“… but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong… (RSV Bible)”
- 1st Corinthians 1:27
- 1st Corinthians 1:27
The First Epistle to the Corinthians was probably written by
St. Paul, and perhaps around 53 to 54 AD. In the passage of 1st
Corinthians 1:27, some bible translations in English use the word “confound”
instead of to “shame.” Kataischuno is
the word used in the original Greek which does mean “to shame.” The related question
which I ask is who is wise, and who isn’t, and is that up to us humans to
determine with relevance to other humans? Most of my life, I have heard some
immediately think divisively when reading this passage. A good example of what
I mean is what Rev. R.J. Rushdoony said: “…Because Jesus Christ is our
foundation, we are empowered to confound and disestablish all false faiths....
As we build, we confound or break down the powers of evil (http://chalcedon.edu/)." Let me be clear
and just say that the only one with the authority to disestablish anything is
God. Moreover, this is a good example of reading way too much into a passage.
The remainder of 1st Corinthians chapter 1 partially reads: “...so
that no human being might boast in the presence of God...God made our wisdom,
our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is
written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.’” The issue is that as soon as
one Christian thinks another Christian or another religious person is not to
par with him or her than that person has already made the assumption that they
are perhaps better, and technically is boasting and assuming that he or her are “empowered” or given a higher
authority of some sort. In a sense, it could be said that one has already
placed him or herself in a self-proclaimed elite status thus becoming the very
wise or strong he or she are supposed to be shaming…very redundant, if you ask me, because
one just comes full circle. Perhaps, this is why St. Paul said at the end of
the chapter: “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.”
I have a much bigger question to ask with relevance to this
passage, and it is could 1st Corinthians 1:27 be one of the major reasons for
lack of unity among Christians? The truth is that when one starts thinking the
other is wrong, spiritually speaking, one is already making oneself the elite or spiritually superior to the other. This is actually very typical of what I
call post-reformation thinking which is very much all about Scripture
interpretation. A good illustration of what I am saying is when people start
raising petty issues about how baptism is done correctly by us and wrong by
them when in reality the important thing is Christ being in us the same as he
is in them. We will always view all things differently even if we have common
ground because God made everyone of us different, and this actually makes God
bigger and way beyond grasp of our extremely limited human comprehension. God
can speak to us through the Scriptures, but this is personal; however, many
fall into the error of limiting the Scriptures' multifaceted and
multidimensional ability to manifest itself by giving it only one
interpretation, and forcing that interpretation to apply to all readers when
God has given everyone a brain that is different for reasons that God only
knows, most often.
“Both Sides, Now” is a song written by Joni Mitchell that was recorded by Judy Collins back in 1967... I am sure many have heard it. Part of the lyrics to the song say: “…I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it’s cloud's illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all…” If we substitute the word “Scriptures” for the word “Clouds,” we may actually get a better understanding of how the Scriptures are, as I said before, multifaceted and have multidimensional ability to manifest itself. In fact, Scriptures can be and are often transcendent. We can even return to read the same verse many years later and see things we had not seen before. Maybe we can now say, or perhaps one day say the following:
“Both Sides, Now” is a song written by Joni Mitchell that was recorded by Judy Collins back in 1967... I am sure many have heard it. Part of the lyrics to the song say: “…I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it’s cloud's illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all…” If we substitute the word “Scriptures” for the word “Clouds,” we may actually get a better understanding of how the Scriptures are, as I said before, multifaceted and have multidimensional ability to manifest itself. In fact, Scriptures can be and are often transcendent. We can even return to read the same verse many years later and see things we had not seen before. Maybe we can now say, or perhaps one day say the following:
I've looked at Scriptures from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's Scriptures' illusions I recall
I really don't know Scriptures at all
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Thank you and blessings!
References:
RSV Bible
Of course, I am sure the folks that are into "Sola Scriptura" and things like Dispensationalism think I am completely crazy basically because some of the things I say pulls the rug from underneath them...oh well.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI removed the previous comment because it was simply my own repeated.
ReplyDeleteI removed the previous comment because it was simply my own repeated.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I've always kept in mind with relevance to this is that it was a correspondence written to the church in Corinth almost two-thousand years and was probably never intended for us to read today. But it was canonized some time after anyhow!
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