Part Two
God does not ask questions to gain knowledge, but to induce us to reach a greater understanding of Him. In Job 38-41, God asks Job a barrage of questions. God is not seeking to learn something from Job, nor does He believe Job can answer even one of the questions. Instead, God’s aim is force Job to think of His glory and power, and thus come to a greater understanding of God. Similarly, Christ asks Saul, “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4) Certainly, Christ is not asking out of confusion. He knows the heart of Saul better than Saul himself. Instead, the question presents an opportunity for reflection and repentance. Saul is not simply instructed to cease his persecution, but instead given a chance to examine his actions and atone for them.
Part Three
In 1 Corinthians, Paul draws a distinction between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men. Of course, God’s wisdom is perfect and full, without blemish and free from reproach. It stems from his infinite knowledge, understanding, and power. Man’s wisdom, on the other hand, is weak, faulty, and lacking. It arises from our lack of knowledge and understanding, and is our attempt to understand the things of God and his creation through our own reasoning. God, in his infinite wisdom made it such that our wisdom would never reach a full understanding. God did not want that we could come to full understanding of Him through the power of our own thoughts and reasoning, but instead through faith and sincere belief. Therefore, God is pleased with our foolish preaching because it abandons the pretext of abstract reasoning and useless wisdom for the simple purity of faith and earnest desire for the gospel.
Part Four
The people of Corinth believed that the idea of salvation through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ was foolish. Similarly, the idea that God would humble himself to die was a mark of weakness in their eyes. Yet in this verse, Paul is saying that even if that is such, God’s greatest foolishness far exceeds the best path to God that men could possibly think up. Similarly, even if there is any weakness in Christ humbling himself, such an act showed far greater strength and power than anything that man could do by his own hand.
Kyle,
ReplyDelete1. Well done. Good points and well presented. Could have brought out the idea of interaction and fellowship a bit more, but go figure, when you fellowship with omniscience, you typically learn about yourself, the world, the universe, and God anyways.
2. Good, but overly abtract. You could have brought greater focus to the discussion by addressing exactly why the gospel is called "folly" but is really wisdom. I can tell that you were earnestly trying to get to the point, but you want to avoid a flurry of words that have the effect of bewildering the reader, rather than concise, exacting phrases that progressively open the verse.
3. You were on the right track here, but could have said a little more about why. Why is the cross so silly (you started to go there) and why is it the best possible way to God?