"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, 'He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness'; and again, 'The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.'" - I Corinthians 3:18-20
"You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you." - I Corinthians 4:8
"Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." - I Corinthians 4:1
A couple of things in particular stood out to me in this morning's reading.
1) In I Corinthians 4, Paul uses heavy sarcasm to admonish the Corinthians.
I think I'd heard before that Paul was sarcastic, but I never knew exactly where. It seems hilarious, in light of all those procedures that scribes used to go through to reproduce the Bible, that the original text was written by a grumpy-sounding, sarcastic man in a prison cell. We shouldn't be surprised, though, in light of the nature of God's rebuke to Job in Job 38-41. I think God's sense of humor gives rise to a little sarcasm at times. Please comment if you don't agree.
2) Although the Proverbs reading sets us up to value wisdom above all else, Paul tells us to disregard wisdom "in this age" another time in chapter 3.
I guess Paul is drawing a distinction between the world's wisdom and God's wisdom, because he does teach complete reliance on the Lord. I just wish he wouldn't use the word "wisdom" when speaking about the undesirable worldly wisdom. Maybe we could analyze this a little more tonight.
3) We are "stewards of the mysteries of God."
This is an interesting title for us to bear. I can't remember where the verse is that says that all knowledge comes from the Lord, but I'd like to put that one and this one together. I love that we have a personal relationship with the creator of all things and the keeper of all mysteries, and that we're devoting time to seeking Him out with all of His mysteries.
Amen, and Happy Manday
Powell
This is a verse that I enjoyed related to wisdom from God: 1 Cor. 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In verse 1:24 Christ is God's wisdom and in 1:30 Christ is wisdom to us from God. It seems as though there is distinction between worldly wisdom and the wisdom that is Christ and which comes from God. I thought it was also interesting that in the first chapter (vv. 12-18) of Ecclesiastes (the next book after Proverbs), the same author (Solomon) defines the wisdom he acquired as vanity (a chasing after wind). It would seem that real wisdom is just Christ Himself. If you have Christ, you have real wisdom!
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