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FAITH LIFT | The folly of philosophy

faith-lift

The word “philosophy” comes from the Greek, meaning “the love (philos) of wisdom (sophos)”.

Great word. The first time I studied philosophy was at Western in London (Ontario). I remember thinking I was going to “mine the minds” of the great philosophers and piece together the collective wisdom of the ages in order to discover truth. Just a tad arrogant wouldn’t you say?

Our prof certainly looked the part, complete with beard and pipe and a penchant for sitting with leg draped over the corner of his desk. His favorite word was “problematic” (I didn’t even know that was a word). Everything seemed to end up being problematic. During one class we were philosophizing over the question, “Do we exist?” One class member was a retiree auditing the course. He lamented during a break, “And to think I’m paying good money for this!”

Paul’s perspective
Recently I was reading the apostle Paul’s first letter to the believers in Corinth. This port city was the second most important city in ancient Greece after Athens. Paul said the Gospel (centred on the cross on which Jesus died for our sins) was foolishness to unbelievers but powerful truth to believers (see 1 Corinthians 1:18). He then quoted the prophet Isaiah who wrote eight centuries earlier, “I (God) will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” (Isaiah 29:14)

The apostle then asks four questions — “Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Paul was contrasting human and divine wisdom. The Lord’s half-brother, James, made a similar contrast in his book (see James 3:13-18) but we’ll stick with Paul.

He then states clearly that salvation is not attained through human intelligence or wisdom (we could add the word “education” today). The apostle then discerns the contrasting ways that Jews and Gentiles (especially Greeks) think. Jews demand signs or miracles in order to believe.

They often did this when interacting with Jesus. Greeks, however, were always seeking wisdom of the human variety (Paul said the same about the Greeks in Athens in Acts 17:21). He then states that neither approach will save you from your sins.

Paul’s focus
The apostle then explains how we are saved — by believing in “Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:22). He readily admits that this message is a “stumbling block” to Jews and “foolishness” to Greeks. The Gospel is still those two things to many people today twenty centuries later. Paul then describes Christ as “the power of God” and “the wisdom of God” (verse 24).

He then points out that most of the believers in Corinth were not wise, influential or noble by human standards. That means most of them were very ordinary, unimpressive people. Amazingly, Paul then states that God chose them (the foolish, weak, lowly and even despised) on purpose in order to “shame” the worldly wise and strong and proud.

Paul’s story
The apostle was well positioned to explain all this because he had lived it. He had grown up with privilege and education. He once described his sterling pedigree as “a Hebrew of Hebrews… a Pharisee… zealous… faultless.” (see Philippians 3:3-6) Today we would have called him a “rising star” headed for leadership among his society’s social, cultural and religious elite.

But one day he was knocked off his high horse (literally) of pride and arrogance and humbled (you can read about it in Acts chapter 9).

I’m not saying there is no value in human philosophy, learning and education. I value those things in my life. They are just limited and sometimes deceiving if we replace God’s truth with them. To adapt the apostle’s principle in 1 Timothy 4:8, we could say, “Education (including philosophy) is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

Bottom line? I hope and pray that you are a sincere “lover of wisdom” and that you look for it in the right place and in the right person.

Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor.