Foolishness and Weakness

(My post from journeytheway.com)

We are the foolishness and the weak spoken of in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. But what does that mean?
Does it mean we are ignorant of the realities of science and therefore when we accused of trying to scare children into morality with stories of hell are true?

Or does it mean we are foolish because we see the treasures of life as worthless when compared to knowing Christ Jesus our Lord?

To know for certain we must look at the reason God calls us the foolish, the weak, the low, and the despised.

The foolish were chosen to shame the wise; the weak were chosen to shame the strong; the low and the despised even the things that aren’t to show as nothing the things that are.

Yet more than these, “So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the on who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1Cor 1:29-31)

So, yes, we are chosen to show that surpassing power belongs to Christ and not to us. The things, which are in the eyes of most worthy of life and death to a believer, are not. What was once wisdom is now foolishness to a Christian.

The world, or the view of the world is radically changed. Turned right side up, if you will, to where what was once normal is now backwards. What was once our culture is now foreign to us.

It isn’t that we don’t understand science and are ignorant of the world, that’s not it all (most of the world largest advancements in science were made by believing men pursuing God), it’s that science is fuel for worship not what we worship.

The wise are shamed, because a child can understand the gospel. The strong are shamed, because their strength has no barring on salvation. Things that don’t exist are made to exist to shame what is (i.e. a redeemed heart is made within a lost heart).

This is what it means to be foolishness and weakness, it means to see the world as naught and Jesus as all; to fall headlong in love with our saving God rather than money, sex, and power. This is what it means to be Christian.

Legalism Vs. Discipline

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Galatians 3:1-3

This would be the Paul-getting-all-up-in-some-Galatian’s-faces passage. Twice he calls them foolish and twice he asks them a rhetorical question to help them further understand their ludicrous thinking as ludicrous (no, not the rapper). Yet more often than not these words rip directly into my heart, into my thinking, into my actions.

I would guess the majority of us struggle deeply with that fine line between self-discipline and religious legalism. Having our ‘lists’ so neatly centered in our brains so when they are transgressed by someone, anyone else we are appalled at their actions. Or the opposite, of fighting so hard against lists so when someone tries to dictate a certain truth to you your gut reaction is to punch them in the face rather than listen.

But before the ideals of self-discipline may come to bear on our lives we must first understand (and by understand I mean if we don’t get it the rest fails) it is the Spirit who enables faith and it is the Spirit who is perfecting (sanctifying, redeeming) us.

Now, in all our self-discipline if it is placed on the shoulders of others rather than left to being SELF-discipline we have made it a religious legalism. Also, when we start to see discipline in terms of ‘have to’ rather than ‘get to’ it becomes religious legalism. Lastly, when we start to see discipline as more important than Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, we’ve made our discipline our functional savior… a functional savior to hang ourselves with.

Have we begun in the Spirit to now be perfected by the flesh? Did we receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? These are the questions we must ask ourselves often, though our motivations can nor never will save us our motivations must be thoroughly examined, indeed we must learn to have quick minds. For in the course of life, or even just a day, we strive (because of the work of the Spirit) to be found in Jesus to the glory of God. Because He is our joy, not our actions or our intentions, Jesus, He is and can only ever be the one who saves us, completes us, and gives us true lasting joy.