We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. (1 Corinthians 2:6, NIV)
True confessions: My golf game is coming to nothing.
I don’t mean there is nothing redemptive in the playing. There is exercise and time for quiet reflection. There is fellowship and the chance for extended conversation. There are even lessons for life in how I approach the game itself. But as for my focus on how the game is measured—by a score on each hole adding up to an identity-marking total in the end—I’m not banking on any lasting value there.
Good grief, my stories hardly last all the way home, where my family just isn’t that interested in how it went “out there” today.
It is so important, then, that we wrestle with life on this basis: repeatedly asking ourselves about the measures of our success, the measures of our life’s endeavors.
Paul spent much of the opening chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians deflating the value of human wisdom. In a nutshell he said, “God’s not impressed.”
But a few lines later, as we have read today, the apostle told his readers that he, a man like any other, was indeed a carrier of wisdom. In fact, he wrote, his wisdom was for the mature, those who really are committed to growing in Christ.
The wisdom of the age…weaves its way through culture on the tongues of poets and pundits, actors and atheists.Contrast this with the wisdom of those in charge—the wisdom of the age and the rulers of the age.
The wisdom of the age is the prevailing undercurrent of philosophy. It weaves its way through culture on the tongues of poets and pundits, actors and atheists. Talk shows and sitcoms and advertisements can all project unquestioned “truths” that are nothing less than tacit stamps of approval on any idea or action imaginable.
The rulers of the age are those enthroned and elected to make decisions for the rest of us. These people are supposed to be our most learned, most qualified representatives. Frequently, they are only children of the wisdom we just examined, giving legal strength to activity outside the will of God. But like a golfer’s score, their decisions are offered as definitive pronouncements: This is the way it is.
No wonder our wisdom must come from outside of us—better yet, from above us. The wisdom of Paul’s time and the wisdom of our own will come to nothing if it is not coming from God himself.
My best guesses at what is right are like so many old scorecards from rounds there and gone. But his grand wisdom is like what I really keep from the game: beauty, respite, humility, friendship. That is, his wisdom endures.
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Jeff Hopper
Originally published November 9, 2010
Copyright 2010 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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