Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
I love a good preacher, don't you? I think the best sermons are where the speaker engages you immediately with a story or a thought-provoking question and then proceeds with fifteen or so minutes of scripture interpretation and then ties it up in the end by bringing it back to the initial question and answering it. I still remember hearing a message while visiting my parents at a place called "Bible town", which no longer exists in Boca Raton, and the pastor started, "If you were the richest person on the Earth, how would you raise a child that knew the value of money, understood hard work and didn't grow up to be entitled?" He then developed the idea that God is our Father who owns everything and we are His children who He is raising to turn out not like spoiled brats.
The question is, how clever, crafty, engaging, deep, flowery do pastors need to be? Does a pastor need to know Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes, Nietzsche, or classic literature to be effective? I almost feel like Paul is saying that Apollos was learned and came into Corinth and wowed everyone while Paul came in and shared the basics of the gospel. That may have been why people were picking sides. I love a good Tim Keller message where he quotes C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton, but if I would play it for my mom, she would say, "He just needs to stick to scripture." She would pick any J. Vernon McGee message over Tim Keller any day.
The fact is, no matter how clever or smart or wise you think you are, the wisdom of this age must bow to the fact that what we believe is unseen. We believe in a God who is Spirit who dwells in an unseen Heaven surrounded by unseen angels opposed by unseen demons and Satan, who teaches that dying is the way to living, being a servant is the way to get ahead, being poor is the way to get rich and so on. As Christians we shouldn't be anti-intellectual as knowledge and wisdom is important to allay our doubts and engage with people that are intellectual. However, at some point we need to realize that this only gets us so far. Adam and Eve were much better off before they ate from the tree of knowledge. Jesus said that we must be like a child to enter the kingdom of God. I think He was referring to a simple belief in the unseen. Our mid, intellect, wisdom, learning can only take us to the brink of the cliff as in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie. At some point we need to take that step of faith where intellect screams "NO!!"
There was an old song that went, "Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me.
Is it good enough for you?
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