FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2023
(Part 14)
FAITH BASED ON GOD AND NOT MAN
February 5, 2023
Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Paul tells the Corinthians that “your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” (v.5). Today the authentic Christian faith is threatened by modernism, by which many clerics and even hierarchs are teaching heresy.
For example, the miracle done by Jesus of multiplying the loaves and fish is dismissed and just attributed to sharing by the people, who supposedly had brought food with them. This is ridiculous. But liberals and modernists cannot accept such miracles because these do not conform to science. Human wisdom says this cannot be done. But we know it was done, by the power of God.
Further, human wisdom, the good part of which is about caring for others and being nice to others (that is, being founded on love), fails when it comes to sin. Liberals/modernists want to just accept, accompany and embrace the sinner, but without talking of his sin, because it is offensive. Human wisdom says, do not do or say anything that is hurtful. But Jesus says, repent of sin. Paul says, purge the evil person from your midst. To help get sinners to repentance is what is best for them; it is the really “nice” thing to do for them; it is helping them be restored to God. Thus we love the sinner but hate the sin.
So Paul preaches Jesus crucified (v.2). This was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. It did not make sense. What the Jews were looking for was an earthly liberator. And today, liberals/modernists also look to liberation from worldly affliction and rejection, thus emphasizing social justice (note: in the Bible it is just “justice” and not “social justice”). But what the world needed then, and what the world needs now, is a spiritual liberator. It could only be done by God. It could only happen with sacrifice for sins. Thus Jesus went to the cross. But liberals/modernists continue to preach social justice, which includes liberating the marginalized, which includes allowing those in irregular unions (same-sex, live in, divorced and remarried) to be accepted and given Holy Communion. But they can receive Holy Communion, but first having to repent and be regularized in their relationship with God.
We must not be misled by hierarchs who take on the wisdom of man but fail in appropriating the power of God. We must be firm in the faith, by knowing the faith and striving to live it out. Like Paul, for each of us, it must be that “my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of Spirit and power.” (v.4). This is about “proclaiming the mystery of God” and not coming “with sublimity of words or of wisdom.” (v.1).
