1 Corinthians 3:18-4:5, Called to Christ Part II

Theological Proposition/Focus: The Call of the Christian is a call to follow and fully submit to Christ!

Homiletical Proposition/Application: We must take care that we not just pay lip service to our call to Christ but that we go a step further and reject our tendency to allow the worlds wisdom to interfere with our call to follow Christ!

Introduction:

Image: When hedging your bet leads to disaster

We all have a tendency to hedge our bets. What that means is that we may make a decision but the entire time we have a way out, or a way to undo the decision if we have made a mistake. However, there are cases where hedging your bet leads to a terrible outcome.

Merging onto the interstate.

I went to college in Downtown Denver and used to commute from outside the city every day. When merging onto busy interstate one of the most important tasks is ensuring you are traveling the same speed as traffic when you get to the end of the lane. I remember driving with someone that I won't name who did not have much experience driving in a big city. This individual tentatively accelerated a little, but not to fast the result was a disaster. They had hedged their bets and we were lucky we didn't get crushed by a semi.

Playing a wind instrument.

I spent a lot of time playing music in high school and I remember several times when someone was nervous they would try to come in quietly. The result was almost always a squeak from their reed.

Shooting a handgun for the first time.

I have watched people try shooting a hand gun for the first time. They hold the gun out at arms length, nervously lock their elbows, turn their face away and at the last possible second jerk the trigger. The result is almost always a shot that doesn't even hit paper and if they are lucky the gun stays in their hands.

Catching a football.

If you close your eyes and look away it will probably hit you in the face.

In all of these cases you see it is better to be all in then to hedge your bets.

Body

The temptation to rely on human wisdom is a very real temptation (3:18-23).

There are some temptations that seem to be so common and deeply rooted that they are universal temptations. One such temptations seems to be the temptation to depend upon human wisdom.

Webster defines Humanism as "a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centered on human interests or values"

And humanism permeates our culture. We are taught of the great potential of humanity to accomplish anything. We prize human thinking and are taught that human reason is the ultimate standard. The result is that we are all susceptible to two significant temptations.

Temptation 1: to rely upon one's own wisdom (18-20).

Paul begins verse 18 with an imperative "do not deceive yourselves!" this is abrupt and strong language.

In Cornith Paul knew there was a problem, people thought far too highly of human wisdom and in particular of their own human wisdom. But here Paul takes this a step further, those who were relying on human wisdom were not just causing problems, they were deceiving themselves.

Paul has already noted that the wisdom of God appears foolish to the world (2:18) but now he remarks that the wisdom of the world is foolish to God.

"He catches the wise in their craftiness." (verse 19) is a quote of Job 5:13

In the context of Job 5, Eliphaz has just argued that no one can be right before God. We know that to be false, through grace anyone can be right before God. However, in this argument Eliphaz correctly tells Job to commit his cause to God. Acknowledging that God is unfathomably far above any mere human. Paul draws exactly this into his argument. Paul then moves to showcase just how transcendent God is by quoting Psalm 94:11.

"The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." (verse 20) is a quote of Psalm 94:11

The idea here is that while the wisdom of the world has an expiration date, the world seems oblivious to this fact. God fully knows the futility of the world's wisdom!

The first major temptation we have seen in this passage is the temptation to rely upon our own wisdom. The second temptation is the rely on the wisdom of a leader.

Temptation 2: to rely upon the wisdom of a leader (22-23).

In verse 22 we see that any attempt to "belong" to a particular group is bound for trouble.

The problem is that when we identify as part of a group we tend to simultaneously place ourselves under something and exclude others. Fundamentally this is a misunderstanding of the fact that

We must interpret verse 22 in light of verse 23, the only group you need to identify with is as children of God.

Gordon Fee in his discussion of this passage notes that we have a natural tendency to denominationalism and while we must be discerning, it does not mean we should reject everything from outside our "tribe." Fee states, "To be of Christ is to be free from the tyrannies of one's own narrowness, free to learn even from those with whom one may disagree."

Solution: go cold turkey! (21)

Paul's imperative is simple "therefore, no one should boast in man!", the NIV captures it well, "so then, no more boasting about human leaders."

I love Paul's direct approach here. Paul literally tells us exactly what we should do, the solution is to just stop. Stop boasting.

The temptation to use our own judgment is a very real temptation (4:1-5).

Temptation 1: to use our own judgment when evaluating another individual (1-3a).

There is a "right" way to view leaders.

The greek word that the NIV translates as "you ought to regard us" (λογιζέσθω) is in reality a strong command to reckon. In other words Paul is not saying that you might consider but rather that they are required to only consider Paul as a servant of Christ. Now at the same time, they are also to consider Paul a steward of the mysteries of God. So we have a little bit of contrast.

Servants of Christ (ὑπηρέτας) - one who is a helper in a subordinate capacity

We must recognize that our leaders are merely helpers who are fully subordinate to Christ. When we follow a leader we must make sure we are actually following Christ.

Entrusted with the mysteries of God (οἰκονόμους) - a manager of a household

An apostle had a responsibility to bear the Gospel. While our leaders are not apostles they do have a responsibility to bring us the message of Scripture.

To me it seems that the right view of a leader is as a middle manager, lots of responsibility but not a whole lot of authority.

This doesn't mean that we ignore or treat our leaders poorly but rather we recognize there role as servants and managers.

In fact, just as God is faithful so must the leader be faithful.

This again reminds me of a middle manager. A middle manager must be faithful to the company of things run off the rails in a hurry.

Now Paul makes a connection, when we judge others we often judge them by human standards (the idea of a human court in verse 3)

The problem with judging by human standards, as Paul has outlined through the letter so far, is that they are of little to no significance in the grand scheme of life.

Temptation 2: to use our own judgment in evaluating ourselves (3b-4).

The second dimension of this temptation is a temptation to not just judge others by the world's standards but to begin to judge ourselves by that standard. This can look either rosy or gloomy.

Solution: throw yourself to the mercy of God (5).

The answer to the problem we have is that God is the just judge. We must cast ourselves on God trusting his judgement. He will bring to light what is hidden!

MTR: Honestly ask yourself if you are using your own judgments.

If you are truly being honest I think you will find that you are using your own human judgements in some area. So what do we do now?

Now what? Scripture, Prayer, and the Holy Spirit.

I was reading in one commentary that highlighted our tendency to deceive ourselves. We begin using the worlds wisdom to judge and deceive ourselves. Since this is so prominent we need a solution. The solution starts in Scripture. The only way to stop using worldly judgements is to know something beyond worldly judgements. To know God's word and put it into practice. Step one is thus to know the Word of God, Scripture.

The ingredients: Scripture.

James 1:22-25 speaks to the danger of self-deception and the need for practicing what is taught in Scripture.

The call to Christ is a call to abide in His Word which means we must know His Word.

The problem that we are faced with is a common problem. James has noted that it is entirely possible to know the Word of God and not to put it into practice. So I need to give you a means of going beyond the head knowledge and into the heart knowledge, into the practice of knowledge. To this end I want to propose a container. If we were doing chemistry then we have ingredients, a container, and some sort of catalyst. We already covered the ingredients. Now I want to tell you where you can mix these ingredients.

The container: Prayer.

What you might say, you are telling me to repeat God's words back to Him?

Meditating on Scripture (Joshua 1:8) is not some magic practice but praying Scripture is a way you can meditate on Scripture.

We are commanded to meditate on Scripture in Joshua 1:8, "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." What better way to do this then to discuss the passage with God?