Comparing Apples with Apples (1Cor 2:13)

Paul poses the notion of comparing spiritual things with spiritual. He's talking about the spirit of the world and the Spirit who is from God and leaves us to "compare apples with apples." Paul's world view is that all things are spiritual, i.e. is it the wisdom or foolishness of man or the wisdom or foolishness of God for the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man (1Cor 1:25).

The normal Christian life is sorting out the good apples from the rotten ones as we navigate our daily journey. Those who know the scriptures will be reminded of the words relating to the disposition of our heart (Is 41:10, John 14:27) and the disposition of the mind (Rm 12:2, 2Tim 1:7). It is clear God is not the originator of fear and so our being anxious or afraid has to have come from elsewhere.

Paul makes it clear that we have available to us the mind of Jesus Christ (1Cor 2:16). The issue is then not so much where is God when I need his wisdom, rather it is about our believing, trusting, having faith in, the kingdom of God which is near at hand. This is why Jesus asks, "When the Son of man returns will he see faith on the earth." (Lk 18:8)

It takes faith in the nearness of God to overcome the wiles of the enemy who would otherwise usurp His presence and keep us locked up in fear. Example: Suppose you come across a woman who is ill and you have this spontaneous thought to pray for her. A debilitating thought will arise which says, "What if my prayer doesn't work?" The initial thought is outward, giving, faithful but it is robbed away by the inward, selfish and faithless.

Faith has risen and doubt has cut it down as Jesus said, "thieves and robbers would come  but the sheep did not listen to them" (Jn 10:8). Normal Christian life is a battleground in the mind between faith and doubt, the comparing of spiritual with spiritual. If the heart goes out to the ill I say it is true and it is love and it is faith. But if the mind overrules the heart and defeats its love and instead turns to protect itself we know the wisdom of the world has challenged the wisdom of God.

Hear what John has to say, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1Jn 4:1). Now notice John's words carefully as a catalyst for comparing spiritual with spiritual, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1Jn 4:18).

Worship means ascribing worth too; to worship God is as much about not ever bowing to the subtle tricks of the enemy. Satan is the deceiver, the debilitating force, the destroyer of faith. The spirituality of the kingdom of God and the spirituality of the world are both apples but they really are as different as chalk and cheese.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inner Strength (Isaiah 64:1-9)

I have been reading Bear Grylls autobiography. Its powerful stuff about what it is to be a man able to go beyond his limitations; about a man who God helped reach where eagles dare.  Some of you don’t have a clue who I’m talking about but he has climbed Everest, he is seen on Television each week surviving some of the world’s harshest places, he’s been made the Chief Scout as role model for hundreds of thousands of children, he eats marrow from old bones, crunches live grubs and drinks from camels stomachs. Bear Grylls is SAS trained tough on Prime TV’s Man vs Wild and comes from a line of commandos; his granddad and dad.  Bear, as his much older sister called him, had to find his own individual place in the grueling world of the British SAS and at the young age of 20 years old. He’s a man who has done the impossible and he attributes his success to a simple faith in Jesus Christ and fronts the Alpha advertisements nowadays. Bear Grylls says that in the endurance section of SAS selec
Read more

Lamps Aflame (Matt 25:1-13)

As I look out on this congregation I see only lamps rather than people this morning.  I am looking at us as God might look upon us in the Gospel parable.  We are to be children of light, of which the Gospel is that light.  We are to be as attendants of Christ Jesus  professing not only to believe and look for but  to love and long for the appearing of Christ,  not only enlightened by it ourselves but must shine as lights. I am looking this morning through the eyes of Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins.  I am seeing two different characters, with proof and evidence of it.  I see lamps with oil for that is what God has told me He has done. B ut do I see lamps with fire; that is the question today.  Do I see extra virgin oil in reserve for the late coming Bridegroom.  There is no doubt the Bridegroom is our Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no doubt we live in a darkened world awaiting His return.  We need to figure out exactly what we are waiting for in Jesus return. When he saw the Pharis
Read more

A Tree of Life (Jer 17:5-10)

Wisdom seems to be the theme given us for this season in the church. God is looking for fruit from us. A farmer produces fruit as crops, like barley and wheat, meat and wool. But God is looking for spiritual fruit from us. The fruit that He desires is of the Spirit of God in us rather than that of other spirits. God is looking for the sweet easily plucked fruit rather than sour and prickly fruits hard to consume such as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5). This reading is helping us with a choice we must make of how we can achieve the best outcome for ourselves by using the parable of a suitably positioned planting of fruiting tree. Jesus similarly referred to himself in John 15:1-7 as the vine desirable to be grafted onto, a vine in origin from the rootstock of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The two locations mentioned in the reading relate to surviving testing times through the availability of water to nourish the roots of the
Read more