Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Wise (1 Corinthians): Discern the Difference Between Mans Knowledge and Gods Wisdom

BE WISE

Published by David C. Cook

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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the

Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American

Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission;

and NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV . Copyright

1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All

rights reserved. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2009934572

ISBN 978-1-4347-6636-6

eISBN 978-1-4347-0096-4

1982 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Wise published by Victor Books in 1982 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 978-0-89693-304-0

The Team: Karen Lee-Thorp, Amy Kiechlin, Sarah Schultz, Jack Campbell, and Karen Athen

Series Cover Design: John Hamilton Design

Cover Photo: Veer Inc.

Second Edition 2010

To

Maynard and Ruth Mathewson

choice servants of the Lord who have (like the household of Stephanas) devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints

Contents

The Big Idea: An Introduction to Be Wise by Ken Baugh

A Word from the Author

Background of the Church at Corinth

1. Be Wise about the Christians Calling (1 Corinthians 1)

2. Be Wise about the Christian Message (1 Corinthians 2)

3. Be Wise about the Local Church (1 Corinthians 3)

4. Be Wise about the Christian Ministry (1 Corinthians 4)

5. Be Wise about Church Discipline (1 Corinthians 56)

6. Be Wise about Christian Marriage (1 Corinthians 7)

7. Be Wise about Christian Liberty (1 Corinthians 8; 10)

8. Be Wise about Personal Priorities (1 Corinthians 9)

9. Be Wise about Church Order (1 Corinthians 11)

10. Be Wise about the Church Body (1 Corinthians 1213)

11. Be Wise about Using Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 14)

12. Be Wise about the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15)

13. Be Wise about Christian Stewardship (1 Corinthians 16)

The Big Idea

An Introduction to Be Wise

by Ken Baugh

Have you ever questioned Jesus wisdom in choosing the twelve disciples? Not long ago, I found an interesting evaluation from a fictitious management consulting firm on the Internet advising Jesus against choosing eleven of His twelve candidates for disciples. The letter reads as follows:

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph, Woodcrafter Carpenter Shop, Nazareth

From: Jordan Management Consultants, Jerusalem

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

It is the staffs opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in the background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee, place personal interests above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.

We feel it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,

Jordan Management Consultants

(Courtesy of Servant Quarters, www.servant.org/pa_m.htm)

Even though this is a humorous account, it drives home the radical difference between human and divine wisdom. Jesus drew from a different source of wisdom in choosing His disciples than this fictitious management consulting firm. They drew their criteria for the best candidate from the ways of the world, but Jesus drew His criteria from the ways of the Word. The ways of the world are drawn from finite human perspectives that are limited to human experience and tainted by sin. The ways of the Word are drawn from the perfect character and nature of the infinite God. Therefore, a wise person, when faced with a problem he cannot figure out, will seek the advice of the Word rather than the world. This is how the apostle Paul advised those who belonged to the church in Corinth to deal with the rampant problems within their church.

As you read through 1 Corinthians, you will quickly discover that this church had a daunting list of problems that were undermining the effectiveness of their witness and the vitality of their faith. Some church members were grumbling against Paul and his nonintellectual approach to evangelism (chapters 14). Some were living in unbelievable sexual sin (chapter 5), while others were suing each other in court (chapter 6). Members had questions about whether or not to get married or stay single, questions about divorce (chapter 7), questions about eating meat sacrificed to idols (chapters 810), and questions about how women should dress during worship (chapter 11). The rich were insulting the less affluent at the Lords Supper (chapter 11), the use of spiritual gifts was tainted with pride (chapters 1214), and some people were skeptical about the future resurrection of the dead (chapter 15).

The apostle Paul was so concerned about the people in this church that he wrote one of the most practical of all his letters, advising the Corinthians to apply spiritual wisdom to their worldly problems. In fact, I believe you could sum up 1 Corinthians like this: Gods wisdom applied to worldly problems produces supernatural results.

You and I will always be faced with problems. Some problems we bring on ourselves, while others come as a normal part of life. The question is, where will you go to find the answers? Will you go to the world or the Word? I believe if you go to Gods wisdom found in the pages of His Word, you will discover divine solutions to your problems.

But heres the million-dollar question: How can I know I can trust that the Bible is a perfect record of Gods wisdom? How can I know that the Bible isnt just some book written by men? Well, lets go to the Bible to see if we can find the answer.

The Bible clearly affirms its divine authorship. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:1617 NIV ). All Scripture includes both Old and New Testaments as God-inspired. The apostle Peter affirms divine inspiration of the Bible as well: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:2021 NIV ). And the writer of Hebrews declares: For the word of God is living and active (Heb. 4:12 NIV ).