1 Corinthians 1 -- Name-droppers And Wisdom-chasers

It sounds like they’d become name-droppers and wisdom-chasers, and Paul knew that these kinds of activities didn’t focus people on Christ – they were distractions.  As to the name-dropping, I thought he hit the nail on the head when, using his own name, he said, “Did Paul die on the cross for you?  NO!”  The gospel is not about ordinary men.  It’s about Christ.  And when a cult of personality begins to build up around someone, alarm bells should begin ringing.

As to the wisdom-chasers, the Greeks were known for intellectual hobnobbing.  They’d made intelligence the end-all-be-all of their existence.  That’s elevating man and not God.  Isaiah had written centuries before a promise from God:  “I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom; I will make the wise men unable to understand.”  Whether we like it or not, that’s something we need!

I fell into that very trap and all it did was lead me to think that I knew better than God.  What a foolish idiot I’d become!  He did in fact make me unable to understand UNTIL I was willing and able to admit to him that He knew everything and I didn’t.  And if the intellectuals start to feel that the gospel is foolishness, they are missing the point entirely that “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has CALLED.”  What a shame it would be to let our self-ascribed intelligence hinder us from knowing God.  One thing I’ve discovered over the years is that God most often uses the unexpected and the least likely to get His will accomplished.  He does this for one purpose – to insure that we see that it’s Him at work and not any mere human.

Father, You had to take what I thought I knew and turn it upside down just to show me how wrong-headed my thinking had become.  My college environment had become fertile ground for “intellectual growth”, which amounted really to nothing more than human pride.  I really understood nothing until I began to understand You.  And I’m thankful that in Your Word You say, “And this is eternal life – to know YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  I can’t think of a better way to spend eternity!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford