God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 3:19-20 the thoughts of the wise are futile
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, December 5, 2022
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. For it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
Paul brings together two Old Testament passages to make his point. He quotes Job 5:12 and Psalm 94:11, although in the Psalm he substitutes “the wise” for “men.” This is because in the Psalm there is a distinction between believers and unbelievers: “The Lord will not reject his people” (Psalm 94:14), but “Who will rise up for me against the wicked?” (Psalm 94:16). So Paul is not really exchanging “(seemingly) wise” for “human,” but for “the wicked.”
What the world calls wisdom, God calls foolishness. Every generation thinks of itself as the pinnacle of intelligence, discovery, invention, and so on. Past generations are always viewed as backward at best. When I was a boy, my physician would sit in his chair during a medical exam and blow pipe smoke in my face, and when he was a boy, he was told by his physician that smoking was healthy and good for him. Today, who would take advice from a doctor like that? But in those days, nobody had a choice. But Paul isn’t just talking about the foolishness of medicine or science or technology, but the foolishness of sinful mankind’s grasp of religion.
Do we place ourselves above the Word of God, above the will of God? Do we think we are clever, crafty, in the arguments we try to use to get away with sin, when our conscience knows it is a sin but the sinful flesh gets a little thrill from being naughty? Do we think we’ve found a loophole in the Word of God? Can sinful man find, in ten minutes of plotting, a hole in the holy Law of the Eternal God?
What if there were an exception to something in God’s Law? Does that mean man can go out of his way to embrace that exception to his own self-gratification? The Law of Moses permitted a divorce, which Jesus acknowledged (Mark 10:4-5). And Jesus also allowed for a divorce to take place in a case of marital unfaithfulness (Matthew 5:32). Does that mean that a man whose wife has fallen into temptation can throw her out without even trying to reconcile with her, or searching his heart to forgive her?
Or what about the three exceptions to the Fifth Commandment? If a man is thrilled by killing, should he seek out a job so that he can carry out the state’s capital punishments? Wouldn’t that be embracing something that’s a temptation to him, a potential for sin, rather than being warned about it? Or should he join the army and volunteer for the most dangerous and bloody tasks just to fulfill his lust for blood? Shouldn’t he rather beg God to take that thorn from his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) and at the same time to avoid and flee from a lust which, through a seeming loophole, he can satisfy, but which if permitted to continue in his heart and flesh will result ultimately in horrible and sinful murder? Not to mention damnation, eternal and agonizing damnation?
Or what about claiming that “just shopping” is an exception to the Ninth Commandment? If someone is inclined secretly to steal, can that person, without the temptation to sin really enter a store or a bank or another person’s home without the concern that they would be tempted to at least plan in their hearts how they might take something precious that is not theirs? David says: “Even on his bed such a man plots evil; he commits himself to a sinful course and does not reject what is wrong” (Psalm 36:4).
“Man hides what he has in order to conceal it. God hides what he has in order to reveal it.” That is to say, God hides what is his from the seemingly wise so that they will be humbled and will stop trying to listen to their own sinful human nature, but begin to listen to the will of God instead. The truly wise Christian is the one who dos not consider himself to be wise at all, who recognizes that he truly knows nothing, and who wants nothing more than to listen to the word of God, hungering and thirsting for wisdom. Jesus promised: “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
If a man cannot throw aside his earthly wisdom, then let him pray and struggle with it. It is a treacherous peak to overcome, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, it can be put in its place so that the will of God can reign supreme in our hearts.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.