The Crux of the Matter - Discerning the Wisdom of God

Paul devoted the first four chapters of his epistle to the problem of factions at Corinth. At the same time, he recognized that their divisions were symptoms of a deeper problem, namely the failure to discern and live into their identity as God's saints in Christ. They had fallen back into their old ways of thinking, judging and acting - the patterns and practices that characterize human beings in their estrangement from God. In a word, they had reembraced natural wisdom - the very "wisdom" they renounced when they came to Christ. More than that, they were giving themselves back to a way of thinking and living that God has judged and destroyed; they were rebuilding what He has torn down.