Reading With the People of God #14 ProverbsSample

We still need wisdom from our parents!

In our reading today in Proverbs, we are reminded that devotion to God and devotion to wisdom are inseparable. People are not encouraged to get smart just to be smart. We are called to submit our intellectual life and our material things to God, respect other people, and embrace the right way of living. It’s God’s world, after all. Chapter 3 promises personal wholesomeness and confidence. In other words, God is not merely looking for good behavior but the internal character of the heart.

Even when we think our heart is “dialed in,” Scripture beckons us to “not lean on our own understanding.” There are two parental appeals in Chapter 3. God designed parents to help us submit and grow while we are young. As we, as a community of faith, spend time with our heavenly Father, may we continue to submit to His will and desire His wisdom this day.

Our reading in 1 Corinthians 3 today has Paul leave his discussion about godly wisdom and resume his direct indictment of the divisions in the church at Corinth. Spiritually speaking, Paul could not give meat to the believers but only milk. He accuses them of being “infants in Christ.” One of the ways they were immature involved lifting servants higher than others. Paul encouraged them to all work hard and give the glory to God. He was the one who caused the growth anyway! So it is today!

The Apostle reminds the factious Corinthians that God would judge the work of all His servants. Using an architectural metaphor, Paul shares that Christ was the only foundation that could be laid down. The adequacy of any building material depends on the test it will have to meet. For this reason, blocks of ice provide suitable housing in the Arctic but would not stand the test of the tropics! A great reminder for today’s church planters is this:

Jesus Christ is the only sure foundation for church building, not stone, metal, budgets, social media, or winsome personalities. He is the Solid Rock!

For Paul, nothing destroys a church more completely than jealousy and strife. Paul’s warning in v. 17 should give all pause who may be responsible for divisions in the church at any time period.

* Primer Contributed by Brian Mott, Ministering Elder at Cornerstone Community Church of Chowchilla.