God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 3:18 my mom’s measuring spoons
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, December 2, 2022
18 No one should deceive himself. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become what this age considers to be a fool so that he may be wise.
The ability to determine what is foolish and what is wise is one of the things that was ruined by the fall into sin. What I mean is this: I have some of my mother’s old metal measuring spoons. They are a set, but a couple of them have little dents in them, so that they don’t really provide an accurate measurement, and one of them is mostly flattened, and so what should be a half tablespoon is ruined, and it will only measure a little more than a quarter tablespoon. I have another perfectly good set of measuring spoons—I keep the old ones because they remind me of my mom. They also serve as a pretty good illustration of this point: If my mom’s measuring spoons can be bent and changed so that they no longer measure correctly, I must also realize that my human reason, once flawless before the fall into sin, is now ruined, dented, and bent so that it no longer functions perfectly or beautifully in any way. It measures logic and truth incorrectly. For example, human reason, philosophy and logic as well as science and math will say that nothing can come from nothing. But the Scriptures tell me that something did come from nothing, by way of the divine creation. If human reason disagrees with this, it is because “it has exceeded its limits.” We know from the Bible that the creation account is true. Science and math are not rules that govern creation, but tools used by man to explain and understand creation. When they are limited by their own inherent flaws, we must set them aside, like mom’s measuring cups, and use better tools.
If we don’t, then we deceive ourselves, just as Paul warns in the first phrase or sentence of this verse. This is the same word the apostle uses in Romans 7:11, “sin… deceived me.” And it is used of the serpent in the garden: “Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
The answer to this is to become foolish, at least foolish in the world’s eyes. We set our flawed reason aside, and we put away our little servant, science, in its box with such rigid walls and smallness of scope, and we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, reassure us, and explain God’s magnificent and majestic plan to us. Salvation through faith in Christ makes no sense to the world. But it is everything to the Christian, to me.
More than this: the reason and understanding of man become better, yet still imperfect, in the regenerate Christian. The unbeliever has a foolish and darkened heart (Romans 1:21), but the believer has a spirit that is willing (Matthew 26:41). “The sinful flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful flesh. In fact, these two continually oppose one another, so that you do not continue to do these things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). Our greatest foolishness is to love Christ, to love God’s holy word, and to walk humbly in that word, in truth, in love, and in step with Christ. The world loves every harmful word (Psalm 52:4), but we love the word of Christ, “the word of his unfailing love” (Psalm 143:8). This is the word that brings forgiveness, salvation, strength, and everlasting life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.