1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NKJV)
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."
Our first parents had a conversation with the Devil about
what they might eat that day, He said to them, “What is available to you?” They
said, “Everything but one thing.” The Devil wondered aloud why that one source
of nutrients and pleasure was withheld from them. I doubt they had ever considered
eaten what God had forbidden them to eat. But now, the question was out there,
just hanging in the air. They cautioned Satan that the day one’s eats that
solitary restricted fruit they would surely die. Satan shows his false
knowledge when he flatly contradicts the Word of the Lord. “You shall not die.”
He goes further to say that he knows God’s heart; that heart is wicked and
petty. “You have been tricked by God because He is afraid that you will become
as knowledgeable and sophisticated as he is.
What convinced Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit? Was Eve
motivated differently than Adam? I don’t think so. It is true that the Devil
approaches Eve and directs his word to her, but the story is clear that Adam is
present when Eve and Devil conferred. So he is listening but not engaging in
the dialogue. This act was not merely bodily; it was also a process of the
mind, and a realignment of the spirit.
The relationship between the first human creatures and
their Creator changed. They exchanged innocence for sophistication. By that
exchange, we read in Paul’s letter to the Romans, “Thinking themselves wise,
they became fools.”
The pattern repeats itself with every person thereafter.
Consider the development of children, who grow every more willful and insist on
greater and greater degrees of independence. I remember my daughter was around
two when she would say, “I do it myself.” Some independence from human parents
is healthy, but from God it is the very source of spiritual death. It is a
relational death. Because of our insistence to severe out wills from God’s
will, we cut ourselves off from his care and his wisdom.
What is the cure? First, the foundational remedy lies with the
Covenant made, for us, between the Father and the Son when Jesus submitted to
the Father’s will to atone for all our sins. From our position there is a kind
of cure in our exercise in simplicity before an almighty and all knowing
Creator. We must daily, moment by moment, remove all the complications of our
lives. When we relate to God, our words must be simple and our hearts must
submit to God with pretense or false sophistication.
All great things are simple, and
many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy,
hope. Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
If you are absolutely obedient to
God, then there is no ambiguity in you and you are mere simplicity before God.
. . . One thing there is which all Satan’s cunning and all the snares of
temptation cannot take by surprise. That is simplicity. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard
(1813–1855)
Better in bitterest agony to lie,
Before thy throne, Than through much increase to be lifted up on high, And
stand alone. Yet best—the need that broke me at thy feet, In voiceless prayer,
And cast my chastened heart, a sacrifice complete, Upon thy care. John Oxenham
(1861–1941)
If you don’t surrender to Christ,
you surrender to chaos. E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973)
Make me a captive, Lord, And then
I shall be free; Force me to render up my sword, And I shall conqueror be. I
sink in life’s alarms When by myself I stand; Imprison me within thine arms, And
strong shall be my hand. George Matheson (1842–1906)
The man who surrenders to Christ
exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and gentle Master whose yoke is easy
and whose burden is light. A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
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