My family lived in a lake community during my high school years.  Not an impressive lake, but okay for summer swimming and winter ice skating.  Friends and I occasionally played hockey, but first checked the ice for cracks.  Cracks could signal thin ice.  And we weren’t there to swim.

“Cracks” had appeared in the Corinthian church—“cracks” over which preacher was the “wisest”, “cracks” that ultimately corrupted the gospel.  Paul set out to repair them.

APPEAL FOR AGREEMENT

 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.  My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.  What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas ”; still another, “I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:10-12, NIV)

We can’t be sure who Chloe was or how her household informed Paul in Ephesus about what was going on in Corinth.  But we can be sure the Corinthians were divided and quarreling over preachers.  Some favored Paul, others Apollos, others Cephas (Peter—though we have no record of him being in Corinth). and others Christ (the truly spiritual ones who needed no human preacher!).

Paul urges them to agree “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Not only does this give his appeal authority; it makes his appeal christological.  He is “our Lord Jesus Christ.”  He must be glorified, not his messengers.

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?  I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,  so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.  (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (1 Corinthians 1:13-17, NIV).

Paul asks these three rhetorical questions to show the Corinthians the absurdity of their quarreling over preachers.  Christ is one.  Christ died for them.  They were baptized in the name of Christ.  And, as for Paul, Christ sent him to preach the gospel of Christ.  The gospel is the message of Christ, not of his preachers.

When Paul writes Christ sent him “to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence . . . “  he hints at what lies behind the “preacher-preference” quarrels.  “Culture” is “the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another.” The culture of Corinth was Greek.  And Greeks lauded “wisdom” (sophia), especially on the lips of polished orators.  Such men were superstars.  Itinerant rhetoricians (traveling wise men?) drew enthusiastic ears. Unfortunately, a speaker’s “charisma” was often more applauded than his substance.   This culture seeped into the church and influenced Christians’ view of preachers.

Not only did it divide the church; it corrupted the gospel.  Paul warns: I was sent  “ . . . to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”  The message of Christ-crucified possesses inherent power.  But the Corinthians are enamored with the preacher’s “wisdom and eloquence.”  Therefore, they’re allowing the substance of the message (Christ crucified) to be overshadowed by the style of the messenger.  Fascinated by the preacher’s power, they virtually ignored the power of Christ’s cross.

In the gospel, the Corinthians presumed to have found a new “wisdom”.  But the “wisdom” of the Greek orators and that of Christ-crucified lies worlds apart.  Paul begins to highlight the differences . . .

THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS

 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,  but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:18-25,NIV).

The message of the cross is “new wisdom”.  To the perishing it’s foolishness.  No one who prizes sophia could dream up a crucified Messiah!  But to us being saved the message of the cross is God’s power.  It’s through believing that message that we experience God’s powerful work saving us from sin and all its consequences including death.

With “it is written”, Paul sees God fulfilling in Christ what he intended all along—namely, to destroy human wisdom.  The citation is from Isaiah 29:14—“Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”  It’s a warning to Old Testament Israel not to try to “outthink” God whose wisdom reduces man’s wisdom to foolishness (though apart from God’s grace, man presumes to be wise!).

God, by Christ’s crucifixion, has made the world’s wisdom foolish.  For the world’s wisdom cannot save us from sin and its consequences.  Humans, with all our “wisdom” cannot accomplish what God has done through the cross.  Before God, all the world’s orators will stand speechless.  God, through the weakness of Christ crucified, has powerfully saved his chosen.

The “wisdom” of the Greek orators and that of Christ-crucified lies worlds apart.  Paul highlights a second difference . . .

THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD’S CHOSEN

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, NIV).

Look whom God has chosen to save!  The Corinthian Christians are largely “nobodies.”  By human standards not wise or influential or of noble birth.  Many, as we learned earlier, are freedmen—former slaves but socially almost the same.  By the standards of Greek culture they were foolish, far inferior to the “wisdom” of the upper social classes.  They were weak (at least in influence), not strong.  The “movers and shakers” considered them lowly and despised them.  Yet God chose to save them!

Why?  Here God’s wisdom shines through the “foolish” message of the cross. “ . . . so that no one may boast before him.”  What do believers in the crucified bring to God to merit his approval?  Nothing.

Yet ego lurks always.  By exalting Paul or Apollos or Cephas as “the wisest” preacher (“O, I just love to hear the way the words flow from his lips!”), they were “boasting” that they “had” the wisest orator.  Thus the power of the cross was overlooked.  And thus they forgot that “it is because of [God] that [they] are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

WISDOM, SCHISMS AND US

We don’t usually accord superstar status to preachers.  More often to Christian bands or singers.  Though rarely do we quarrel over “the best”.  Nevertheless, we do love having Christian celebrities.  Like the world.  And we’ve heard rebukes about the church become more like the world.  We have our Christian version of music stars, for example.  And that’s okay—unless subtly we’re more into our Christian celebrities than we are into Christ.

I think we become more like the world with our fascination over church buildings.  Who can build the biggest, with the flashiest technology and stunning “campus”?

Maybe I sound like an old curmudgeon.  I’m not against good, Christ-exalting contemporary music.  The folks who meet in a store-front aren’t holier than those who meet in a cathedral.  But let’s remember:  neither our music nor our buildings save and sanctify us.

And our Savior didn’t wear stylish suits and flashy jewelry.  The world didn’t welcome him.  It executed him.  Our Lord and Savior was judged guilty of treason and died a criminal’s death.  If he came today as he did 2000 years ago, we’d do the same.

This is the One we follow.  This is how God saves us.  Not through what seems intellectually wise, but foolish.  And the intellectual “giants” look down on us as stupid for believing such nonsense.  We shouldn’t nurse a “persecuted me” mentality.  But, we must never forget, the word’s “wisdom” contradicts God’s.  And we must never forget, that we are “in Christ Jesus”, not because of our “smarts”, but God’s grace.