of God, is nothing but foolishness to them, because they cannot understand it. So then just how wise are they? Are they not the real fools, thinking themselves wise, yet they cannot understand God? What man can understand God without the Spirit? That is why God has freely given the Spirit so we may discern His great truths. Think of the wonder of it all, because of the Spirit, we actually have the mind of Christ. If the old Bob Dillon song rings with any truth, “You have to serve somebody, either you serve God or you serve Satan, but you have to serve somebody” then those of the world would have the mind of Satan as we who serve God have the mind of Christ because to us it has been revealed.

The Mature

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

THE MATURE

1 Cor 2:6-9

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"—

NIV

Once again we see the amazing difference between what people of this world think is wisdom and what truly is pure wisdom. We also see that it is God’s secret wisdom which is only revealed to those who love him. All the combined wisdom of this world will come to nothing, which means is absolutely worthless, without any value at all. In fact, all of their wisdom, all their science is nothing more than a discovery of what God has established in his creation of all things, yet they cannot discover his greatest creation, the salvation of their souls. This is the secret which God has prepared for those who love him. We know this secret because we are among the mature. Those who refuse to see this truth are among the children, the infants, with childish thinking having been deceived by Satan into thinking they are the wise ones and we are the fools to believe God. But nothing more could be so far from the truth for God has declared us to be the mature, the ones who he has revealed his truth to, and those who think their wisdom to be superior are in fact the fools, the babes with little to know real wisdom, acting like spoiled children demanding their own way. It is so sad to think that some will never grow up and become mature like us. In fact, there might even be some who attend church and are still not mature, but at least they are hearing some form of the message and if they open their eyes, open their ears, open their minds, they will be able to conceive what God has prepared for those who love him. We will see in but the next devotion just how all this is done, and by what power God’s secret wisdom is revealed to those who love him. But we should consider just what does it mean to love him. Does just saying I believe in God indicate we love him? Does just saying I pray to God mean we love him? Does saying I believe Jesus is the Son of God and our Lord and Savior prove we love him? In this phrase which is quoted from Isaiah and uses the word love, in Isaiah it is a word which means to adhere. Therefore we could apply this to the meaning of loving God. If we love him we would adhere to his words, his ways, and his plan for us. What a wonderful  thing is the wisdom of God for the mature.

Preach it

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

PREACH IT

1 Cor 2:1-5

2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.   2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

NIV

If this does not fly in the fact of all the denominational institutions of higher learning what does? How intellectually can we approve the Word of God before we lose sight of the Spirit’s power? If all we do is learn the knowledge of other men’s insight into what they believe the Word of God is saying then what does that make us? It would seem we already have too many great orators with eloquent words, proclaiming a superior wisdom regarding the Word of God then those they gather around them to applaud their skills in preaching and support their lust for fame and fortune. No it would seem we do not need all of those institutions of higher learning regarding the Word of God, for we do in fact have the Spirit’s power. Jesus said that He must go so that He could send the comforter, the”parakletos”, the counselor,  the Holy Spirit of God to be our guide, to lead us into all truth. What more do we need in order to share Jesus Christ crucified? Even if we tremble in our weakness and fear of speaking to others, we have the power of God at our disposal, ready to be unleashed if we but open our mouth’s in faith. If we who have no special training, no special education from the those scholars who impart their human wisdom, express  the message of Jesus Christ crucified with power and authority from God on High, then He and only He will be lifted up for it will surely be a demonstration of His power at work in us. What fancy vocabulary filled with all the right Christian terms demonstrates the power of God? What great speech in “Christianese” lifts up God rather than the speaker? In all fairness there may some of intellectual prowess with degrees from schools of higher learning who still rely on the power of the Spirit to preach Jesus Christ crucified, but as of yet it would appear we have not witnessed that yet. But truly we have heard men of revelation knowledge preach powerful messages about Jesus Christ crucified. In fact we may well have heard each other, us with no training, no degrees, no accolades of honor from men, tell the story with power from on high.

We must always rely on the power of God in all we do, and all we say, so that God will be glorified, not men.  Preach it!

Boast

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

BOAST

1 Cor 1:26-31

26 Brothers, 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 He 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 him who boasts boast in the Lord."  

NIV

On a very personal note I remember when I was saved, it seemed as though most of us were considered people from the wrong side of the tracks. That does not seem to be the case as much in the church which I am familiar with today. The pews are full of lawyers, doctors, business men, teachers, and other fine clothed people of well managed portfolios.  However, we do need to see ourselves as we truly are. If we all compare ourselves to the real wealthy, the real intelligence of the world, those who are considered to be scholars and those of noble birth, we are not wise by their standards; we are the lowly and the weak. Who of us has any great influence on society, such as the people who are extremely wealthy like George Soros, or even Donald Trump, or politicians like Mitt Romney or Barak Obama? Who of us has had the influence of men like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg on our modern society? No, we are who we are, people of common birth, people of a lowly status in the world we live in. We do not reside in the fame of fortune of Hollywood, although we hear of some of them giving testimony of their faith in God. Yet with all the wisdom, all the knowledge, all the wealth, the fame and the power, the influence, they profess their own self-made image. They do not acknowledge God nor do they worship Him. God has called us, the lowly to him, although He certainly desires for them to accept Him as well, He does not want any to perish. But here we are the church, the people of God, those of us who are circumcised of the heart, true Israel, who have nothing to boast about. In the grand scheme of this world we are the little people, with no real value other than to serve as pawns of those who influence this world for their personal gain. So what do we have to boast about, at least in this world? The answer is absolutely nothing, we are of no greatness. Yet we do have someone to boast about. We have a Lord who is our righteousness, we have a Lord who is our holiness, and we have a Lord who is our redemption. We can boast about Christ.

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. 

Empty or Full

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

EMPTY OR FULL

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

So united we stand as we already discussed, but we have to wonder if Paul was the only one send to preach the Gospel. Are not we all supposed to share/preach the Gospel? Or are we just supposed to receive the grace of God and keep it all for ourselves? Most of us have probably heard people say they can’t preach, or they can’t talk very well, at least when it comes to telling the story of Christ. They sure can babble on about everything else, but not about Jesus. “Oh I can’t remember the scriptures to quote” has been heard all too often as an excuse. “I witness with my life” is another great excuse. If we can only see it is not our words that make a difference in a person’s  life, but it is the words that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul knew that truth, he did not have any of the scriptures, if fact he wrote the, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Human words are just empty noise because human wisdom is nothing compared to the power of the Holy Spirit. So we need to just get out there, is some form or another, in faith, knowing that God will fill our mind, mouth or fingers  so we can speak, or write powerful words about the Gospel. We can share the message of Jesus Christ with others, bringing them the message of salvation. Now it is true, they will still have a choice to make, but without ever finding out about that choice they are lost. This is what we all should be united about and work together to get the message out, rather than spending our time degrading another believer because they do not believe exactly the same way we do, arguing over whether we should sprinkle of dunk, or whether we should be baptized in the name of Jesus only or in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Or any host of things we can come up with to divide ourselves. No, we should be united in spirit and power to spread the Gospel and not in the power of our own words, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, just open our mouths and let it flow right out from Him. There is no doubt there are many who have far greater human wisdom then some of us have and if we simply try to share the message from our human wisdom we surely deplete the power of the Christ, but if we share with God’s wisdom what would happen? Empty or full.

Stand Together

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

STAND TOGETHER

1 Cor 1:10-12

10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."

NIV

There have been divisions in the body of Christ since the beginning of what we call the church. There are still divisions, which is why we have to many different denominations today. Sure most of them consider themselves followers of Christ rather than Paul, Apollos, or Peter, but still quarrel about so much of the small stuff. How do we agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among us and that we all be perfectly united in mind and thought? It would even appear within the same church there is disagreements about how things are done, or what exactly is the right way to believe. We need to get past all the small stuff and come to terms with the simple fact that we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. We need to come to agreement that everything else is non-essential in the salvation of our souls. Now, how we think we should live in a manner that is pleasing to God is a very personal matter. There are all sorts of ideas as to what the scripture is declaring regarding the way we should behave, but those are not essential enough to divide us. We should not be judging the other, nor should we condemn each other. We should make every effort to live in peace with all men. That would require agreeing that Jesus is the only way to get to heaven and that the rest is just the rest. If any of the other stuff was included in the requirement for salvation, than God would have told us that we needed to be born again and. But He did not; He simply said that He loved us so much that He sent His Son and that whosoever believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Can’t we just all agree on that? It is not Jesus and something else. That is the point here; we cannot allow Satan to divide us. God has told us that a house divide cannot stand, and that is the scheme of Satan to fall the house of God, us. Let us stand together.