Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. (1 Cor. 1:22–23)
A FEW YEARS AGO, undercover officers purchased more than two hundred illegal reptiles during an investigation into a venomous snake trade. Speaking about websites that advertise the sale of poisonous snakes and reptiles, Jim Harrison, director of the Kentucky Reptile Zoo, said, “You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense.”
English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was of the opinion that “common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
In fact, people who are keen observers of life and express their philosophy in a down-to-earth way are sometimes said to have “homespun wisdom.”
Common sense is to be desired and homespun wisdom can often make brilliant observations, but does any of it rise to the level of what the Bible calls wisdom? Only if it leads us to God.
This is why the Jews, who wanted to see miracles, and the Greeks, who esteemed wisdom, were not satisfied with a crucified Christ. Today’s skeptics don’t fare any better. The world’s wisdom is based on the need for scientific proof. But it’s difficult to run God through a test tube, study Him with a telescope, or isolate Him in a laboratory.
Yet God is the fountain of wisdom. As John Mason observed, “So few drink at the fountain of his wisdom; most just rinse out their mouths.”
Meditate on God’s Word today and resolve to practice its wisdom.
Ron McClung works at his denomination’s world headquarters and lives in Fishers, Indiana, with his wife, Carol. They have two sons and nine grandchildren.
