Foolishness, Part 1

 ¹⁸ Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say,

   “He traps the wise
      in the snare of their own cleverness.”^[e]

 ²⁰ And again,

   “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise;
      he knows they are worthless.”

-First Corinthians 3:18-20 (NLT)

It seems that proving one's knowledge is a huge things these days. Is it just me, or does there seem to be a ton of trivia shows on TV? If you're smart, you could walk away with millions of dollars. Is wisdom really that important? Depends on what type you're talking about. 

Paul writes in First Corinthians 3:18, "Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world's standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise." Wisdom is important, make no mistake about that. However, the type of wisdom is important. The people on those TV game shows I was talking about earlier display wisdom (or lack thereof) by the worlds standards. They may know a lot about pop culture knowledge, like who sang what with whom on what record, but they know little in spiritual maters. The wisdom we should concern ourselves with is the wisdom of God. Paul says that we are deceiving ourselves if we think we are wise in the world's standards. The world's standards should not be our measuring stick. When you gave your life to Christ, you left the things of this world behind. You left the cravings  and sinful desires behind, and took up the things of God. If you've taken up the things of God, shouldn't one of your goals in your new life in Christ to become more like Him? Paul also says, in verse 18, that "you need to become a fool to be truly wise." Being a fool usually comes with a stupid, backwards kind of image. But, the Bible teaches a different picture. Look at First Corinthians 1:18, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." People who are "smart" in this world's standards consider the Bible, and the principles found therein, as foolishness. They don't want to believe such a story as the death of Jesus on the cross, and His resurrection from the grave to save us from our sins. To them, that sounds foolish. Because of that, they are headed for Hell, headed for destruction. Paul continues, "But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." The cross of Jesus is power to those of us who have put our faith in Jesus. We look foolish, because we act differently, we look differently, we talk differently. But in that foolishness lies the very power of God. Paul writes in First Corinthians 1:21, "Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe." Those who are wise in this world try every way they know how to disprove the Creator of this world. The best they could come up with is the "Big Bang Theory." That the universe and everything we can see was a cosmic accident. Really? And they say that we are foolish?

We'll continue looking at this topic and these verses tomorrow. But the question for today is: Are you increasing your spiritual knowledge, or you earthly wisdom? Think About It.