Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Everything Rides On Hope Now! (RP1)


(Audio version; Music: "Hope Now" by: Addison Road and "Thy Will" by: Hillary Scott & The Scott Family)






Introduction

Jenny Simmons from Addison Road sings:

            “When my life is like a storm
            Rising waters all I want is the shore
            You say I’ll be ok and
            Make it through the rain
            You are my shelter from the storm

            Everything rides on hope now
            Everything rides on faith somehow
            When the world has broken me down
            Your love sets me free.”

What happens when hope disappears? What happens when we believe there’s no hope of overcoming our substance addictions? What happens when we believe we could never love our spouse again? What happens when we believe we’ll never get out of the financial hole we’ve dug for ourselves? What happens when we believe we’ll never be healthy again? What happens when we believe we can never overcome our mistakes? What happens when we believe the storms and rising waters of life will overwhelm us?

Recently a friend of mine who was once a pastor but now teaches at a secular university told me that in one of his public speaking classes a dystopian theme clearly emerged from the class speeches. He said that the speeches grew increasingly pessimistic ending with a speech that attempted to persuade the class of the cruelty of bringing a child into this world that is so messed up. My friend wondered how his students and more broadly how we, as a society, got to this point especially since most of his students and many others in our society were among those who elected our current President who campaigned on the promise of “hope and change.” I think it’s safe to say that much of our society has come to the realization that they believed a lie. “Hope and change” turned out to be just another clever campaign slogan that preyed on society’s burning desire for hope. Now people are saying why even bother bringing children into a world that is so—hopeless.

A few years ago, a Kansas City Chiefs football player, Jovan Belcher, was arguing with his girlfriend who was also the mother of his daughter and he shot her multiple times killing her. Then to make matters worse, if that’s even possible, he drove himself to the Chiefs practice facility where he met the team’s coach and general manager and thanked them for the opportunity they gave him and then killed himself right there in the parking lot in front of them. I can’t guess all the precise details that led to these tragic events but I suspect somewhere, hope was lost. The hope that things would get better or the hope that things would change, but somehow, this young man had lost this hope. And after he did the unthinkable, he believed there was no hope that his life had any further value.

Hope and hopelessness are very, very powerful. But what gives us hope? In what do we hope? Does what we hope in matter? I believe it does because of where it leads us. Technically, “hope” is defined as a person or thing in which expectations are centered. While I’m not arguing with this fundamental definition, I think it is still too broad. I think “hope” is best defined as a “person” in which expectations are centered. Let me demonstrate briefly: A person with cancer hopes that the cancer medication will bring a cure. Correct? But why should a person hope such a thing? I think it’s because deep down inside all of us, whether we know it or not, we know that cancer is not right—cancer was not the original plan. Deep down inside all of us, again whether we know it or not, we have a longing for the way things were originally intended to be. While someone might be “hoping” for a cure to their cancer, what they are really “hoping” for is to be reconnected with the way things were originally intended to be and Jesus provides that point of reconnection. I can provide a bit of anecdotal evidence to prove my point.

Why do you suppose Christians with terminal cancer who find out that there is no cure for their cancer, still have hope? It’s because they know that Jesus has provided the outcome that they hoped for even if it is not in this life. You see, true hope always leads to a person and that person is Jesus Christ. Hope is not a wish. Hope is not something based on chance. Hope is the expectation of a good outcome. That expectation can only be found in Jesus Christ because he has provided the means for a perfect outcome for all of us even if it’s not in this life. And here’s the beauty of hope, when we take the step to put our hope in Jesus, we have walked a long way down the path to putting our faith in Jesus. One of the greatest witnesses to the power of faith in Jesus Christ is the enduring hope of people who, in the world’s estimation, should have no reason to hope. They’ve lost husbands, wives, children, jobs, homes, finances—everything. They are abused, marginalized, neglected and persecuted for their faith—even to the point of death, yet they continue to hope. Why? Because Jesus said that after he was dead for three days, he would rise back to life! Do you want to know why hope is so incredibly powerful? The empty tomb! The empty tomb changes everything! The empty tomb gives us hope so that Everything Rides On Hope Now!

Subject Text

            1 Peter 3:13-17

            13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” 15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Context

            Peter’s letter was probably written while he was in Rome between 62 AD and 64 AD. This was probably on the leading edge of the period when Emperor Nero began his persecution of Christians. Nevertheless, the early signs of persecution were beginning to manifest themselves as “some of his readers have in fact been the targets of accusations (1 Pet. 2:12), ignorant talk (2:15), evil and insults (3:9; 4:14), threats (3:14), and malicious talk (3:16).”[1] This general attitude toward Christians was the fertile ground that cultivated the brutal and widespread persecution that would soon follow.

Text Analysis

13Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.”

            Our Subject Text opens with a rhetorical question in v. 13 that perhaps gives us a clue that Nero’s persecution had not yet begun. Peter alludes to the general principle that people aren’t normally persecuted for doing good. Of course, this was not the case under Nero. Christians were persecuted just because they were Christians. Peter covers this eventuality in v. 14a when he insists that they are blessed when they are persecuted for doing what is right. This is a parallel to Jesus’ words from his Sermon on the Mount when he says “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me (Matt 5:10-11).” We struggle desperately with the idea that combines suffering and blessing but we must reorient our thinking about blessing. We are often so obsessed with our life here and now that we neglect to see or even consider that God is more concerned with our lives in their entirety. We see blessing as getting what we want; health, wealth and popularity. But this is not God’s objective. Instead, we are blessed when we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. Riches, vitality and notoriety are temporal—they disappear at death’s door. However, who we are transcends this life and suffering for the sake of our faith in Christ is a badge of honor (in the Greek “blessing” can also be translated as “honor”) that we take with us beyond this life. “It is self-evident that, in any persecution context, the reward spoken of must lie in the future…it is confidence about the future that can and should produce joy in the present in full contradiction of the present, painful circumstances.”[2]

Peter continues in v. 14b by admonishing his readers to not fear what “they” fear. By “they” Peter is referring to those who might be persecuting his readers. That seems like a rather nebulous instruction, but think about it in the context of your own life; what do you fear and why? Lest you think I’m passing judgment, I’ll share my fears with you in the context of this lesson: I fear losing my health or dying before seeing how my wife and girls’ lives unfold, I fear being completely broke and not being able to provide for my family, I fear being marginalized or useless. I know that doesn’t sound like a very good thing for a pastor but I’ve warned you that I’m really not that different from you. However, in addition to my fears, I have hope; hope that even if I do become ill or die, I will have accomplished God’s will with the part of my life that I have lived, I hope that even if I am broke, God will care for me according to His promises, I hope that even if I am marginalized and useless according to the world’s standards, God will be glorified through my efforts. You see, Everything Rides On Hope Now!

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

            V. 15a seems to start a new thought except that the conjunction of “but” ties it to Peter’s previous admonition that his readers are not to be afraid. The “but” might be better translated as, “Instead, in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” But what does it mean to set Christ apart in our hearts according to Peter’s instruction? We miss the full force of Peter’s instruction if we neglect his full instruction to set Christ apart in our hearts “as Lord.” This is the key to Peter’s instruction. In ancient times, the heart represented the center of the person and Peter is saying that we are to set up Christ at the center of our lives through whom our entire person flows much like our entire bloodstream flows to and from the heart. Having Christ as Lord at the center or heart of our lives necessarily implies that our lives will reflect that Lordship. “To hallow Christ as Lord means to have an inward attitude of obedience to him that dictates our behavior in the world. Christians will not act in any way that will bring dishonor on Christ or suggests that they do not reverence him as Lord.”[3]

V. 15b then gets to the very heart of our Subject Text. Our attitude, our behavior, everything about our lives, as Christians, should elicit a response from the world like: “Why are you like that?” “What is wrong with you?” “How can you feel that way?” We should be different, strange, odd! We should be revolutionaries! If God is at the center of our lives, it must change everything; it must produce a new way to live. For example, when my girls were growing up, they weren’t always allowed to do the same things as the other kids; they weren’t permitted to watch the same television shows, they weren’t allowed to listen to the same music and they weren’t allowed to dress the same way just to name a few. They were teased and chastised and my wife and I were not always popular for our parenting philosophies among our peers. But there was a reason then as there is now, we are different and will not be conformed to the world. Do you want to know what resulted from that, people asked: “Why are you like that?” and “What is wrong with you?” and these were opportunities to share our hope, our faith, our commitment to the way of Christ with people. This is the trajectory of Peter’s teaching; our hope points toward something beyond ourselves yet it is more than something, our hope points toward someone—Jesus! There is, however, a difference between pointing someone toward Jesus and punching them in the face with Jesus!

But do this with gentleness and respect, 16keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

In vv. 15c-16 Peter tells his readers that they are to give people the reason for their hope but they are to do so with gentleness and respect. “If offense is to be taken, it should be over the content of the gospel message, not because the message was offered in a manner that invalidates Christ’s love for seekers.”[4] Furthermore, when Peter tells his readers to keep a clear conscience, what he is telling them is that their behavior must not disqualify them from having a credible witness. For example, I am aware of a number of people who profess to be Christians yet they are actively and openly living sinful, unrepentant lives in blatant disobedience to the teachings of Scripture. This behavior disqualifies them from having a credible witness to the hope in Christ they profess. “An effective testimony requires a clear conscience regarding one’s personal integrity before the Lord. One cannot explain the hope we have in Christ while living in ways that contradict that hope.”[5] Therefore, with a clear conscience we can confidently proclaim that the hope emanating from our lives is the result of our hope in Jesus Christ and our behavior will silence those who might try to wrongly accuse us. “Evidence from the following centuries indicates that good Christian conduct was often slandered and maligned: the nocturnal Christian worship assemblings were decried as occasions for orgies; the love of Christian brothers and sisters for one another was maligned as incest; baptism as a ritual of death and rebirth was decried as murder; the Eucharist was criticized as cannibalism; and Christians continued to be slandered as ‘wrongdoers’ and enemies of the common good. [However,] those who persist in shaming the Christians and disparaging their honorable behavior will themselves be put to shame.”[6]

17It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

            Peter completes his instruction in v. 17 with something that seems obvious which means there’s probably something more to it than seems obvious on the surface. Peter says that it’s better to suffer for doing something right than for doing something wrong. Well first, let me just say that I would prefer not to suffer at all! Nevertheless, there are some who seek a life of suffering because they wrongly believe that a life of suffering earns them special favor with God. This is a distorted understanding of suffering generally and of this text specifically because it ignores the very important conditional statement of “if it is God’s will.” Suffering for the sake of suffering or as a means to gain God’s favor when such suffering is not ordained by God is sinful idolatry with no redemptive purpose. Furthermore, suffering because of our own sin serves the purpose of disciplining us in order to evoke grief, sorrow, repentance and reconciliation. However, suffering for doing something right or for something that is beyond our control provides the opportunity to demonstrate our abiding hope in the One who can use that suffering for his great purpose of revealing himself to a lost and hurting world—a world in desperate need of true hope not wishful thinking. The only way profound grief, sorrow, loss, tragedy and suffering can be endured with supreme dignity is by the power of hope because Everything Rides On Hope Now!

            There is no better example of this than the words of the song at the end of this lesson by Hillary Scott called, “Thy Will.” In a recent interview, Hillary revealed that the song was created  out of a broken heart washed with countless tears when she lost her child to a miscarriage. If you listen closely to the words of the song you will quickly sense Hillary’s profound grief. But you will also get a sense of something else in the song—hope! Hope that God’s will will be done and we know that His will is always good and perfect even if we feel like the grief may at times crush the life out of us. If we can try to remember that He is God and we are not, then there is still hope because Everything Rides On Hope Now!

Application

            In the song I introduced at the beginning of this lesson, singer Jenny Simmons goes on to sing:

“Everything rides on hope now
Everything rides on faith somehow
When the world has broken me down
Your love sets me free

I am not my own
I've been carried by you my whole life”

A friend of mine, Alisa, who has endured profound personal loss wrote me something that she has gracious allowed me to share with you. She wrote: “I have been thru some awful things in this life. Lost family, friends, even a husband…And I never believed I would get thru. But here I am on the other side…Blessed, happy, full of hope. That can only be God and I am so so so thankful!” What a beautiful picture of how suffering, blessing, and hope are all part of a person’s redemptive life story authored by God. It’s hard to say what her life of faith might have been if only _________________. You fill in the blank of the tragic event in her life that could have been eliminated and still guarantee her faithful witness to the hope found in Jesus Christ. We think we know that the outcome of her powerful witness could have been the same even if she hadn’t lost her husband or had been spared some other tragic event. But that would mean that we know better than God what events will produce a humble and faithful witness in those who follow Him. Of course this kind of thinking is folly. Therefore, we must begin to understand that righteous suffering in our lives as Christians exhibits something tremendously powerful—hope. Like Alisa’s beautiful witness, suffering, blessing and hope are part of our redemptive life story as well. When we can endure our suffering in all joy and perseverance we will inevitably cultivate an environment where unbelievers will naturally want to know how joy is possible in the midst of suffering, or how suffering can possibly be a blessing. Peter is speaking to you when he says to be prepared to tell people why you have hope. In simpler terms, Peter is saying, be prepared to tell your redemptive life story. This is your chance to be a witness to true hope, because Everything Rides On Hope Now! And that hope is Jesus Christ.





[1] Karen H. Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, ( Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), p. 227.
[2] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13, Word Biblical Commentary, ( Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993), p. 95.
[3] I. Howard Marshall, 1 Peter, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1991), p. 115.
[4] Jobes, 1 Peter, ECNT, p. 231.
[5] Ibid.
[6] John H. Elliott, 1 Peter, The Anchor Bible, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), p. 632.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The Foolishness Of The Cross (RP1)


(Audio version; Music: "Lead Me To The Cross" by: Hillsong United and "At The Cross" by: Hillsong)






Introduction

            Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that Albert Einstein was a genius? He was a brilliant physicist that developed the Special & General Theory of Relativity including the famous equation of “e=mc2” which was used in the development of many modern innovations like, the television, the remote control, lasers and the atomic bomb just to name a few. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics and was named by TIME magazine as the “Person of the Century” in 1999. To say he was really smart is probably an insult. A while back it was announced that one of his letters referred to as Einstein’s “God” letter was being sold on eBay with a starting bid at $3 million! I had never heard of this “God” letter and figured it must have had some brilliant theological insights. Well, before I tell you what I think, I’ve included the relevant excerpt from the letter below so you could read it for yourself:

            “The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.

For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions…The Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”[1]

            Well there you have it! If Einstein the genius says it then that must be the definitive word on the subject of God’s existence right? A smart guy like that can’t possibly be wrong; I mean he has that whole “e=mc2” thing going for him! My area of expertise is in theology not in science but I know from my basic science classes that there are some basic and universal principles of scientific inquiry; 1) Pose significant questions that can be investigated empirically; 2) Link research to theory; 3) Use methods that permit direct investigation of question; 4) Provide coherent chain of rigorous reasoning; 5) Replicate and generalize; and 6) Transparency and scholarly debate.[2] Although I’m not certain, I’m guessing Einstein used some form of this methodology in his own scientific research. I think it’s definitely safe to say that Einstein probably did not reach a conclusion before going through these steps. Yet one short sentence from Einstein’s “God” letter reveals that this is precisely what he has done when it comes to his belief in God when he writes, “No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this.” That doesn’t sound like a very scientific approach to me. Instead, Einstein has reached a conclusion that God does not exist and no amount of evidence or explanation to the contrary could have changed his conclusion.

            Some people seem to think that smart people are just too smart to believe in God. I mean Einstein must know since he’s so smart right? But you can see by his own words that he has concluded that God doesn’t exist without the same benefit of inquiry that I’m sure he would insist on when doing scientific research. I can see how some people might not believe in God because they see that there are some really “smart” people that don’t believe in God. But that principle can work the other way as well. When I was going through seminary, I was consistently amazed at the brilliance of all my professors. However, my New Testament professor, Dr. Craig Blomberg, was so freakishly smart that I almost felt sorry for him that he had to deal with people like me. Let me just give you a brief bio of Dr. Blomberg: He completed his B. A. Summa Cum Laude from Augustana College, he received his M. A. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and he received his Ph. D. from University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was a Research Fellow in Cambridge, England working with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He is fluent in biblical Hebrew and Greek. He has authored or edited twenty books as well as submitted countless scholarly articles. What I’m trying to say is that he is really, really smart. I remember sitting in his class, probably lost during one of his lectures, thinking that God must exist if someone so smart believes in him. I can’t say whether he was or wasn’t as smart as Einstein but it illustrates my point that belief in God is not a matter of intelligence.

For those of us who are believers, God becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ and dying on the cross to pay for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God makes perfect sense. However, the Hebrews of Jesus’ day couldn’t accept a Savior that didn’t conform to their image of a conquering Messiah that would liberate them from Roman occupation. The Greeks couldn’t accept a God that was too weak to save Himself from being nailed to a cross. Einstein calls the notion of God “childish.” Some unbelievers might agree with that but most just consider belief in a God that allowed Himself to be put to death as foolishness. It is The Foolishness of the Cross that is so often the obstacle to their belief regardless of how smart they might be. And that is the point of my lesson this week so let’s take a look at the relationship between the Bible and unbelievers the world considers wise and intellectually reliable.

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

18For 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. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For 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. 22Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26Brothers and sisters, 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. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It 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. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

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

Context

            Paul is writing this letter to the church in Corinth to address some sort of division in the local church there (I know you’re shocked that there could be division in a church!). It appears that the division centers around whose teachings are the best to follow. In other words, the church was picking sides and Paul is reminding them that all believers are one body and followers of Christ and Christ’s teachings alone since Christ is the one who died on the cross and into whose name we have been baptized. Paul is insisting that superior human intelligence and wisdom cannot elevate one believer over another if Christ is the center and focus of our faith. “In order to preserve the threatened unity of the church, Paul established that the formation of inner-church groupings had no basis in his ministry as founder of the church nor in the gospel as such. He had baptized only a few of the Corinthians, and his teaching was not worldly wisdom teaching where one teacher may be superior to the other. On the contrary, he had promulgated the gospel—proclaimed by himself and his fellow apostles who were nothing but servants of Christ responsible to God.”[3] Paul goes on to teach in our Subject Text that wisdom and intelligence, if anything, is an obstacle to believing. That’s not to say that smart and wise people can’t and don’t become believers but they do so not because of their superior intelligence but in-spite of it.

Text Analysis

18For 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.

            As usual, Paul pulls no punches in v. 18 as he makes clear that the cross is only foolish for those who are perishing. Some believers read with satisfaction that they are not included among those who are “perishing.” But these are dire words indeed. Note that Paul makes no specific distinction of those who are included within the definition of those who are perishing. It isn’t a matter of intelligence, wealth, beauty, age, race, gender, or anything else. It is a matter of whether one accepts, as true, Christ’s atonement for our sins through his death on the cross. The cross is the great equalizer for all humanity. “From the standpoint of his new position in Christ, Paul with this sentence sets forth the two basic groups of humankind. Formerly, as a Jew, it was Jew and Gentile (just as for the Greco-Roman it was Greek/Roman and barbarian). Now it is ‘us who are being saved’ and ‘those who are perishing.’ The former groups, Jew and Gentile, continue to exist (indeed, in v. 22 they will serve as representatives for the two most common human ‘idolatries’), but apart from Christ they now both belong to the ‘perishing.’”[4]

19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

            In v. 19, Paul draws on the words of Isaiah (Isa 29:14) to demonstrate that God’s ways are not like the ways of the world. The Greek word for “frustrate” can also be translated as “reject, ignore, invalidate or set aside.” How often do we think we know what is right or better even though God says just the opposite? Whether it’s in the area of money, sex or power, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we know that our way must be better than God’s way. Ultimately, that leads to the belief that God is irrelevant. Therefore, it’s up to us to live life according to what we think is best. We do the best we can and try to be the best person we can be and either don’t think about what happens at the end of life or hope we’ve been good enough to make God happy. It is humanity’s sinful condition that believes we’re smarter, wiser or stronger than God but “in its original context this passage belongs to that grand series of text that regularly warn Israel, or someone in Israel, not to try to match wits with God (cf. Isa 40:12-14, 25; Job 38-42). Yet it is the folly of our human machinations that we think we can outwit God, or that lets us think that God ought to be at least as smart as we are. Paul sees this Isaiah passage as now having eschatological fulfillment. In the cross, the promised ‘great reversal’ has been played out before human eyes in its ultimate way.”[5]

20Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Paul continues his point in v. 20 by highlighting those who are highly esteemed in virtually every society: Those who are wise, the philosophers and the scholars. Paul is not disparaging wisdom and intelligence generally, this is clear when he uses the qualifying statement “of this age” which is elsewhere translated “of this world.” Instead, Paul calls into question worldly wisdom “to say what is left of a human wisdom which God’s saving acts have left high and dry in the light of the cross. The cross places giving, receiving, and serving above achieving or ‘finding the right formula.’”[6]

21For 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.

Paul makes a subtle but important point in v. 21 when he says that God in his wisdom knew that the world in its wisdom would not believe in him. Yet God used what the world considered foolish, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, to save those the world did not consider wise. It is really brilliant when you stop and think of it; those of us who may not be considered very wise or intelligent are saved because we believe the very thing that makes us foolish in the eyes of a world that considers itself to be wise and intelligent for not believing. And to top it off, that’s exactly the way God planned it!

22Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

            In vv. 22-23 Paul explains that the Jews want proof and the Greeks want rational comprehension. But all the Church has to offer is that God incarnate in Christ was crucified for our sins. The Jews cannot possibly accept that the Rock of Ages would sacrifice Himself for His creation. Therefore Christ becomes the capstone the builders reject and the stone that causes people to stumble (1 Peter 2:7-8). Instead, the “Jews viewed the crucifixion as the ultimate proof that Jesus had been cursed by God for some sin of his own.”[7] For the Greeks, who prized rational thought and clever rhetoric, the message of the cross was unintelligent. “Many Greeks found numerous aspects of the story of Christ’s death foolish—a suffering God, the ideal of perfect order destroyed, a criminal Messiah, and a way to God not based on human speculation.”[8] Is this really very different from today? Those who refuse to believe at once demand proof of Jesus’ claims while at the same time refusing to believe that God could become a man, offer Himself to die a gruesome death on the cross and then rise back to life after three days in the grave.

24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

            In contrast to all those who can’t or won’t believe are those who do believe because God has called them to belief. Paul makes clear in v. 24 that God has called both Jew and Greek. Paul’s identification of Jew and Greek is not intended to establish a limitation but to illustrate the two extremes intended to include all those who fall within the extremes. Those who accept God’s call to believe find that,

“The cross of Christ constitutes precisely the mode of action which conveys God’s power and God’s wisdom. It does not rest on human calculations about signs of the times, nor upon manipulative devices which entice belief, nor does it rest on self-defeating strategies to master life by techniques of human wisdom. God’s manifestation of power and wisdom operates on a different basis, namely, the way of love which accepts the constraints imposed by the human condition or plight and the prior divine act of promise, and becomes effectual and operative (has power) in God’s own way, for it corresponds with God’s own nature as revealed in Christ and in the cross. Any version of the gospel which substitutes a message of personal success for the cross is a manipulative counterfeit.”[9]

25For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Finally Paul reminds us in v. 25 that our wisdom is hardly comparable to the wisdom of God and any weakness of God is still stronger than any person’s strength. “In the cross God ‘outsmarted’ his human creatures and thereby nullified their wisdom. In the same cross God also ‘overpowered’ his enemies, with lavish grace and forgiveness, and thereby divested them of their strength…Had God consulted us for wisdom we could have given him a more workable plan, something that would attract the sign-seeker and the lover of wisdom. As it is, in his own wisdom he left us out of the consultation. We are this left with the awful risk: trust God and be saved by his wise folly, or keep up our pretensions and perish.”[10]

26Brothers and sisters, 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. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.

Paul reminds his readers in vv. 26-29 that when they were first called by God to believe, the world probably didn’t consider them wise. Furthermore, they weren’t socially or politically influential either positionally or by birth. In fact, being affiliated with Christ and the cross made them appear foolish in the eyes of the world. But it is precisely these “foolish” ones that God uses to shame the wise; those who are the lowest, those who are the weakest and those who are despised to shame those who are strong and highly esteemed by society. God uses what has been discarded by the world to shame the world. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to make sense to us because the wise, intelligent, prominent, popular and strong have a louder voice in society and could advance the gospel so much more effectively given the fact that when they talk, the world seems to listen. But that’s precisely the problem as far as Paul’s concerned. A wise person boasts in their wisdom, a strong person in their strength, a smart person in their intelligence and a powerful person in their influence. But those who are despised, broken and weak can only rely on God and as a result can boast only in what God has done for them and in them.

30It 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. 31Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Paul tells them in vv. 30-31 that it is because of God’s wisdom that Christ came to us. And by extension, Christ and everything He represents for us; righteousness, holiness and redemption, is now God’s wisdom reflected in our lives. Consequently, everything about our lives must be Christ-centered because everything we have comes from God through Christ. Paul calls on the words of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 9:24) at the end of the chapter imploring those who boast about anything should boast only in the Lord who has called them to faith in the great reversal that shows worldly wisdom, strength and influence to be shameful in light of the what God has done in and through the foolish, weak and despised.

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

Paul picks up in Chapter 2, vv. 1-2 right where he left of at the end of chapter one when he claims to have come to them originally without fancy words or intellectual arguments about God. Instead, Paul was determined to keep his testimony simple and to the point: Christ and the cross. “Paul does not deny that he tried to present his message in as compelling a form as possible, merely that by the world’s standards he was at best ordinary.”[11] Paul’s comment in v. 3 that he came to the Corinthians originally in weakness, fear and trembling, is difficult to understand because we don’t really know the context of Paul’s weakness. Many believe that it is a reference to some sort of illness since some of his other letters reference “my illness” (Gal 4:14) in one case and “severe suffering” (1 Thess 1:5-6) in another. Nevertheless, Paul uses his “weakness” as an advantage to demonstrate the power of God’s message even in, or perhaps especially in, weakness.

Paul’s sense of “fear and trembling” is not based in the receptivity of his audience but in the gravity of the message. “Paul is precisely not a visiting orator come to entertain the crowds as an audience-pleasing performer.”[12] Instead, Paul makes it clear in vv. 4-5 that even though his words may have not been wise or persuasive as defined by the world, they were, nevertheless, laden with the power of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, their faith was not rooted in the wisdom or words of Paul but in the power of God alone. Paul “deliberately avoided the very thing that now fascinated them, ‘the persuasion of wisdom.’ But his preaching did not thereby lack ‘persuasion.’ What it lacked was the kind of persuasion found among the sophists and rhetoricians, where the power lay in the person and his delivery. Paul’s preaching, on the other hand, despite his personal appearance and whatever its actual form, produced the desired results, namely it brought about the faith of the Corinthians.”[13]

Application

            This ministry has put me right in the line of fire for those “smart” and “wise” people who think I’m “diluted, deceived, unintelligent and irrational” just to point out a few of the more civilized ways some readers have characterized me. But I’m pretty sure that I’m none of those things (at least not most of the time). Nevertheless, standing up for the truth of the Gospel seems terribly difficult at times. Not because it’s hard to defend but because most of us are the foolish, weak and despised and don’t have much of a voice in the world. We’re not like Einstein who says belief in God is “childish” and an illustration of “human weakness” and because he’s a genius, people automatically think he must be right. But that’s the beauty of God’s wisdom! We don’t need to match wits with the Einsteins of the world. We can put them all to shame with the message of salvation represented by our lives.

We each have a salvation “story” that demonstrates, first, God’s mercy but also God’s power to transform lives. If you are a believer, think about your “story” against the backdrop of Einstein’s words. You substance abusers or addicts of any kind who have kicked the habit; is that weakness? You women who have been abused and/or raped yet have forgiven those who have harmed you; is that weakness? You single people who remain sexually pure until your wedding while fighting a world constantly trying to entice you to compromise; is that weakness? You who have forgiven your spouse who has been unfaithful to you; is that weakness? You who have given your lives in service to those who are lost, broken, hungry or in prison; is that weakness? Don’t be intimidated by a world that prizes intelligence, power, influence and outward beauty. You have all you need because of what God has done for you and in you through Christ. Remember The Foolishness of the Cross will never make sense to those who are perishing!





[1] “Einstein ‘God’ letter to sell on eBay, with bidding starting at $3M,” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/04/einstein-god-letter-on-ebay-with-bidding-starting-at-3m/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+(Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content), (Accessed October 4, 2012).
[2] “Principles of Scientific Inquiry,” http://www.mc3edsupport.org/community/knowledgebases/principles-of-scientific-inquiry-64.html, (Accessed October 5, 2012).
[3] Gerald F. Hawethorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, eds., Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, (Downers Grove, IL: InverVarsity Press, 1993), p. 969.
[4] Gordon D. Fee, NICNT, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987), pp. 68-69.
[5] Ibid., p. 70.
[6] Anthony C. Thiselton, NIGTC, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000), p. 162.
[7] Craig Blomberg, The NIV Application Commentary, 1 Corinthians, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), p. 53.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Thiselton, NIGTC, p. 172.
[10] Fee, NICNT, p. 77.
[11] Blomberg, NIV, 1 Corinthians, p. 54.
[12] Thiselton, NIGTC, First Corinthians, p. 213.
[13] Fee, NICNT, First Corinthians, p. 94.