Read 1 Corinthians 2:1–5
I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus
Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:2
My wife was driving on our trip to Chicago, and I was in the copilot’s
seat reading another author’s book a publisher had asked me to review.
Occasionally I would utter a grunt and then a groan, and finally I
shook my head and said, “Oh no! I can’t believe it!”
“I take it you don’t like the book,” she said. “Something wrong
with it?”
“You bet there is!” I replied. “Just about everything is wrong with it,
because this man does not know what the message of the gospel really is!”
There was a time, however, when that author had been faithful to
the gospel. But over the years, he had begun to take a philosophical
(and, I fear, political) approach to the gospel. The result was a hybrid
message that was no gospel at all.
When Paul ministered in Corinth, he obeyed our Lord’s commission and preached the gospel (Mark 16:15 KJV). What had happened at
Corinth after Paul’s departure is happening in churches today: People
are mixing philosophy (human wisdom) with the gospel (God’s revealed
message), and this mixture is causing confusion and division. Paul urged
his readers to return to the fundamentals of the gospel message.
Something to Ponder
How can you stay focused on “Jesus Christ and him crucified” without getting bogged down in philosophy and politics?