A.1.3 - His Way or the Highway

Chapter 1.3

In verses 18 through 31, Paul contrasts the Gospel with earthly wisdom and defines two major hindrances to faith: logic and tradition. The Greeks were all about logic; it was their passion. Aristotle included it as one of the three ingredients of rhetoric, along with ethos and pathos. To the Greeks, if you could not persuade them logically regarding a thing, then it really didn't exist. There was even a period in their history marked by the "Stoic" philosophers, a reference to the national pasttime of sitting on their porches ("stoa") and arguing (debating) with each other about the ideas of that day. It is interesting to note, however, that their logic failed them when it came to describing the origins of the universe and of themselves, causing them to devise an elaborate but metaphorical mythology. It seems they just weren't able to accept the truth that an eternal God could exist that created everything, so instead they determined that the creation must have existed eternally and that it spawned the pantheon they worshiped for Gods, who were really no more than superhumans with all the human failings.

The Jews, on the other hand, were all about tradition (okay, somebody tell Tevye to take his fiddle and get down off the roof). And if a little tradition (10 commandments) was good, more (over 600 laws) was better. They carried this even into their thinking processes. Everything had to be referenced by some recognized authority; if you expressed a thought, it had to be backed up by a reference, usually to some famous Rabbi, who had referenced someone else. This was one reason why Jesus was such a problem for them. In a way, they probably didn't want the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah to be fulfilled; it would undo their tradition of waiting for Him to come. In addition to that, Jesus didn't fulfill their expectations. They were looking for a political leader who would overthrow their Roman oppressors. Instead, He came the first time to suffer and die, completely opposite to their tradition. And then, to top it all off, when He spoke, He referenced no other authority than Himself! If you have an electronic Bible with search capabilities, check it out sometime. Use the keyword phrases "You have heard it said" or "But I say to you." He uses the latter phrase six times within twenty-two verses of Matthew chapter 5. So when Jesus came preaching a message of personal reform, it upset their apple cart, especially since they were making a good living off everyone else's tradition. Though not the Messiah, Luther performed the same function in the Catholic Church in the Reformation of the 15th century by coming against their un-Biblical traditions.

True God-faith will always defy logic and tradition. Those who are willing to take off these blinders will see the wisdom and the power of God, Paul says. It is the only way to recognize (look at that word: re-, again, and cognize, a form of to think: to think again!) that our natural ways are not God's ways and learn that if we are to be righteous and holy (sanctified) and redeemed, it has to be His way, not ours, so that only He gets the credit. After all, it was His idea to begin with; but that takes us back to Genesis, doesn't it? And we don't have time to go there just now. Next time we'll go on to Chapter 2 of Corinthians A.