God catches the wise in their craftiness

One verse that I share with you the “Lord catches you’re the wise in their craftiness”.

1 Corinthians 3:¹⁸ Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”

Paul writes in the book of 1 Corinthian that if you think you’re wise in the world, if you think you’re wise in this age,  you know this age is this spirit of this age. It’s a craftiness, deceitfulness, evils, potting, anger, unforgiveness, murderous, self-centeredness and everything that is against the Spirit of God. If you think you’re wise in this age means you wise in the scheming, godlessness living for yourself life. The Bible says let him become a fool that they may become wise.

Paul says they you need to become a fool in this age so they become wise. Because what is foolish in this world, in the world, in the eyes of this carnal, worldly fleshly world is actually wise in the sight of God. That’s why you don’t have to worry about on what the world accuses us to be on the wrong side of history. Or they said that you are missing out, you know. You act weird. You act holy and piety, piety. You’re really against the culture of the world. The culture is saying let go, be authentic you, enjoy the authentic you ,enjoy the life you’ve got. You only got one life. Yeah. I don’t plan to bring myself to hell, that’s what that one life. But I plan to run a good race, receive my reward from your father in heaven. The eternal reward.

If you say this to be wise in this age, this is the catch. It means going to do what the world tells you. The trend, the trending of the of the culture. Everything the culture says that it’s, it’s contradictory to the wisdom of God. There’s some amount of common grace in this world. The virtues of this world, forgiveness, kindness, helpfulness and the gentleness. There are snippets here and there, you know, thank God this image of God is not thoroughly destroyed yet. We still some see some patches of them around. Thank God.

However, the overall scheme of things is horrible. So what Paul is saying, if you’re thinking you are wise in this age, if you’re thinking you’re cool and hip, you want to blend in with this society this age. Think again, he said. May I suggest you become foolish in their eyes, then you become wise. I’d rather be foolish in the eyes of the world and be wise in the eyes of God. Would you not want that? Or would you really want to be wise in the eyes of this age, this? Very  accepted among the friends, your friends and all this. But you are a fool in the sight of God for eternity, for eternity. Think about that. You know people who opt for the wisdom of this age.  They’re cowards. They’re just afraid of being missing out on their friends and losing the culture friends and all this. You know, they’re afraid they offend their friends, offend their spirit of the world, offend this age, the spirit of this age. See, this is what they’re saying.

If you think you are wise in this age, let you become a fool at this age so that you may become wise in God’s sight. Alright, so the only way to be wise in God’s sight is go against the culture of the world. That’s it. Because the culture of the world cannot satisfy you. You know it.

Worldly satisfaction is a very ephemeral way, temporal way, you know, but there’s no lasting footing and the fruits out of it. You know, I’ve heard stories like Christian young lady, there’s a shortage of young men in the church, young lady said, “ You know what, I’m go out to meet with young men outside, date them, and if they are nice and kind, if they allow me to be myself, you know? Accept me going to church, that’ll be fine. We can raise the family and I’ll pray for him. As long as he doesn’t stop me, go to church. So you plan to go to church alone and leave your husband at home and you got to fight off  for the kids to follow your church and leave at home half of your life? What kind of marriage is this? The two shall be one. And no, it’s not like the two shall be two. You can’t do that. You know this. This is a fool in the eyes of the Lord.

They’re trying to craft something to get you and the Lords plays along and catch them from behind. In the incident. Being tested by the Pharisees. When asked, “Rabbi, shall we pay tax to Caesar? Jesus replied give me a coin and he asked them, whose face is on the coin? They replied Caesar. Then Jesus said , “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” That shocked everybody what a brilliant answer. They thought they’re being crafty and we’ll get Jesus because if Jesus said give to Caesar, the Jews is going to blame him forgiving or supporting an occupier of the Jewish people, and if he said don’t give to Caesar, they will accuse him of studying a rebellion against Rome. But neither, Jesus caught them the wise in their craftiness.

This is what we need to experience more of God so that we can outplayed the world. The Bible says be innocent as a dove, but as shrewd it’s a serpent. The wisdom of God of the powers the world through the cross, when everybody loved laughed at the cross, mocked Jesus at the cross, just like the world mocks Christianity Today, Jesus will always have the last laugh.