Bible Verse of the Day Friday October 6th, 2023

1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

In this Chapter in his 1st letter to the Corinthians Christians, Paul begins a thesis on punitive teaching due to the disgraceful divisions occurring in the church in Corinth. Their conduct towards each other revealed and exposed the sensuality of their unsaved behavior, causing petty resentments and dissensions that created division among the congregation. When the children of God take up the behavior of the unsaved of the world, it diminishes their testimony, curtails their spiritual growth, and grieves God's Holy Spirit by their behavior.  

The Christians in Corinth could have been growing in grace, building on their faith, feeding on the good food of God's Word, and preparing to support each other. However, their fleshly behavior and prideful attitudes pushed them back into spiritual infancy. Paul pointed out that their carnality had blemished their witness for Christ Jesus, causing them to become unfruitful. He portrayed a noticeable parallel between the unproductiveness of the weak Corinthian church and the disintegrating foundation of an inferior building. Human wisdom is a trap and snare of Satan that will catch Christians not grounded in God’s Holy Word before realizing they are on the road to destruction. 

Their envy, contention, and immature behavior had deceived the believers at Corinth into believing themselves superior to other congregation members, but the opposite had occurred. The Corinthian Christians had reaffirmed their childish opinions of themselves, causing a regression in their walk with Christ and their Christian witness among the community in general. This immature behavior caused the opposite effect of what the congregation hoped for. It highlighted the foolish adolescent notions and arrogant attitudes they had adopted. By drifting into such prideful lasciviousness, these church members had become fleshly, degenerated spiritually, and adopted a carnal perceptive rather than godly thinking.

Worldly wisdom and fleshly behavior are imprudence before God, and the one who disseminates worldly wisdom and develops the attitudes and viewpoints of the unsaved reveals their immaturity by their foolhardiness. May we recognize that the scandalous discord and petty squabbles of the Corinthian congregation tarnished their Christian testimony, impeded their spiritual growth, squelched the work of the Spirit in their lives, and exposed their so-called wisdom as foolishness in God’s sight. May we resolve in our hearts and souls to conduct our lives for the Lord's glory and not stumble into the same share.

Let us all put our faith and trust in Christ Jesus so that in trusting in Him, we may not fall into the same snares and traps as the Corinthians Christians. As we continue to place our faith and trust in God, let us watch for Satan’s sneak attacks on worldly thinking. Ask God to help us keep our faith and trust in Christ Jesus to develop spiritual wisdom. In engaging in the form of worldly attitudes that befell the Christians at Corinth, we will most certainly damage our witness for Christ Jesus before this dark and dying world. There is a critical aspect in keeping a watchful eye on these traps and snares of Satan. There are untold numbers of lost souls in the world, and unbeknownst to them, as God’s people, we have the message that can save them from eternal damnation. Sometimes, God will allow us to communicate that message to the lost verbally. However, at other times, how we live our lives to reflect Jesus to the world could be the only sermon to which a lost person will ever be exposed.