God's Word will never be appealing to the world, but it contains wisdom and promises far beyond anything you can imagine.
Read / Listen to the chapter:
Read the chapter in an outlined format
Read previous DIG DEEPER posts on 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 1 Summary
True Christian preaching is not impressive... at least from the world's perspective.
As Paul preached the gospel throughout the Roman empire, he did not use lofty speech or wisdom (v2). Rather he came in weakness and trembling (v3).
Those who pursue the wisdom of this age are looking for a message that validates them in their sin and reinforces them in their pursuit of the things of this world, things which are doomed to pass away (v6).
The type of preaching Paul brought and commanded in the church points us far beyond the immediate gratification the world wants. God's Word points us to 'what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,' what God has prepared for those who love him (v9, Isaiah 65:4).
Unfortunately, most people have no interest in things that they can't have right now. These things of God that true Christian preaching conveys are folly, because those who have not been regenerated (given a new heart by the Holy Spirit) are not able to understand that which is being preached (v14).
Dig Deeper
Wouldn't it be awesome to hit baseballs as well as Hank Aaron, drain baskets like Michael Jordan or decorate like Joanna Gaines? People of that caliber have two things in common:
1) They were gifted with extraordinary talent;
2) They worked extremely hard to develop that raw talent.
It's not very likely that you will excel at professional sports or have your own home decorating empire, but you do have an extraordinary talent. The end of v16 makes one of the most awesome promises of scripture that few people truly appreciate:
We have the mind of Christ.
You've been given the ability to understand things in a way that those outside of Christ will never come close to. Work hard to develop this raw talent that you've been given. You have more resources to do this than anyone else in history. One easy way that you can do this is by listening to the great programming available on drive.faith, our podcast app that's continually updated with solid Reformed programs.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? (v16 & Isaiah 40:13)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will Know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (v2). (meditate on this today and then come to realize the awesome amount of knowledge it takes to fully understand those two concepts)
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
