The situation in Corinth is neither new nor novel.
Throughout history, men have found their “identity” or
“significance” in groups. They take pride in belonging to a
certain group, a certain leader. We see this in the gangs
that roam the streets, and in the young people who kill
innocent, unknown victims just to be accepted by the gang.
Cults are another example of the same problem. Certain
charismatic leaders attract a following of people who need a
sense of identity, of belonging. Some of these followers
will believe anything they are taught and do anything they
are told by their leader. Their pride is not in themselves,
per se, but in the one leader, they have chosen to follow
above all others. These people become proud and arrogant,
and they boast in a mere man, their leader.
When Paul calls upon his readers to cease boasting in men in
verse 21, he gives yet another reason for doing so, “For all
things belong to you.” What does Paul mean when he tells us
that all things are ours and how does this undermine
boasting in men? How are all these “things” ours? Why do we
possess “all” things? It is not due to our wisdom, to our
social standing, to our status. It is the result of
belonging to Christ. We belong to Christ, Paul reminds us,
and Christ belongs to God (v 23). Since all things belong to
God, we possess them in Christ. How foolish the thinking of
the Corinthians, they are looking upon the simple teaching
of Christ crucified as foolishness. They are seeking wisdom
in mere men, and in the wisdom of this world. That wisdom is
worthless and destructive. To forsake Christ is to become
poor and foolish, even though we consider ourselves rich and
wise (see Revelation 3:14-22). Being rooted grounded, and
growing in Christ is being truly wise.
There are, then, two opposing ways of thinking about the
world found in the Western world today. The one belongs to
those who have narrowed their perception solely to what is
natural; the other belongs to those whose understand the
supernatural natural. The one takes in no more than what the
senses can glean; the other allows this accumulation of
information by the reality of the transcendent. The one
indiscriminately celebrates diversity; the other seeks to
understand life’s diversity in the light of its unity. The
one presumes that everything changes and that change is the
only constant; the other measures the things that change by
the standard of things that are changeless. The one looks
only to the shifting contents of human consciousness, which
differ from one individual to the next; the other holds the
individual consciousness up for comparison to the larger
realms of meaning in which are rooted those things that are
common to all human nature. The one acknowledges no ultimate
certainties; the other places the highest value on ultimate
certainties. All of these differences arise from the simple
fact that the one perspective receives its meaning from God
and the other does not.
Paul calls us to renounce secular wisdom and view life
though the wisdom that God provides through His Word and His
Spirit. This does not mean that Christians should not be
engaged in the search for knowledge and truth. It does say
that for the Christian, wisdom begins with God and ends with
Him. As the writer of the proverb says, “There is no wisdom
and no understanding and no counsel against the Lord”
(Proverbs 21:30). It does mean we begin with the foundation
that God has laid. We test all claims to truth by the
standard of God’s truth, the Word of God. When divine wisdom
contradicts human knowledge, we know which to question and
which to trust.
Too many Christians are seeking truth in the opposite
direction. They begin with human understanding and
reasoning, and then look to the Bible for an illustration or
a proof text Let us carefully consider the vast differences
between divine wisdom and the wisdom of this age. Let us
beware of placing our trust or our pride in the wisdom of
men; let us embrace the wisdom of God, knowing that it alone
is true wisdom.
Finally, Paul’s words should cause us to see the folly of
following one man to the neglect and even rejection of
others. How easy it is to find our identity and our status
linked with one person. When we do this, divisions arise
within the church of our Lord.
If leaders are too greatly elevated they can do almost
anything, and large numbers of their followers will trail
along unquestioningly. We marvel how many educated Germans
followed Adolph Hitler without protest; we marvel how many
religious people followed Jim Jones to their death. However,
examples that are not so extreme may be more difficult to
detect. It is possible so to idolize some Christian leader
that we start making excuses for his or her serious, perhaps
even catastrophic, faults. What we must remember is that the
leaders are no more than servants are. Meanwhile, God loves
his church, and he holds accountable those who seek to build
the church.
What might this mean for us today, in practical terms? At
the local church level, it will not do to idolize one
particular leader at the expense of all the others.
Ultimately, to do so breed factionalism, it ignores the vast
heritage and wealth that are ours simply because we are
Christians and we belong to God. In the sense already
expressed, what belongs to God belongs to us.
