The Folly of Worldly Wisdom

 

All Things Are Yours – 1 Corinthians 3:18–23

Dear Friends, Paul closes this chapter by striking at the root of the Corinthians’ division. They were lining up behind favoured teachers and treating human wisdom as something to be proud of. His first word is a warning: “Let no one deceive himself.” Self-deception is easy in the church. We can mistake cleverness for spirituality and party loyalty for faithfulness.

If anyone thinks he is wise in this age, Paul says, let him become a fool that he may become wise. That sounds backwards to the world, and it is meant to. “The wisdom of this world is folly with God.” God catches the wise in their craftiness. He knows that their thoughts are futile. The cross has already exposed how empty human brilliance is when it will not bow to Christ.

Then comes the practical command: “So let no one boast in men.” The Corinthians were boasting in Paul, Apollos and Cephas as if belonging to one servant made them richer than the rest. Paul turns the whole argument on its head. You do not belong to the servants. The servants belong to you — and far more besides. “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours.”

That is staggering. The Christian is not a pauper clinging to a favourite preacher. In Christ we have been given a vast inheritance. Life and death, the present and the future, are not random forces ruling us. They are under the hand of the One to whom we belong. And the last line anchors everything: “and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

Here is the cure for pride, party spirit and worldly cleverness. We stop boasting in men when we remember whose we are. We stop competing over servants when we see that all of them are gifts, not trophies. We become truly wise when we are willing to look foolish in the world’s eyes for the sake of Christ.

Pause & Pray: Ask the Lord to show you any place where you have been impressed by human wisdom more than by the cross, or attached yourself to a name more than to Christ. Thank Him that in Christ all things are yours. Pray for a humble heart that boasts only in the Lord.

Verse to Remember: “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours.” (1 Corinthians 3:21 ESV)

Question to Consider: Where have you been tempted to boast in people, parties or worldly cleverness — and how would it change you to remember that you belong to Christ, and therefore all things are already yours in Him?

Article written by Shaun Fereday, Leader @SFGH Church