Despite the fact that the wisdom of God sometimes runs counter to culture, it is life-critical wisdom. It’s not “regular” wisdom, or what the world thinks is pretty smart. Instead, it is far above and beyond that. Paul wrote about “a message of wisdom” in 1 Corinthians 2.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
1 Corinthians 2:6-7 NIV
God’s wisdom is beyond what acclaimed authors, popular politicians, intense intellectuals, persuasive pundits, and advanced analysts come up with. All of their hype and pitches that are not built upon the right foundation will come to nothing in the end.
However, it takes some maturity to appreciate God’s wisdom. If we’re focused on ourselves, or popular opinion, or what popular opinion thinks of us, we can miss what God has to teach us.
By the way, this has been discussed in these articles before, but to the Greeks, a “mystery” was something that not everyone knew, but it wasn’t unknowable. It might not be common knowledge, but those who had really searched for the answer to a mystery (or read the end of the book, we might say) could find it, and could tell it to others.
When it comes to God’s wisdom, though, we weren’t likely to find it on our own (if we ever had a chance to do so at all), so we needed Him to give it to us. Mark Scott wrote in the Lookout (cited below), “No one was going to learn the wisdom of God by just visiting the library. God’s wisdom was learned by revelation.” Once we have discovered this mystery’s solution, though, it’s time to share the answer with others.
In contrast to our world of experts (and “experts”) , God’s wisdom doesn’t necessarily come from a lot of time spent in college, or owning a nice business suit, or from having sponsors. God offers His wisdom to us, but only if we are willing to listen to Him and set aside the lies that evil forces tell us.
Upon learning truth from God, though, we should also be compassionate and not expect people who are accustomed to a world full of evil influences to immediately recognize the truth of Jesus. This means that we may need to be patient with them, and while doing so, we may have to help them bridge the gap from lies that they have been told to the truth. In addition, we must be willing to let God work in their lives, rather than believing that we can save anyone ourselves.
So, how do we bridge the gap from those who are perishing and see following Jesus as foolishness, to helping them to find the wisdom of accepting Him? I think that one step is to make sure that we ourselves are focusing on the truth of God, and not being swayed by the noise of a world that would try to distract us with things of secondary importance Let’s also not think that we’re smarter than God. Maybe we wouldn’t say that in so many words, but we can sometimes pray, talk, and behave as if we think that we know better than Him.
As the Lookout said, “The Corinthians were in danger of becoming enamored with the wisdom of the world. Wisdom can look shiny, and we might wrongly assess the cross of Christ as comparatively dim.” Instead, though, we know that when we “turn our eyes upon Jesus” (as the hymn says), “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace”.
God is truth, and He’s known it infinitely longer than we have been searching for it. Let’s not make things harder than they need to be, and instead seek His wisdom directly instead of futilely fumbling for an inferior version of it on our own.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for April 7, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, April 7, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians, by Richard E. Oster, Jr. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
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