Words of Life

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
1 Corinthians 1:17

"This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words."
1 Corinthians 2:13

There is a misguided philosophy that is alive and well in Christianity today. Some believe that the church must teach 'life management.' These would be things such as coping skills, self-help, etc. Unfortunately most of those who teach in our churches are not experienced enough or educated enough to teach such things. It should be left to the psychologists and experts. What we are called to teach is the same message that Paul preached. It is an intensely spiritual message that cannot be discerned with human wisdom.
    Human wisdom has little eternal value. It is a bold statement that the apostle made. He declared that if he were to speak the gospel with human wisdom, the cross would be emptied of its power. In other words, there are no words of life found in human wisdom. Men have sought eternal life in many different ways for thousands of years. They have taught about ways to better one's self in hopes that we would be good enough to please God. But all of these philosophies, spoken apart from the power of the cross, leave us as we have always been; hopeless and dead in our transgressions. But in the church, we are to teach a gospel of life, a gospel that honors the cross and helps us to understand the incredible, history-changing things that happened there.
    The gospel is not one of human wisdom. We cannot teach the power of God through words that have been learned through human ideas. In an attempt to remain relevant, some have attempted to make the gospel an appeasing, self help idea. But the mandate to us is to express spiritual truth with spiritual words. When we do this, the Holy Spirit is able to take those words and revolutionize lives. When the words are grasped by the hearers, everything in their lives becomes new. They are absolutely new creations. There is a saying that goes like this: "He (or she) is too spiritually minded to be any earthly good." This is usually said about those who are perceived as pseudo-spiritual. But spiritual things are taught in spiritual words. It is not our responsibility to water them down to be palatable. A true message of life is a spiritual thing, and the only way to communicate it is through spiritual words.
    We must allow ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit. In the course of this teaching, many things taught by human wisdom will fall away. The light of God exposes lies that we have believed. I would much rather live my life as a spiritual being who is taught by the Holy Spirit. I've had enough of human wisdom. I've tried to live that way and it didn't work. The only way to true life is living in the Spirit. I'm not going to live by words of death anymore. I choose to live and speak words of life.