Tag: 1 Corinthians 1

Which are You?

Old Testament Reading: Leviticus 3 & 4
Psalms Reading: Psalm 48
New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 1

Let’s play a quick game together, shall we? I’m going to give you two separate lists to study, each with a dozen synonymic adjectives, and then ask you questions about them. 

List 1: idiotic, half-witted, brainless, imprudent, ill-advised, senseless, reckless, foolhardy, lunatic, absurd, unwise, nonsensical

List 2: sage, clever, informed, astute, sensible, prudent, judicious, discerning, insightful, perspicacious, sharp-witted, enlightened

Who is the first person to pop into your head when you see each respective list? 


Which list best describes you currently?

Which list would you rather have read about you at your funeral? 

The first set of words contains synonyms for the word “foolish”, and the second one lists synonyms for “wise”. The end of I Corinthians 1 is contrasting foolishness and wisdom as it relates to God vs. man, and how God empowers us to do His work. Paul writes beginning in verse 25 (ESV), “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'”

This verse causes me to bubble over with inspiration and gratitude every time I read it! I take great joy in reading accounts of the underdogs in the Bible whom God used to do great things, and in believing that He can do the same with me. Moses had a speech impediment, but God used him to speak with Pharoah and deliver the Isaelites from slavery. Rahab was a prostitute, but God designated her to save His spies and she was then in the lineage of Jesus. David was only a grungy, petite shepherd, but God used him to defeat Goliath. (David later served God as a great King of Israel, despite being a murderer and adulterer.) Gideon, who was the least important of his family (which was the weakest of his tribe), was hiding when an angel sent from God called him “Mighty Warrior”, but God led him to defeat the Midianite army with nothing but a miniscule army and God’s power. 

BUT GOD. 

BUT GOD. 

BUT GOD throughout history has called people to do great things through his power. Most of them were not already rich or famous or powerful, but when God gave them His power, He did mighty things through them! Even in the New Testament, we read in Acts 4:13 that people were amazed that Peter and John were “unschooled, ordinary men.” 

God is still active and working today. He wants us to strive for wisdom and seek Him. God wants to use you to do great things for Him! God is still using his people in big ways to impact their communities and the world. No matter your history, education level, age, job, or any other excuse you might share for why God can’t use you, remember… He loves to use imperfect people for His glory. 

-Rachel Cain

Reflection:

*What is your excuse for why God shouldn’t use you? Pray for Him to show you the way He sees you and give you His power. 

*What is God calling you to do that might be scary or out of your comfort zone? Pray about that situation and ask Him to fill you with His power! 

*What has God revealed about Himself today?

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Foolishness – to Those Perishing

1 Corinthians 1

June 2

Wisdom is a concept that has been found in all cultures for all time. Wisdom in the ancient biblical sense is to reflect on God and obey Him with reverential awe. Wisdom in the 21st century western world stresses wise money investing in stocks with a look towards retirement. “Wise” thoughts have shifted from contemplating who God is, to “how can I make my life as comfortable as possible?” I’m not suggesting that wise investing is bad by any means, but there is a wisdom that goes beyond our capabilities to reason. True understanding and wisdom comes from God Himself, and is vastly superior to earthly human wisdom. This is a concept Paul explores in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.


“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” (1 Corinthians 1:18). There has never been a clearer distinction made in the Bible between wisdom and folly. The good news of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection and the coming kingdom of God, is foolishness to a world that is dying. There’s a total lack of understanding of the meaning of the cross to a world that doesn’t receive it. When we don’t understand something, our general first reaction is to pass it off as foolish. I fell into this trap for many years of my life.

I was raised in church, but my family stopped regularly attending when I was nine. It eventually turned from a sporadic attendance to not attending at all. As I grew older I was informed of things that were happening at the church that I grew up in that shouldn’t have been happening: misconduct to say the least. I grew cold towards God because of actions that I wasn’t even aware of. Not being aware was somehow worse to me. I audibly said “if that’s how Christians are going to act, then I don’t want to be a part of the church”. I became lukewarm at best, and I was essentially an agnostic in all but name. The word of the cross became folly to me.


When I was a sophomore in High School, I met Josiah Cain. We became friends very quickly, but it didn’t take me long to find out that his dad was a pastor. I was skeptical, but I remained friends with him. For three years, God worked on me through Josiah, and after those three years I eventually agreed to attend a single service at his church: Lawrenceville. The service at Lawrenceville was a refreshing church experience. The message was relatable, the pastor was down to earth, the environment was relaxed. It felt right and I was thankful that I was there. It didn’t take me long to realize that I had based all of my assumptions on church and putting my faith in God on a bad experience that I had. That in and of itself branded me as foolish.


I began to attend Lawrenceville regularly. I came forward and accepted an altar call on Resurrection Sunday in 2013. The next month I was baptized. I was beginning to realize the word of the cross and what Jesus accomplished for me. With my original church experience I was only thinking of myself. I realized after being baptized that the good news of Jesus is not about what I feel and about what I can get out of it, but what God has accomplished through his son. The word of the cross ceased to be folly to me, and it became the power of God that was saving me. Nine years later, I’m a pastor (which is still wild to me) and it’s because of the faithfulness of God and the intentionality of Josiah. Folly was worked out of me and wisdom into me.


It is easy to lose patience with those that don’t understand the power of God through the cross. We must be patient, for the good news about Jesus is foolishness to a world that doesn’t understand. When something doesn’t make sense to us, we resent it and want nothing to do with it. When the patient understanding of a friend comes alongside us, there comes understanding. God is working through us to reach the lost around us. We must realize that God has the power to change a folly mind to a mind that gives Him reverential awe. Let’s be the people through whom God blesses the world through His wondrous working power.

-Nathan Massie


Application:

  1. God is working in and through us to reach the world. We as God’s people need to be ready to come alongside those who think the good news of Jesus is folly.
  2. Only God can change the minds and hearts of people, but God has chosen us to be His instruments. We must be ready to share the good news of Jesus with those around us. Who will you share the good news with?
  3. Reflect on God and be thankful for what He has accomplished through the cross of Jesus Christ for us. The word of the cross is the power unto salvation for all those who believe.
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Who Deserves Our Faith & Following

1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1 18 (1)

Hey guys this is Chris and I’m excited to go through 1 Corinthians 1-7 with you this week.  I hope you enjoy this book as much as I do.

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 Paul chastises the people in the Church at Corinth for being divided based on the person they were baptized by or whose teachings they followed.  I think that this is a very good message for us today. Many Christians are drawn to a well spoken pastor, or an impassioned speaker, and these are good people to follow, but too often people place too much of their faith in that person.  I have seen it many times, these types of leaders will move away from their church or they will have a scandal, and the faith of the people will be shaken and many will stop going to that church. Hebrews 4:14 says “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”  We need to follow Jesus as the head of the Church because he will not fail us, and he is the only one who deserves our faith. Also, in this age of social justice people can get caught up in a certain movement or behind a certain leader and let those ideas influence them, and we need to remember that Christ’s teachings come first. Those other movements may be good things, but we need to check what they are saying against what Christ teaches.

 

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 tells us that salvation is not attained through wisdom or knowledge that you can gain if you study long enough.  That was the teaching of the Greeks such as Plato and Aristotle, that seeking wisdom was the highest goal. Salvation comes through faith.  In the Church of God we can be very focused on the Word of God and the truth, which is a good thing, but we need to make sure that we do not take pride in our knowledge and somehow think that we are any better than other Christians. We are saved by our faith, not our knowledge or wisdom.  Knowledge and wisdom will come as we seek God and grow, but we should not have pride in our knowledge, only in Christ and his works.

 

Have a blessed day.

Chris Mattison