1 Corinthians 3:18-23
We all like to think of ourselves as wise and intelligent people. We hope that the world sees us in this way and will praise us accordingly. Paul’s advice to the Corinthians radically opposes these human tendencies. He says that if we are to be truly wise we must become fools for Christ. We must be prepared to embrace doctrines and ways of life that the world regards as foolish and incomprehensible.
Since we live in this world, we are comfortable with its wisdom and it is easy for us to live by it. We do not like to accept that the world’s wisdom and God’s wisdom are radically opposed. Paul tells us that the wisdom of the world is folly to God.
What is this wisdom of the world? One aspect of it is to judge people by material success: we admire people who are rich, famous and good looking. In the spiritual life it is our interior life that matters: we please God by our love, our desire to serve him and our repentance. The world does not value such things. If we follow the world’s wisdom we shall be insecure and competitive, always looking for a better job, a newer car or smarter clothes to give us a false sense of self-worth. But if we rest in God’s love we are secure in that and need nothing more.
The Corinthians were judging in human and worldly ways. They saw Paul and Apollos as human rivals, not ministers of God. It is wrong to boast about human beings, or to set leaders on a pedestal. This is to forget the wonderful dignity we all have as Christians. We belong to God: as his sons and daughters all things are ours, and by faith we share in his victory.
Lumen gentium teaches us: ‘As all the members of the human body, though they are many, form one body, so also are the faithful in Christ…What has a special place among these gifts is the grace of the apostles to whose authority the Spirit himself subjected even those who were endowed with charisms. Giving the body unity through himself and through his power and inner joining of the members, this same Spirit produces and urges love among the believers. From all this it follows that if one member endures anything, all the members co-endure it, and if one member is honoured, all the members together rejoice.’ (para. 7)
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Psalm 23(24):1-6 • Luke 5:1-11
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