Worldly Wisdom

1 Cor 1:26-27 “Brothers, think about your own calling. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed. “

Whenever I live and speak by the world’s wisdom, I lose God’s strength and wisdom. And WHAT IS THE WORLD’S WISDOM?

1. “But wisdom is proved right by her action.” Wisdom that does not match life with words. Where deeds don’t match the seeds sown. This is theoretical wisdom; this is wisdom that draws crowds but grows nothing. So often worldly wisdom has a measure of power to change my “now” – but lacks a long term horizon and benefits. In the case of covenantal living, true wisdom always draws the receiver more into a life of love, forgiveness and compassion. These fruits are the kind of “action” Jesus loves.

2. “Watch out for the false prophets….they come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inside they are ravenous wolves”. Wisdom that is a cover for wicked desires - hidden reefs, suppressed appetites. When our guards are down, when the pressure is on, when the opportunity presents itself. Joseph refused to sleep with Mrs Potiphar. Saul did not refuse to make the sacrifice. Abel offered blood sacrifice. Cain murdered him in secret. ”As it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’”.

3. “But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil”. Wisdom that comes from envy of our neighbor. Wanting to outwit, outlast, outplay. Wisdom that really is just knowledge that empowers me. True wisdom disempowers me, and empowers the Spirit of Christ within me. Some read for power, learn for power. Most do. This is the great push from parents for their kids to “get an education” – “to get ahead”.

4. “She came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here”. Wisdom that is borrowed from men more than received from Christ. This is not to say that we should not learn from Christ through men, but “what after all is Apollos? What is Paul? Mere servants through whom you came to believe”…. This is critical. Much of what passes for wisdom is nothing more than borrowed truths and learned behaviour. “Their fear of Me is nothing other than rules taught by men”. Nothing new, fresh, dynamic – all regurgitated, sometimes repackaged. This empties virtues into values, twists Truth into traditions, borrows men’s jewellery while neglecting the treasuries of David. “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”

5. “But wisdom is proved right by all her children”. Wisdom that is sterile; wisdom that cannot reproduce in her hearers. I think this happens when a man shares truths more to build his ministry or church, than to build people. Somehow this makes even dynamic teachings sterile. What are the signs of sterility? No leaders, no new preachers, general lack of maturity, people only doing well while in the environment, but falling apart when removed from it. ”We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ”. My great sadness in this season of my life is that I do not have a Paul over me, proclaiming Him to me. So be it. But maybe in my lifetime I can be that Paul to some others. To be that, you and I need to pursue the same relationship with Jesus that Paul had – intimate, total, continuous, uncompromising, heaven-anchored, devoted, body-beating, tender and deep. No lip service. No circumstantial Christianity. Nothing.

6. “For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict”… (and of Stephen the Martyr), “but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke”… Wisdom that is contradictable and dismissable according to the Word of God. Sometimes, true wisdom is dismissed anyway, but dismissal is not the same as contradiction. God’ word is flawless, and for true wisdom to pervade the pulpits of the world, now is the time for the called out preachers to be workmen who needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of Truth. Mostly, lack of effort, lack of “ergon” - labor that produces a sweat – leaves our preaching contradictable and “controvertible”.

7. ”Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!”... ”For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength”.. Wisdom that lacks depth and mystery; wisdom that is too easily packaged and palatable for carnal minds. That is, wisdom that is acceptable to the modern man. The wisdom of the gospel should be a rock of offence to every fibre of self-righteousness within me. So too should it offend my self-preservation, self-promotion, self-indulgence. The gospel firstly bids me come and die, and then live for another Who firstly I engage with BY FAITH. Not by sight. Not by formula.

8. “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”. Wisdom that allows room for idols, for the flesh. The power of the Cross is its ability to slay the flesh and leave space only for God and His new man. Earthly wisdom accommodates modification, reasonableness and decency…but is nothing more than a religious overcoat. It may not take on the crude appearance of the Mosaic law, nor the harsh drabness of the stoics and rigorists, but it remains man’s way of trying to please two masters.

9. “For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate’.” Wisdom that never destroys nor frustrates. Wisdom that is full of appeasement; full of false modesty. Wisdom that brands the spiritual man as a zealot; the passionate saint as a hothead. Wisdom that declares peace before God has vanquished hearts. Wisdom that strikes truces with the world even while the Messiah is riding out to command and conquer.

10. “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?” Wisdom that calls something wise that God has called foolishness. This is the source of much Christian compromise. We are not called out of the world, but called out in the world. We are called to be aliens and strangers. We should learn and observe, but always from a place of devotion. Solomon had genuine God-wisdom given as a gift, but his heart was not devoted, so that wisdom accelerated the madness.

11. “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”. Any wisdom and preaching of wisdom that does not increase the appetite of the listeners for God Himself, for righteousness – while diminishing and demeaning worldly appetites. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”

12. “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”. Wisdom that is not centred on and from worship. This is a great sin of mine, a great opportunity for the devil to admix my wisdom with worldly wisdom. And thus an avenue for every other fleshly sin.

13. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God”. Wisdom that positions itself as better, cleverer, more appealing to men in their quest for wisdom and knowledge. The “wisdom of the Impresario”. Those who fall for it show themselves as the idolaters that they are in their hearts, seeking the approval of men above the approval of God (John 5:44). God’s wisdom lowers and condescends itself. God’s wisdom makes the bearer look bad, mostly. It humbles him, debases him, empties him, prostrates him, obliges him downwards, away from fame, away from position. Even though God has blessed me with a good vocabulary, it must remain the servant, not the maestro. Wisdom from above is never shared to impress or wow or gather fans. It is always shared to the advantage, blessing and salvation of its hearers.

14. “To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit”. Wisdom that is possessed rather than stewarded. Wisdom that the wise man claims as his own, his property, his legacy, his prowess. There is no acknowledgement in worship of the gift, the grace, the generosity of God. And so even grace-given wisdom is corrupted, and becomes foolishness. Think of all the mad-scientist evolutionists, desperately trying to disprove God Himself. Think of the empire builders, the corporate bosses who dominate and destroy lives by the very wisdom and gifts given by a loving and merciful God.

15. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Rules that parade as wisdom. Anyone who tries to tell you what to do, without living in and living out a personal relationship with Christ. Harshness and harsh treatment is a sure sign of the presence of worldly wisdom.

16. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Wisdom that celebrates the gifts more than the fruit of the Spirit. The gifts leave a legacy of construction, but the fruit leave a legacy of covenant. Solomon built a great empire, but destroyed his life and his future legacy. Churchill was gifted to deliver the allies from the evil of Hitler and the Nazis, but all the Allied brilliance did nothing to stop England’s slide into a moral abyss in the decades following the war. In fact, the real heroes of the faith were slaughtered in the trenches.