June 11 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: I Corinthians 3:18-23 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

In the first three verses of this passage Paul goes back to his comparison of God's wisdom with worldly wisdom. He opens by saying that worldly wisdom can deceive the Christian. The believer, if he chooses to adopt the philosophies and priorities of the world, can convince himself that he is making smart decisions when he is not. The verb tense used in this phrase indicates that this was something that the Corinthian church was already doing, and Paul is telling them that they need to stop. One of the ways that the Corinthian believers were adopting worldly wisdom was by attaching themselves to individual teachers. Greeks of that day loved to be known as followers of Plato or Aristotle or some other teacher. The Corinthians were doing the same by claiming to be followers of Paul or Apollos or Peter. Paul says that they need to stop attempting to be "wise" in the eyes of the world and learn how to be wise in the eyes of God.

If a believer is going to choose to have God's wisdom, he needs to resign himself to being considered a fool by the world around him. The natural man doesn't understand the things of God (I Corinthians 2:14), and thus he certainly is not going to understand why a Christian chooses to live according to Biblical principles. The ungodly find it foolish to attend church all the time, particularly multiple services each week. They don't understand giving the first fruits of your income to God. They don't understand why God's people dress or act a certain way, and don't drink, or carouse, or involve themselves in sinful entertainments. They think that the believer is missing out on all the fun. Unfortunately, some Christians, and even churches, have decided that the best way to impact the world is to adopt the world's way of thinking. God says that this is foolish. At the end of verse 19 Paul quotes from Job 5:13. God "captures" the worldly wise in their own alleged wisdom. Albert Barnes wrote this,

"He allows them to entangle each other. He makes use of their own craft and cunning to defeat their counsels. He allows the plans of one wise man to come in conflict with those of another, and thus to destroy one another. He who attempts to carry his purposes by craft and intrigue-- who depends on skill and cunning, instead of truth and honesty-- will often find that he is the prey of his own cunning and duplicity."

So, in verses 21-23, Paul writes that Christians should not glory in or boast about the men that they follow. That type of behavior is man's wisdom, not God's. He then shares some true wisdom with them when he says,

"All things are yours".