Foolish & Weak
1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of
God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s
strength.”
This
verse has been on my mind a lot lately. I have been trying to figure out just
what the foolishness of God might be. The only thing I can come up with was his
foolishness in creating man. (Please note: man = all humankind) Think about it;
man has goofed up everything since the Garden of Eden. Man is the reason God
provided a Savior. Yet, he states that His foolishness is wiser than man’s
wisdom.
So
what is man’s wisdom? If we follow the leading of the world, wisdom is getting
ahead, having money, having possessions, looking good by the world’s standards
and an assortment of other similar ideas.
God’s wisdom, leads us to build relationships with others, to serve
others and give to others. We often hear that you can’t out give God. The words of Jesus in Luke 6:38 “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed
down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap.” So,
why is it we work so hard? We neglect our families and friends and chase after
material things? Do we believe we know
better than God? I don’t think we think
that way. What I think is that to stop chasing means we have to put our
complete trust in Him. We need to accept the Lord’s measuring cup. It isn’t
easy to realize that what we want is not necessarily what God will give. We
believe that being served is greater than serving but Jesus says otherwise in Mark 10:43-45, “…Instead, whoever wants to become
great among you, must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be
slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In this world of selfies (I’m guilty) and
looking for the next hot item, the idea of serving others somehow falls beneath
us. (In our own wisdom.)
Man
is also God’s weakness. He loves us so much that he sent his only Son to die
for us! Think about how you feel when a
small child or another grown up publicly declares love for you. God must go
weak in the knees when we proclaim and live out our love for him! The next time
we desire to impress someone, let’s impress God first.
When Paul was on earth, knowledge was advancing and already gaining depth in certain fields. Today the advances in knowledge and understanding stagger the mind. Paul was not side tracked by all the worldly wisdom around him. At 2 Cor. 2:2 he says: "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." Most of the worldly wise in colleges, universities, corporations, etc. view that simple wisdom as backwards and foolish. They view Jesus as a weakling on a cross between two other weaklings on a cross. All three criminal weaklings died and got what they deserved and that's the end of it. When Jesus said: "I am thirsty . . . It is finished, the worldly wise in the colleges and universities understand those words to be his last in the flesh under extreme duress. However, to attribute line after line of eloquent articulate speech to Jesus (from John 20:15 to Rev. 22:20) after he deceased is plum foolishness to them. They cannot wrap their head around it. If it's true, then there is a living God and they would rather not believe that.
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