Bible Studies

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There is an antithesis between Christian maturity and worldly wisdom. That means that they are mutually exclusive. They are opposed to one another. What serves to increase Christian maturity undermines worldly wisdom, and what serves to increase worldly wisdom undermines Christian maturity. And it is this antithesis that Paul highlights in these chapters of First Corinthians. It is precisely because of this antithesis that Paul has "decided to know nothing among you (the Corinthians), except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul was not ignorant of Greek literature and philosophy. Rather, he didn't want them to undermine the gospel by bringing in non-biblical ideas, even when those ideas might seem to the Greeks to support the gospel. He knew that they would not, that they would dilute and undermine it.

But he was not opposed to wisdom, "among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away" (1 Corinthians 2:6). Rather, Paul imparted the "secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory" (1 Corinthians 2:7). Repeatedly, Paul says that God's wisdom is not available to the ungodly. The Westminster Confession teaches that "the inward illumination of the Spirit of God (is) necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word" (WCF 1:6). Paul taught that "no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:11-13).

There is a gulf between the godless and the godly that can only be bridged by Jesus Christ. It cannot be bridged by human wisdom or human effort. Christians can understand the godless because we were once godless ourselves, but the godless cannot understand Christianity unless and until they themselves are born again or become regenerate. "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:4).

There is an important application of this concept related to church marketing and advertising that virtually no contemporary church marketer uses. Most contemporary church marketing programs are aimed at the godless. What I mean is that they use the language and aesthetics of the godless in order to appeal to the values or aesthetics of the godless. They try to make Christianity appear to be hip or cool or "in" or popular. They try to make it appear to be worldly by copying the latest marketing fads and techniques in order to make Christianity more appealing to the worldly minded. But Paul clearly teaches that the truth of Christianity cannot be known to the godless. It can only be discerned by the godly.

In contrast, the biblical use of marketing and advertising will not clothe Christianity in worldly garb, hoping to make it appeal to the worldly mind, but will show the truth of Christianity from a purely biblical perspective. Biblical Christianity does not need to appeal to the godless or look like the world. It doesn't have to pretend to be cool or hip or "in" or popular. Such practice is not authentic Christianity. The purpose of evangelism is not to make Christianity look like the world. Rather, it is to make the world Christian. Godless people need to understand that they are not Christian, and that they cannot bring their godlessness into the church -- not even in the name of Christianity.

There is a difference between the savable who are lost and the unsavable who are lost. We don't know exactly who is savable and who isn't, but God does. The Spirit of Christ speaks to the Spirit of Christ. The values of Christ resonate with the savable lost and draw them into the fold. The beauty of Christ reaches out to His lost sheep to guide them home.

We obscure the values and the beauty of Christ when we use worldly (godless) aesthetics and values in our outreach. We shoot ourselves in the foot when we try to appeal to heathen forms of popularity to communicate the gospel. Such efforts obscure the truth of the gospel and disturb the purity and peace of the church. The whole world needs to see the antithesis between Christianity and the world in order to perceive the necessity of conversion. To blur the antithesis between the world and Christianity is to blur the necessity of the new birth and conversion.

The church will grow in faith and in numbers when it is seen as a viable option to the ways of the world. It will grow by differentiating itself from the world, not by trying to integrate itself into the world, or by trying to grow on a foundation of worldliness. This is an important application of Paul's central message of chapter two.

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