Greeks and Jews
1 Corinthians 1:20-25 (NIV) “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? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified : a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
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Christ crucified is the most perfect representation of the Heavenly Father. Christ reveals God - He is the perfect representation of the invisible God’s character and attributes (Colossians 1:15). The ultimate expression of God’s love for humanity came through a crucified Messiah (John 3:16).
This unfathomable love of God that is revealed by Christ on the cross is difficult to comprehend. It is offensive because, through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been given access to everything God has (Ephesians 1:3). There no longer remains a need for a system of thinking or divine miracle necessary for a relationship with God - we have been brought into union with Him through the Holy Spirit.
The ancient Greeks struggled with the cross because it disempowered their intellectual systems and ways of thinking about the nature of the divine and the invisible. A crucified Messiah did not make logical sense to them. Their ideas about God, rather than a living relationship with God, empowered a kind of striving towards Him. In the book of Acts, the apostle Luke wryly comments on these men: “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking and listening about the latest ideas [concerning spiritual realities]” (Acts 17:21, NIV).
The ancient Jews struggled with the cross in that their expectation of a conquering Messianic figure (who would deliver them from the oppressive Roman geopolitical system) was subverted by the life and work of Jesus Christ. They wanted a sudden miraculous invasion of the kingdom of heaven to deliver them. They constantly demanded that Jesus show miraculous signs to prove Himself as their Messiah (Matthew 12:28; John 6:30, etc.) They idolized displays of power, and Jesus would not give them one, because their heart posture was incorrect (Matthew 12:39).
The spiritual forces that animated the ancient Greeks and Jews remain active today. Certainly, there are modern “Greeks” - those whose philosophizing and theologizing about God has superseded an empowered, dynamic relationship with Him. Like the ancient Greeks, these men and women are obsessed with debates and arguments about the character and nature of God. Their relationship with God is based on knowledge empowered by logic. Their faith is intellectual and based on what can be known about God through reasoning. Knowledge about God determines the level of faith. This kind of knowledge breeds pride, arrogance, and contempt for our brothers and sisters (1 Corinthians 8:1-2).
Modern “Jews” live for the miraculous. Signs, wonders, and miracles are the paramount expression of the kingdom of heaven. Any expression of Christianity devoid of the miraculous is deemed false, powerless or incomplete. There is an expectation that the kingdom of heaven will appear in a day, bringing an end to all suffering. At that time, the conquering King Jesus will reveal His glory and vindicate Christian believers and crush the oppressors. Until that Day, Christ’s gospel is advanced through evident displays of kingdom power.
Now, wisdom, understanding, and the miraculous are certainly components of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they are powerless if not rooted in and manifested through the love of God.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV) “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
In God’s kingdom, the way of love empowers both knowledge and power. It is the “most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31), superior to displays of knowledge and miraculous power. Paul writes “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23, NIV). Christ’s willful death at the hands of the religious-political system was a stumbling block to those seeking a raw display of power from a Messianic king. At the same time, His death defied the lofty reasoning and logic of the first century Greeks.
The crucified Christ reveals that God’s power operates most strongly through sacrificial acts of self-giving love. This sacrificial love must be willing to extend even to the point of death. The apostle John writes, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). God’s power flows through a love that seeks to elevate and empower others. It manifests when we choose to rely on God despite our human weakness. His power is made perfect through weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Wisdom, knowledge, and miracles are essential components of the Christian life (1 Corinthians 7:11). However, they must be empowered by love, the “most excellent” attribute of God’s character. To place the giftings of God above the love of God breeds division, arrogance, and violates the greatest of the Lord’s commandments - love the Lord your God with your entire heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
