A Foreigner

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  ²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. ²¹ Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  ²² It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. ²³ So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. – 1 Corinthians 1:18-23 NLT

I wonder if I really understand what Paul has written here.  I think I understand it when I read it, but as I walk and converse in the world I find that I am often confounded at why people do things and how it is impossible to have a conversation with them about it.  (I’m often confounded at why I do things, but that’s a different topic.)  I have personally experienced times when I just didn’t know how to say something any simpler or clearer, but they just could not understand it.  It was like there was a wall of misunderstanding and my words were changed into another language.  The whole conversation was beyond my comprehension at how there could be such an extent of confusion over a single concept. 

Paul continues in chapter 2 verse 14, “people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”  My Bible reference tells me the term spiritual as used here means having the Holy Spirit.  People without the Spirit of God in them simply can’t understand the wisdom of God or accept that His ways are the ways that are best for them. 

A pastor once preached that the only message from God an unbeliever can hear is “Come to Me.”  This is the only message that God has for them until they experience Him, believe in Him, and trust Him.  Any other Biblical wisdom is confounding to them and confusing as if it is spoken in a different language.  I have found this is true for what an old Baptist preacher would call “backsliders”.  Once a Christian starts walking away from God’s clear truths and falls into a lifestyle of not loving God and therefore, not obeying God, they also stop hearing God’s wisdoms.  To speak to them about what they are doing while relating to God’s Word is speaking a foreign language to them.  My experience is that they will not recover until they answer the call, once again, to “Come to Me.”  I do not believe that they are lost, but I do believe they are isolated, confused, and wandering very far away from God’s path. 

I should stop being astounded at what the world does or says.  It does not know God or His precepts.  It does not accept that there is one Truth and His name is Jesus the Christ.  In fact, it is an absolute wonder that the world isn’t very similar to hell itself, but then maybe it is.  I am a new creature the Bible says.  Therefore, I should never be surprised when someone treats me like a foreigner, because I am.  This world is not my home.

I pray today that I’ll begin to live in the reality that this world is not my home.  When I speak to someone who can’t understand why we do what we do or why we live the way we live or talk the way we talk, then I can be sure my citizenship in a different reality has been noticed.  Hopefully someone I meet will also want to go too.