Foolish Reasoning

I Cor. 2:1-5. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
Greg pointed these verses out to me the other day and recently I've gained a new appreciation for them. I was chewing his ear off about some of the “discussions” I've recently gotten myself into at school and he patiently listened to me spout and then wisely (I know it's hard to imagine but he was far ahead of me on this one) reined me back in and brought it back to the Bible, showing me these verses that he has been reading that perfectly describe what I was trying to tell him. (I think that's why God gave siblings. . . to multiply the chances that we'll come read something in devotions that apply to one of us!). Verse five particularly sums it up well: “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” The more arguments and theories I hear about God/philosophy/ethics, the more thankful I am that our faith rests in the power of God, not the wisdom of man, for if it rested on the wisdom of man, than man in his “wisdom” can shake it. But, if it rests in the power of God, than no one except God Himself can shake it. I don't believe God wants us to be stupid, obviously we need to have reasons for what we believe, but after experiencing the power of a relationship with God, these reasons are no longer the basis of our faith, thank God, but rather a supplement to it.
I've often wondered why Jesus commended a simple child-like faith to his followers. Wouldn't an adult and rational faith would be much stronger? I don't think so. Think about what happens if a stranger walks up to a very little boy and tells him that his mother doesn't love him and is really an awful person who is going to do something terrible to him. I've never tried it, but I'm willing to guess that the little boy will almost immediately run crying to the arms of his mother to tell her about the lies some mean man was telling him. He doesn't try to figure out why the man might be right, the little boy only knows without a doubt that he is dead wrong. Now, think about what happens when Satan whispers in our ear that God doesn't really love us and gives us several “reasons” why. Of course we immediately use our wonderful “reasoning” powers to try to explain to him how we do know God loves us and he just listens and smiles because he knows that somewhere in the back of our minds he has planted a doubt, and that as long as we base our faith on our reason he can forever give us new reasons to doubt. It was this appeal to reason that also caused Eve to fall. He promised her knowledge, that she would be like God, knowing good from evil, and it is this same tactic he uses against Christians who pretend to understand everything about God. That is why Paul was very careful to make sure that he reminded the Corinthians that what they believed was true not because because it is logically correct but because they have experienced the power of God through His Spirit. This of course is foolishness to the world because they haven't experienced the power of God, but for Christians it is the stake that holds us firm when someone starts asking questions that have no human answers. Personally after discussing God in purely philosophical terms for long enough it is easy for me to start to think of God in terms of a cold and totally logical force that I really don't and can't know. I came up against this yesterday after a rather lengthy and confusing discussion and it was a great help for me to remember that God did not leave us stranded with some abstract concepts about but sent His Son to bridge the gap between God and man. (John 3:38 “I speak that which I have seen with my Father. . .”). Everything that I know about Jesus and his human attributes (which I can understand better) are an accurate picture of His Father, and that's all I need to know. It was helpful to be reminded -- even if it was from my little brother :)-- that everything I know about God I know because I KNOW Him, not because of what my reason tells me ABOUT Him. Apologetics are fine for defining what you believe, but they are no substitute for a simple child-like faith of a personal relationship. Don't expect the world to understand, they won't, but don't let that cause you to question your faith. Remember, “The foolishness of God is wiser than man; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” I Cor. 1:25.

Mike