1 Corinthians 2 : 1-16 (NLT)
1Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn’t use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God’s message. 2For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. 3I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. 4And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you. 5I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.
Paul reminds us there is a lot of wisdom to be taught but before all else you must teach what Jesus did and the meaning of the cross. Man can not look to us for guidance unless we first make sure they know this truth, so they will trust in Him, not us. It is not my prayers or how much I know; its what Jesus did. It’s the power of God that will satisfy their hunger and heal their wounds and solve their problems, not our reassurance, not our prayers.
6Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing. 7No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began. 8But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord. 9That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
The movie “The Passion of Christ”, the persecution we see today directed at the church today, and what Pope John Paul tried to show the nations and the church that it was because of what Jesus did that mattered: this is the truth and wisdom we should be seeking! It no longer is a mystery or secret as Paul reminds us. I heard it said that the Pope traveled more than any one before him to try to stir up the complacency of The Catholic church and the nations. He wanted them to see what the Islam church is doing in Europe and elsewhere. It is predicted at the rate things are going the Islam faith will be the dominate faith in Europe before long if we as a church do not step up and empower people to seek only the power God can give them not man.
10 But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God’s deep secrets. 11No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14But people who aren’t Christians can’t understand these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means. 15We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can’t understand us at all. 16How could they? For, “Who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel?”£ But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 3: 1-17 ( NLT)
1Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. 2I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn’t handle anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3for you are still controlled by your own sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your own desires? You are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord. 4When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I prefer Apollos,” aren’t you acting like those who are not Christians? 5Who is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels?
We say the same things today except instead of Paul or Apollos we say, “I am Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Church of Christ, Non Denominational and yes, even Cowboy Church.” These titles separate us when we should be uniting the people in the name of Jesus.
Why, we’re only servants. Through us God caused you to believe. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollo’s watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. 7The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because he is the one who makes the seed grow. 8The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose. Yet they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work.
9We work together as partners who belong to God. You are God’s field, God’s building—not ours. 10Because of God’s special favor to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. 11For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Be careful not to preach your doctrine……………………:
12Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. 13But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone’s work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. 14If the work survives the fire, that builder will receive a reward. 15But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames 16Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple. I don’t want to look back and see that I have wasted precious time in my job of building the kingdom of God . I hate waste. It frustrates me as it should you. Be diligent in the tasks that have been set before you!
