Title: Jesus Is the Wisdom of God
Jesus is the wisdom of God
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, January 30, 2011
The gospel of Jesus Christ began in Galilee, went through Jerusalem and Judea, and grew into a great force in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. At that time, Judaism and Gentile Christianity experienced a great conflict over the establishment of their relationship with Judaism. Gentile Christianity did not have the strength to compete with Judaism. Eventually, Paul, the representative of Gentile Christianity, gave up Asia Minor and went to Macedonia, Achaia, and Corinth. Greece today. Greece's topography is a peninsula extending from north to south, connected by an isthmus shaped like an anthill in the middle. On that isthmus is a city called Corinth. At that time, to travel between North and South, you had to go through Corinth. It is a transportation hub. The culture has blossomed greatly. Naturally, the Greek temple stood tall, and sports events similar to the Olympics were held. According to the account of Acts 18, Paul came to Corinth and preached in the synagogue every Sabbath. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and all of his family accepted the gospel, and many other Corinthians also believed and were baptized. This is the beginning of the Corinthian church.
When Paul left Corinth to preach the gospel elsewhere, he wrote a letter to Corinth. That is the text of today's sermon on 1 Corinthians. Letters are written with a purpose. Paul personally heard that a conflict had arisen in the Corinthian church. The Corinthians argued with each other, “I belong to Paul, I belong to Apollos, I belong to Cephas, and I belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:12). To our eyes today, this seems strange. The church in Corinth was planted by Paul, so why did Apollos and Cephas come out? It seems that Paul's authority was not very special at that time. Moreover, it is strange that Christ is mentioned as one of the other leaders. It must be because the theological system had not yet been established at that time. It must be because the Corinthians were misunderstanding something. To correct this problem is one of the purposes of writing the book of Corinthians.
The relationship between knowledge and belief
Corinth is a city at the center of polytheistic Greek civilization. Those who ate spiritual nourishment and lived there were the people of the Corinthian church. They understood Christianity the way they knew it. So the factions were divided over the issue of baptism. Paul made it clear that his mission was to preach the gospel, not to baptize (1 Corinthians 1:17). is that Because baptism is done in the name of Jesus Christ, not Paul's, the subject of baptism is Jesus Christ. Don't be preoccupied with the non-essential, but focus on the essential.
Why do we get preoccupied with the non-essential? Conversely, how can you put your mind to the essentials? It's not just a matter of personality. The people of the church in Corinth, who were in dispute, were also sincere in person. Even those who fall into pseudo-cults these days are good people in person. The key lies in ‘knowing’. If you do not know properly, no matter how noble your personality, you will end up clinging to non-essential things. Sometimes people argue over whether faith comes first or knowledge comes first. This is similar to the chicken or egg debate. Anselm said that you have to believe in order to know. There are many times when a person who believes purely is preferable rather than a person who judges rationally. I believe that knowledge precedes belief. The knowledge referred to here is not the knowledge of simple information or empirical evidence, but the knowledge that becomes one with the known object as a whole. In oriental terms, it is the dimension of Don-Oh. It is knowledge that encompasses faith. What is the basis of this knowledge in the Christian faith? Paul got this problem right.
Paul approached the problem of knowing from an extreme point of view. “Because I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). He knew a lot. From ancient Greek philosophy to Roman law to Jewish law, he accurately grasped the spiritual world of the Near East and Europe at that time. But such knowledge was of little importance to him. Only Jesus Christ was the goal of absolute knowledge. This is not easy. We need to think about this issue from the perspective of the Corinthians who first encountered the gospel 2,000 years ago. Paul said that the crucifixion was “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23). This is an accurate statement of the circumstances of that time. The crucifixion was something that everyone was ashamed of and wanted to avoid. But how can we accept Jesus, who was sucked into such a fate, as the source and goal of all knowledge?
Paul's answer is the Holy Spirit. “God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, and the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). same as What does it mean to let the Holy Spirit know? There are many who take this as an anti-rational dimension, a magical or esoteric dimension. You say that you received an answer from the Holy Spirit during your prayer last night. They sometimes speak as if they are the only ones who have a monopoly on certain truths. Many of these claims are made by the cults of pseudo-cults. This is an attitude that downgrades the Christian faith to a kind of witchcraft. When we say that the Holy Spirit makes known, we mean that the source of knowledge is not our subjective ability, but God's power. I mentioned earlier that knowing is not just information about mathematical calculations or making money, but an event that involves our entire existence and destiny. There must be a distinction between simply knowing the basics of living in the world and knowing the fundamentals of life in which God is the master.
God's Wisdom, God's Spirit
Paul speaks of the wisdom of God, which is different from the wisdom of the world. It is said that the wisdom of God has two attributes. One was hidden (v. 7). Yes. The ultimate is all hidden. Because the ultimate is God's world. Think of life. It is also hidden. We do not yet know the ultimate reality of life. No matter how perfectly engineering the human body can be explained, it is almost impossible to do, but we do not know everything about life. No matter how physically you can explain the world, you cannot know all of its ultimate dimensions. In the teachings of Buddhism, there is a saying that there is a word called “Gong-Ji-Sang” and “Saek-J-Gong”. The visible world is the invisible world, and the invisible world is the visible world. It refers to the mysterious dimension of the world. If the world is like that, then the wisdom of God who created the world goes without saying.
The other is the fact that ‘God foreordained for our glory’ (7b). Our glory means our salvation. It is the wisdom of God that has been ordained for our salvation before the world even began. Here you can guess what God's wisdom is specifically. Jesus Christ. The coming of Jesus Christ was decided before the ages. It is difficult to think that such a statement is nonsense. It means that the wisdom of God is ontological. It refers to a dimension of wisdom that cannot be defined or measured in any way by humans. The human head cannot understand this. So Paul says so. It is said that “the rulers of the world did not know any” and ultimately crucified Jesus. Jewish religion and Roman politics collided in this. At the time, they considered it justice. In that way, I thought that the world was established in order. Those who did not know the wisdom of God had no other choice. It is typical of those who are bound by the spirit of the world.
As Paul explained, Christians were different from them. Christians have not received the spirit of the world, but “the spirit that is from God” (verse 12). Those who have received the Spirit of God can know the wisdom of God. Paul explains why: “Spiritual things are discerned by spiritual things.” (13b) It means that only through the Holy Spirit can we know the wisdom of God.
How do we know that we have received the Holy Spirit? It won't be obvious on the outside. Prayer and evangelism are not such proofs. You cannot use the color of your face as evidence. No one else knows. Sometimes you don't even know. Only the Holy Spirit knows. If we presuppose that and give one criterion, it is whether we can know and believe that Jesus is the Christ. Is the criterion too simple? no. You can formally say you believe, but it's hard to believe by throwing your soul into it. If you know and believe this from the depths of your soul, you will do your best to get to know Jesus Christ more deeply, even if no one is talking to you. As if a poet devoted his whole life to writing poetry. That's right. If you don't know anything else, that's fine. Concentrate on knowing Jesus Christ, like Paul, who said he didn't want to know anything but Jesus Christ and his cross. Jesus Christ is the foundation of all wisdom and knowledge. Ask the Holy Spirit for this. The Holy Spirit will lead you into a world of deep knowledge of Jesus Christ.