God is Wise (1 Corinthians 1:18-31; 1 Corinthians 2:6-16)
Billy Milton - September 12, 2004
When I was a young accountant a guy called Harry was my boss. At that time I used to think that Harry was a very wise man, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons made sense, others just reflected my own background.
Firstly he was old – just getting ready to retire - and I was brought up to really respect old people. To me old = wise.
Secondly, he had snow-white hair and I had read somewhere about the ‘hoary head’ being wise.
Thirdly, he had worked for the company for many, many years and there wasn’t a lot he didn’t know about the systems and the history.
Fourthly, he never blurted out responses to any questions that you asked him. Instead he would slowly reach for his pipe, take a couple of minutes to light it whilst I stood impatiently awaiting an answer as he slowly puffed and reflected and then he would speak – normally helpfully. Later on he confessed that it was just a technique he used to buy time. But was Harry wise?
Well the dictionary definition of wisdom is ‘knowledge rightly applied’. In his book ‘Knowing God’, JI Packer defines wisdom as, ‘the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.’ How do we judge what is wise and what is unwise today? Well by almost any standards my measure of Harry’s wisdom was flawed. Age is no guarantee of wisdom (although the Chinese and Japanese might disagree), nor is the colour of your hair, nor is length of service for a company, and certainly smoking a pipe is not wise! However by the dictionary definition, Harry did exhibit wisdom. He had a great knowledge of our company and, by refusing to be rushed, he more often than not was able to search his memory banks and apply that knowledge and experience rightly in a given situation, occasionally in ways that I found surprising. By my standards Harry was wise. But how did God view Harry in the wisdom stakes?
Well the Bible says that God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom often end up in conflict. This is mainly because of a difference of priorities I suspect. “God is wise”. But let me say right away that that statement takes faith to believe because sometimes God’s wisdom, as the passage says, is like a mystery to us. Things happen in our lives which at first sight don’t appear to have any positive purpose and yet over time we grow to see that God had a plan all along that was just way beyond our ability to understand. Have you ever experienced that? Are you perhaps in a situation just now where you are just hanging on wondering where is the sense in whatever you’re going through?
A number of people have questioned God’s part in John Price’s accident along the lines of, “How could God let such an awful thing happen to a good man like John.” One thing I have discovered, as I’m sure you have too, is that Christians are not immune from bad things happening to them. A number of you have seen the video called ‘Transformation’ where a variety of communities around the world have been transformed by the power of prayer and the unity between the churches. One story in particular touched me from Cali in Columbia. TELL THE STORY OF THE KILLING OF ‘LUCHIO’ AND THE FAITH OF HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTERS. Remember, it takes faith to believe in God’s wisdom. Let me show you what I mean by taking a quick look at the life of Joseph in Genesis 37-50.
As we go through Joseph’s story I want you to notice the number of times that God’s purposes are played out in ways that mystify Joseph, and would mystify us too, if we didn’t know the ending. Joseph, you might remember, was given a promise by God whilst he was a young boy. That promise was that he was going to be a mighty ruler. Now think of this – how could a young, insignificant, unpopular member of a large farming family ever rise to a position of authority and national prominence? You might ask King David the same question, by the way. This is where God’s wisdom and Joseph’s faith come in to the story.
Firstly he’s sold into slavery – an unpromising start to the career of a future leader;
- then he’s imprisoned for his honesty in refusing to give into to Potiphar’s wife’s seduction – its getting worse;
- he languishes forgotten in prison for many, many years – the dream must seem like a cruel joke by now;
- even if he gets out of prison he will still only be an alien in a foreign land;
- he has no formal training in leadership and he is not familiar with government practices – this is growing more unlikely by the minute!
Surely, if you didn’t know the ending of the story you would be thinking that God had got this one wrong? Where is the wisdom in all this?
And yet during all the time of slavery and imprisonment God had been giving Joseph opportunities to learn the language; the culture; lessons in patience and forgiveness; lessons in grace; lessons in leadership and most importantly – the fact that God can be trusted. His ways are as far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth, Isaiah tells us in chapter 55. Joseph, in God’s perfect wisdom and timing, becomes the number 2 ruler in Egypt… but it took an awful lot of faith from Joseph to hang on when God’s wisdom seemed a bit dodgy. Perhaps we could say, ‘It was a mystery to Joseph for a long time but he never stopped trusting God.’
In 1 Corinthians 2:7 Paul talks about God’s wisdom and calls it a ‘mystery’ or a ‘secret’ wisdom. But Paul in 1 Cor. 2:6–16 tells us that God’s wisdom, which for ages past had been a secret, is now revealed to mankind and in that revealing we learn a number of things:-
God’s Secret Wisdom is the greatest wisdom known to man 1 Cor. 2:6-10 but…
1. It is not a wisdom that originates from man.
Even the greatest of men and women have not understood God’s wisdom. That’s as true today as it was in Paul’s time. Paul says that the ‘rulers of this age’ don’t understand it. If they had they would not have crucified Jesus. And today the supposed wise and educated still don’t seem to understand that the answer to the mysteries of the universe, some of which we touched on last week, cannot be solved without bringing God and his wisdom into the equation.
Remember that Paul is speaking in a society that prized wisdom above almost anything else. Indeed the big issue at large in the Corinthian church, so big that it was almost splitting the church, was that of people believing they were wiser than other people. So, amazingly, given that scenario, Paul holds his hands up and says in 1 Cor.1:23 and 2:2, “I know that this sounds foolish to both Jews and Greeks but all I have to offer you is Jesus Christ and him crucified.” There’s the mystery revealed right there. And, despite the harsh reception that this type of crazy talk would receive in a wisdom-obsessed culture, he still goes on to call the crucifixion of Christ, ‘wisdom’.
2. God’s ‘Secret’ Wisdom was a secret meant to be told.
We used to have a couple of women, actually they were identical twins, who lived near us when I was a boy and they were well known as the village gossips. Often you’d see them tittle-tattling in the street sharing any secrets that anyone was stupid enough to share with them. But God’s secret, the secret of his wisdom was always intended to be made known to us. In 2:10 Paul tells us that even with our sin hardened hearts we can know God’s wisdom. How does this happen? Well quite simply it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the wisdom of God.
This is a phenomenal promise of God, don’t you think? We human beings in all our sin and rebellion have been chosen by God to know his mind. I can’t quite get my head round what that means but one thing I do understand is that God is inviting me into partnership with Him; he wants to restore that broken relationship with Him that all of us experience from time to time. In essence God’s wisdom in our lives is not a sharing of His knowledge – that would be too vast for us to handle – but his wisdom is to impart to us the ability to confess that he is wise and to cleave to him and live for him through thick and thin. James tells us that the fruit of such wisdom is to make us more like Christ.
So was old Harry wise? By this world’s standards…. yes. But I am forced to conclude that unless a man knows God then the answer, sadly and humbly, is no. True wisdom is not the accumulation of wealth or status or even knowledge but as v16 tells us – knowing the mind of Christ. That is wisdom indeed.