We continue this week with our reflections in 1 Corinthians 2
1 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. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
‘Knowing stuff’ has always been considered important; and some people seem to know a great deal more than others! I am often amazed at how much people seem to know about some specialist topic such as birds, flowers, local history …. You name it. They appear on Quiz shows such as Mastermind, claim the prizes at Pub Quiz Evenings and generally appear very intelligent. I meet some folk who seem to be very knowledgeable and have phenomenal memories for detail of all kinds – and yet aren’t able to manage life very well! Others are highly organised, their days a fully planned but – well- you wonder if they are behaving wisely.
So God set the wisdom/cleverness/intelligence bar very low, rock bottom in fact, when it comes to knowing Him. Whatever your IQ you can still know God and enjoy a relationship with Him. The wise and intelligent – by human standards – have to learn with the rest of us that God’s plan is to rescue people as an act of grace, not through our logic or reasoned philosophy.
The good news is that God has already initiated His rescue plan through Jesus; His death on the cross was the central event through which God demonstrated His love and dealt with the age-old problem of sin. It was God himself who took the initiative in the process of reconciliation – and the Christian message has at it’s heart the announcement of His love and grace. Logic and philosophy would never get you to that conclusion. The preaching of a crucified Saviour – a message that by-passes human logic – is of fundamental importance in announcing God’s grace to a dying world.