Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 1-4.

There are many non-denominational  congregations which base their decision to not affiliate with a denomination on today’s passage.  They have a point, but they usually miss the fact that Paul calls out the faction which separates itself by claiming “I follow Christ”.  Paul’s point is not that we should not follow the teachings of specific teachers, rather we should not allow ourselves to be divided.  I find it interesting that Paul segues from writing against dividing ourselves according to the leader we learned from to writing about how the Gospel seems foolish to the worldly.  I had never considered the link between our desire to be viewed as wise leads to division in the Church.  Or, perhaps I should more accurately say that I never realized that Paul was making that connection here in the beginning of 1 Corinthians.  Paul writes here that God made the wisdom of this world foolish through the Gospel.  I believe that he is referring here to the idea he wrote about in chapter one of his letter to the Romans (although he had not yet written that when he wrote this letter).  In Romans he wrote about how people rejected the knowledge of God which was revealed by Creation in order to pursue their own ideas about how thing should be.  So, if you think that you are wise, then you are actually a fool.  By God’s standards we are all fools.  Our only hope to act wisely is to allow God’s Spirit to direct us.  I always struggle to find a way to fully express what Paul says here about God using he weak and foolish, as this world judges things, to accomplish His acts of power and wisdom.  That struggle has two sources.  First, I struggle with my desire to appear wise to people, rather than embracing the foolishness of God.  Second, one can only come to understand what Paul is getting at by surrendering to God’s power.  No amount of eloquent or persuasive words will truly convey the message which God has for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.