WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD
1 Cor. 1:18-24
Morning Meditation 6/3/17
Verses 18-24 say, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
God never put a premium on ignorance. However, He has condemned knowledge without God. He says, “knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” In our text Paul deals with those who want an outward demonstration in the form of signs in order to believe and those who put a premium on the wisdom of this world as being a means of knowing God. We are not the only generation who has had this problem. It was a problem in Paul’s day and this is the reason that he wrote on it. William Law also had some important things to say in the early 1700's.
“Through all the Scripture nothing else is aimed at or intended for man’s salvation but the new birth into the divine life; nor anything hinted at as having the least power to produce it, except the life-giving Holy Spirit of God. How gross then is the blindness, which cannot see that the divine life is nothing else than a birth of the divine nature within, giving life to the man, who is dead in sin. But as this truth has been lost or given up, vain learning and a worldly spirit have come into possession of the gospel and set up kingdoms of strife and division. For what end? Why, as is loudly protested by each faction, that the unity of the church may not be lost! And how many various groups of professing Christians are there today, each of whom in opposition to countless others says that the only way for this unity to be scripturally expressed would be for all others to espouse its particular Scripture interpretation.”
“Christian leaders are everywhere pursuing a learned, academic knowledge of Scripture words as the surest way to divine life. This is but proof that Satan has succeeded in tempting the most religious of men to eat eagerly of this ancient tree of knowledge. And in spite of this obvious truth, so manifest in Scripture, men continue to multiply systems of notions and opinions about doctrines. For what? Why, so that words and forms might do for the church today what could be done to the first church only by being born of, baptized in, and filled with the Holy Spirit. An outward profession of Christianity is now thought sufficient, and even the letter of doctrine is often compromised; while the manifestation of the life of Christ in redeemed men through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is ignored and even warned against as fanaticism.”
“Is the spirit, life, purity, and divine simplicity of the gospel truth any less eluded, lost, and destroyed by the Protestant’s worship of letters and learning, than by Romish images of wood, gold, or clay that are set forth as the supposed means of exciting devotion?O vainest of all vain projects, to argue that the one is better than the other. For what is Christianity but Christ living His resurrected life through the members of His body which is the Church? What can this Church be but that which it is and has from Christ the head by His Spirit ministering to each member of the body as He wills it? He is a King, who has all power in heaven and earth; and the reality and power of His kingdom are not like the outward organization and display of earthly kingdoms; but it must have its highest authority and reality in the hearts of men. Away, then, with the projects of popish pomp, and the pagan learning and fleshly methods of Protestants; they are no more wise contrivances than a high tower of Babel to provide a way to heaven!”
“What was this kingdom that Christ set up in this world, but which is not of this world? It was His reign in the hearts of men; for after His resurrection and ascension, He was with them and in them by His Spirit. And this is how He taught it: ‘Because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you.’ This was the kingdom of God come to them. And to the children of this kingdom, says the almighty King, ‘When they bring you before magistrates and powers, take no thought what ye shall say unto them, for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which is in you.’ This is the truth of the kingdom of God come unto men, and this is the birthright privilege of all that are living members in it—to be delivered from their own natural spirit which they had from Adam, from the spirit and wisdom of this world; and through the whole course of their lives to say and do and be only that which the Spirit of their Father wills and works in them.”
“Behold the wisdom of the Greek and the carnality of the Jew come to life again in that which professes to be the body of Christ. For where the Spirit of God is not the continual, immediate dynamic of divine life in man, the church itself is carnal and worldly. To fully prove this, no further evidence is required than the numberless proud contenders in every part of Christendom for this or that school of doctrine and letters and opinions. All men or churches pretending to act for the glory of God from opinions which their logic and learning have collected from Scripture, or what a Calvin, Luther, or some smaller name has told them to be right or wrong—all such are but where the apostles were, when ‘by the way there was a strife among them who should be the greatest.’ How ever much they may boast of their great zeal for truth and the glory of God, their own notorious behavior toward one another is proof enough that the great strife among them is which shall be the greatest sect or have the largest number of followers—a strife from the same root as that of the carnal Pharisees, who crucified Christ to preserve their own great office in Israel.”
“Man needs to be saved from his own wisdom as much as from his own righteousness, for they produce one and the same corruption.”
“Nothing can seek the kingdom of God, or hunger and thirst after His righteousness; nothing can cry, ‘Abba Father,’ or pray, ‘Thy kingdom come, they will be done;’ nothing can say of Christ, ‘My Lord and my God,’ except that which is born of God, and is the divine nature itself living in us. Nothing but God in man can live a godly life in man.” (Taken from the book THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT by William Law. Publisher CLC.
William Law authored several books, published over a 40 years span during the early 1700's. Anyone would profit by reading his writings if they can still be found.
I trust you will enjoy the thoughts of William Law. He lived in another time but what he said seems to be for us today. I am afraid that we put such a premium on knowledge that we are dead in the letter instead of being alive in Christ.
May God give us a revival relationship with Him this coming year. God bless all of you.
In Christ
Bro. White
