EXPERIENCING THE DYING AND LIVING OF JESUS Devotion 1 of 26 One of the greatest liabilities extant within the professed church is simplicity – not the "simplicity that is in Christ" (1 Cor 1:12; 11:3), but the "simplicity" that competes with godly wisdom (Prov 1:22). This is the characteristic that leaves the things of God hidden to the individual, who thus settles for surface views. Jesus spoke of this kind of simplicity when He lamented over Jerusalem, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (Luke 19:42). – Tomorrow:
"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you." (2 Cor 4:8-12)
As I am now using the word, "simplicity" is described by Solomon as being "void of understanding" (Prov 7:7). Paul referred to this condition as "without understanding" (Rom 1:31). Solemnly those in Christ are admonished to avoid this condition. "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is" (Eph 5:17). Knowing the liability of this condition, Paul prayed that those in Christ would be given "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge" of God (Eph 1:17). This kind of understanding must be had in abundance, or, as it is stated in Scripture, men are to be "filled with the knowledge of His will, IN all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (Col 1:9).
When it comes to identity with the Living God, "ignorance" produces alienation from God. As it is written, "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God THROUGH THE IGNORANCE that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph 4:18). Those in Christ are told to avoid falling into the pit of ignorance again: "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance" (1 Pet 1:14).
A MODERN TRAGEDY
One of the great tragedies of our day is the remarkable level of spiritual ignorance that exists within the professed church. Jesus has been upstaged by self-acclaimed scholars and specialists. Men come to the people of God presenting their academic credentials as though they had achieved some remarkable level of kingdom expertise through them. Yet, to a significant degree, they have left the church wallowing in the mud of spiritual ignorance. Myriad believers do not know who they are in Christ Jesus, the nature of spiritual life, or the abundance that is theirs within the New Covenant. Even though they have been taught by seeming wise men, they have actually concluded that their problems are the most significant ones, and their worldly benefit and comfort is the fundamental matter.
What is more, the religious experts have become adept in catering to these misplaced affections. They offer a panorama of workshops, self-help literature, and counseling services to assist the people in solving their problems, and realizing their goals. There are times when they seem to emulate dazzling successes, and they are swift to point them out to us. Yet, the people themselves, for the most part, remain in a degenerating state of spiritual ignorance.
In this text, Paul is dealing with just such a circumstance. The Corinthians had a plethora of spiritual gifts, coming behind in none of them (1 Cor 1:7). Yet, with all of those gifts, some among them still said there was no resurrection (1 Cor 15:12). There was even a tolerance of a baser sort of immortality among them (1 Cor 5:1-5). Some were so spiritually obtuse that they could not receive Paul as an Apostle even though he was the premier Apostle, laboring "more abundantly" than others (1 Cor 15:10). Still others could make no correlation between the table of the Lord and the Lord Himself (1 Cor 10:16-17; 11:29-30).
The Corinthians had been exposed to the preaching of Paul, Peter, and Apollos (1 Cor 1:12; 3:22) all faithful proclaimers and expounders of the Gospel. How is it that such miserable conditions had existed among them? Was it really enough to say they were "only human" particularly since that emphatically was not the case? The answer is found in their woefully deficient understanding. They had been living in a childish manner, gleeful in all of their endowments, yet, as the blind man of Bethsaida, only seeing men "as trees walking" (Mk 8:24).
Now that they had made some progress in Christ, as reported by Titus (2 Cor 7:6,13; 8:16), Paul can declare critical aspects of the kingdom that, heretofore, they were not able to receive due to their carnality (1 Cor 3:1-2). They have now come within the sacred circumference of hearing, where the word of the kingdom can enter into the heart.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask for grace to remove far from me all ignorance of things that can be known.