Greatness of God (Jeff's 1 Corinthians 1)

hahahahaha. i just woke up from a nice four hour nap. anyways, i read through the first chapter of 1 Corinthians last night and i found a lot of stuff that pertained to me.

Ao I decided to look a bit into Corinth itself. Wikipedia!! The Isthmus of Corinth is a narrow stretch of land that joins Peloponessus and mainland Greece. its so skinny that it is only like 48 miles across and surrounded on both sides by seas (the Adriatic and the Aegean). this made Corinth a prosperous port city that reaped the benefits of sea trade and business. and like all port cities at the time, Corinth was extremely focused on the material wealth that they could obtain and immoral acts such as heaving drinking, prostitution, etc. were extremely common. so Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians is pretty much informing them of what they're doing wrong and even though it was addressed to a specific city-state, i think it is relevant to us today as well.

the first thing i notice is that Paul starts off with his greetings to the church of God at Corinth (not the church of Corinth itself, cause im guessing that most of it was pretty corrupt like it it nowadays). his first criticism of Corinth is that it is divided among itself, even the Christians. Paul emphasizes that unity in Christ is so important and there is actually a chapter later in this book that talks about the single body of Christ (Chapter 12).

in vs. 17, Paul says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." as Mike would say, "can anyone explain to me how to fall in love?" if you could explain to someone the process of falling in love, would it really be that special? in the same way, there is no way of explaining Christ's love for you. there is no sign or wisdom of words that can make you believe in the love of Jesus (vs. 22). if i could explain the power and love of God, wouldnt that limit God to something earthly? something mortal? but God is not limited by the words of man. God is so great that nothing i can say could ever come close to describing how awesome he is. if the wisdom of man could explain God, then why believe in Him? Paul says that even the foolishness of God is wiser than the smartest and wisest men. we cannot explain God because God is not limited to the foolish wisdom of men. God is not limited to anything we can think or reason. often times, i try to turn God into a "concept" that can be explained. i try to "logic" myself into believing something about God that i cant explain. i try to turn God into a math problem where i can reason my way to the solution. but if i can explain the power of God in my own words, if i can understand God with the wisdom of men, if i can be connected to God through my own power, then what is the point of the cross? why did Jesus even need to die for me? it would completely take away the point of having a relationship with Christ. how can you have a relationship with something that is so mechanical and methodical? you cant. period.

God also says that he would use the foolish things of the world to put down the wisdom of man (vs 26-27). because compared to God, the wisdom of man is nothing. and so the first shall be the last and the last shall be the first (Matthew 20:16). pretty much the wisdom and knowledge that we value, the material wealth that the world emphasizes all mean nothing to God. God has chosen the weakest and least of men to serve him and do his works. He says that there is no work you can do yourself, no amount of anything you can ever acquire that will give you favor in His eyes. it is not your actions, but your faith in Christ that justifies yourself in the eyes of the Lord.

in summary, we are not saved because we can explain with our wisdom all the details of the nature of God. we are saved because of our relationship with God and nothing else. God is so great that no person can explain him to a degree of satisfaction. he is not limited by time, space, or anything else we can even imagine and the materialistic crap that our society values means nothing to him.

the weakest of God is greater than the strongest of man. it would be like me and david in a race. david would do more than just run circles around me. i would be dominated like so badly that david could probably take out a protractor, measure 90 degree angles, and then run sqaures around me. without even trying.

so thats what i got out of chapter 1. i dont know if that made any sense at all...