This is Pastor Mark from Morningside Ministry of the Korean Methodist Church & Institute here in beautiful Manhattan and this is the “On the Mark,” our weekly devotional podcast. The audio version of this week's devotional can be found HERE .

 

The topic of this week’s devotional is “Becoming Foolish to Gain Wisdom,” and our passage comes from I Corinthians chapter 3 verses 18-23.  Paul the apostle writes:

 

I Corinthians 3

18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.  19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”;  20  and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”  21  So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you,  22  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you,  23  and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

 

If the Bible is clear on anything, it’s extremely clear when it comes to the issue of intellectual pride – namely, that there is no place for it in our lives. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say that the path to true wisdom requires an admission of ignorance on our part.  He says in verse 18, “If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.”  Paul says similar things elsewhere.  He writes in I Corinthians chapter 8 verses 1-2:

 

I Corinthians 8

1  … Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.  2  If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;

 

What a big contrast such thinking is to the way of the world in which we live.  Intellectual knowledge is valued to such a degree in today’s society that many who acquire it, who achieve multiple degrees, put their entire trust in human knowledge.  They boast in men and leave out any room for the existence of God or God’s purpose in their lives.  They may fancy themselves too educated for faith, too knowledgeable to learn.  It’s ironic that the very attitude of humility and of being teachable that allowed them to gain such knowledge in the first place now prevents them from being taught further when it comes to matters of the spirit.

 

History is filled with people who perhaps were too sure of what they knew.  Back in 1895, eight years before the Wright Brothers created the first airplane, a British scholar named Lord Kelvin stated: “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”  Lord Kelvin was not only a mathematician and a physicist but president of the British Royal Society, England’s national academy of science.  Years later, after the first flight of the Boeing 247, a twin engine plane that held ten people, a Boeing engineer remarked: “There will never be a bigger plane built.”  Well, here we are in the 21^st century.  Not only have humans flown in the sky, they’ve flown to the moon.  Not only have we seen tens of people flying, but an estimated one billion people fly worldwide each year.

 

To think oneself as wise is self-deception.  But if we desire to know more about God and God’s will for our lives, we need to admit our lack of knowledge, to say to God, “I don’t know, but I humbly ask You to show me.”

 

Let’s pray.  Lord, we thank You that we are not saved by our human knowledge but by Your divine love.  In Your grace, reveal to us those parts of our lives we have been too proud to surrender to You, and teach us to admit our ignorance that You may show us the truth of who we are and what we’re called to do with our lives.  In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.