This coming Lord's day...The Pressing Need for True Wisdom: The Humbling & Centering Power of the Cross -

1 Corinthians 2:1-16... How did Paul pastor the Corinthian believers at a critical season in their story? Before he began responding to a whole series of important questions sent to him as their “father” (1 Cor. 5-16), Paul addressed the disunity and the pride which had crept into the church (1 Cor. 1-4). He did so with bold love and with the “wisdom” of the cross. Only the gospel can settle, center and send us again back into Jesus’ story of reconciliation and restoration.

But how are we to understand the chaos in the Church of Corinth? Here are a few things to keep in mind. The members of the house churches in Corinth came from every strata of society, and from many different ethnic, religious and cultural imprints. On top of this, they lived in a culture that put a very high premium on “wisdom” (philosophy/sophistry) and on the gift of public oration/eloquence. The “rock stars” of Corinth were powerfully gifted sophists—teachers who believed in the superiority of Roman culture over a fading Greek culture. Put all of these elements together, and we can easily understand what a recipe for disaster… and for the gospel… this situation was.

Corinth was in transition and the young church was quite vulnerable. Now that their “honeymoon” period was over, the church was being squeezed into the mold of the prevailing and changing culture. There was a clash of “wisdoms” going on. By which “wisdom” would the church be shaped and known: By the passing and proud wisdom of “this age.” or the eternal and humbling wisdom of the cross?

Conflict is inevitable for the people of God. Quarrelsomeness, divisiveness, and factionalism are not. Uniformity is not the goal, unity is. How we deal with issues is as important as the issues we must deal with as followers of Jesus. This is just as true in Franklin, Tennessee as it was in Corinth, Greece.

Based on this passage, how would you contrast the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God? What is it about the message of the cross that seems like utter foolishness to the unbelieving heart? What is so offensive about the gospel? Please go the Peacemaker Ministries website, www.Peacemaker.net, then click onto the Resources tab, and then the Foundational Principles tab.

Feast on these remarkable and free materials that will train you to be a peace-maker, as opposed to a peace-faker or peace-breaker. Or, simply get Ken Sande’s book, The Peacemaker. It is to the glory of Jesus that we learn how to conflict redemptively, as opposed to destructively.

Start meditating on and memorizing 1st Corinthians 13:4-8  and try to have this passage memorized by Thanksgiving.

Scott