1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Man's Wisdom and Intelligence
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 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? 21 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. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Romans 1:18-32
God's Wrath Against Mankind
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Colossians 1:15-20
The Image of God
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Man has earthly desires...Some are of the flesh, and we have a material desire also, as well as others...Jesus and St. Paul spent much of their time on earth teaching about the eternities...About our God, our soul, and the connection we have with God with the Holy Spirit...Many listened, but man still has a desire for the things on earth...Man has a need for something in him to want pleasure, to satisfy his next desire, and to want some earthly thing next...It may just be we are sinners, and have fell from His grace...By next I mean, that the things on earth cannot satisfy our desires, so after we get the material or physical earthly thing, we have wanted, then we want to go on to the next earthly thing to satisfy our next desire...St. Paul does not find wisdom in this type of life or lifestyle, yet it seems to continue today...
St. Paul makes it clear that we as man do not have the wisdom of God...God sometimes uses the wisdom, the intelligence, and knowledge of man to frustrate him...Because we can look around and see all the things of nature and ask how did they get here...Did the grass, the snow, the tree, the air, gravity, the sun, the stars, the sky, the moon, just happen...What would the odds of being, that all the things that scientists have seen and discovered in the past (and continue to discover) -just happen to get here in our universe?...
It seems as St. Paul explains, we as man quickly lose this curiosity of nature, and how it all got here and was created (and about the eternities of the universe), and go off searching for the things of earth, in and around us...We sin...We seem to enjoy discovering the next new desire we have, the next new pleasure we have, and forget about when we do certain things, it can have a wickedness to it...God naturally gets upset, with these things...Some of us are more focused, while we are on earth, with our own personal pleasures and desires than the message of the cross...The belief and message of the cross is sometimes hard for the intelligent to fathom...But intelligence not disciplined by God and His love, can make us proud and arrogant...And the message of the cross can be a pain in us trying to satisfy a lot of our earthly desires...
Both Jesus and St. Paul want us to realize, we should spend as much time in seeking God, as we do in trying to satisfy these earthly desires...We enjoy material things, and make daily choices to drift from Him...Any weakness that we perceive or think God has is stronger than any man's strength or manly wisdom...For God gave Jesus the power to reconcile all things, whether they be in earth or the things of heaven, by Him making our eternal peacemaker (with God) on the cross, with blood He shed for our sins...But even though Jesus is our Redeemer, and every man's Reconciler -everyone does not believe in Him...Jesus is filled with the fullness of God....Man is connected to God and Jesus by the Holy Spirit...There is a Supremacy of Christ, and for those who cannot see it now, it will be seen in the Second Advent, when His Son returns...Then Jesus will reconcile all these things on earth and heaven...