I've Lost My Foolish Mind!

We do lots of things to make ourselves “wise”.  We study in school in order to earn diplomas and degrees to become wise.  We read books in order to educate ourselves on topics we want to be wise about.  We make decisions and come up with practical plans in hopes of solving personal and societal problems.  Do all of our noble efforts to fill our minds with facts and solve problems make us wise?  Intelligent?  Yes, maybe.  Wise?  No!  Most of us would be shocked to know that God considers all the worldly wisdom we obtain foolishness.  God doesn’t want us to be foolish, He wants us to be wise, we just need a different perspective on what wisdom is and how we go about obtaining it!   

READ: 1 Cor. 2:1-16

In order to have true WISDOM we need to obtain the MIND of CHRIST!  In verse 16 the apostle Paul claims that he and other believers have, “the mind of Christ.”  According to Paul, true wisdom is thinking the same thoughts as God.  How do we know if we are wise and have the mind of Christ?

The wise do not speak with LOFTY SPEECH or WORLDLY WISDOM (vss 1-2, 4) – We are all too familiar with persuasive arguments.  We hear “sales pitches” all of the time in commercials, from sales people, scientists, professors, and politicians.  These “wise” individuals offer convincing words that are well calculated in an effort to sway us to buy or believe in something.  Being truly wise reduces our method of persuasion down to one thing, . . . the message of Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:17-25)!  A wise person does not feel the necessity to persuade or convince, but to simply speak the truth.  We are to abandon worldly wisdom in order to proclaim the foolish message of the gospel. 

The wise recognize their own WEAKNESS and FEAR (vss 3-5) – Nobody likes to acknowledge or admit their weaknesses or fears.  It’s a little bit shocking to read in verse 3 that Paul was with the Corinthians in, “weakness, fear, and trembling.”  What we see as weakness and fear, God sees as a perfect opportunity for us to rely on the Holy Spirit and His power.  If this is true, then it is foolish to rely on our own worldly wisdom and it is wise to vulnerably allow God to display His power through our weakness and fear.  We should be ready and willing to serve in our areas of weakness or fear so that we do not depend on our own skills/abilities but on God.  Godly conviction and genuineness are what give us wisdom, not our own confidence and gifts.

The wise are aware of the HIDDEN SECRET of Jesus Christ (vss 6-10) – Who doesn’t want to hear a secret?  We all like to be in on information that others are not aware of.  Guess what?  Believers have a secret and we are supposed to share it . . . the secret is the person and message of Jesus Christ.  For all of our friends who are looking for wisdom, it is hidden in the person of Jesus.  We overlook the secret of Jesus when we try to become wise by doing things that are practical and “make sense” according to the world.  The world may consider us foolish, but by believing in and following Jesus Christ we have made ourselves wise (Col. 2:2-3)!

The wise have access into the MIND of GOD (vss 11-16) – If we wanted to get inside the mind of another person how might we do it?  Read their facebook posts, . . . blog entries, . . . journal or diary entries, etc.  As believers, through the Holy Spirit, we have access to the very mind and thoughts of God!  Possessing the Holy Spirit is like having the key to God’s personal journal or diary and being able to read His most intimate thoughts.  What makes God’s thoughts unique is that He is not ashamed of what is in His mind, in fact, He WANTS to share His mind with us!  He shares His mind with us so that we can have the same mind and thoughts that He does . . . therefore, “we have the mind of Christ!”

CONCLUSION:

Losing our foolish mind means letting the mind of the Master be the Master of our mind.  When we allow God’s higher thoughts to be our thoughts and allow His higher ways to be our ways we may appear foolish to the rest of the world, but we will have truly gained the wisdom we are looking for (Isaiah 55:8-9)!