Wisdom By God's Grace

2^nd Corinthians 1:12

“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.”

“For our boast is this” What was Paul and Timothy boasting about. Their missions? Speaking in tongues? Suffering Persecution? Quite simply no, because those things, great as they might be, are nothing if your conscience is troubled. Their boasting was that they behaved with simplicity, no masks, and with godly sincerity.

What is sincerity anyways? Without wax is the most common way of explaining it, being that sometime in the old days a cheap craftsmen would use wax to fill the cracks in his pottery and then sell it, so without wax would be an honest pot if you will. However I recently have heard another way of describing that makes it easier to wrap my brain around. Sincerity is aiming for the mark. If sin is missing the mark and to transgress is purposely missing, then sincerity is honestly trying to attain the mark.

Anyways lets get back to Paul and Timothy.

Next we see that part of their boasting is due to the fact that they did not use earthly wisdom. What is earthly wisdom? I would imagine salesmen tactics and manipulation, or changing the gospel so it is easier to accept. This is worldly wisdom and though outwardly it appears to get results, at the end of the day souls are left confused about the gospel.

How

sad.

Some of the most beautiful sentences in the bible start with, “but” but what? You may ask.

But God. Or to quote our verse “but by the grace of God,” By God's grace Paul and Timothy behaved with simplicity and godly sincerity, by God's grace they have a clear conscience,

by

God's
grace.

This weeks theme is wisdom. And here we see that earthly wisdom is no match for the grace of God.

How beautiful.

“and supremely so toward you.” This part is confusing to me, did Paul mean that they had extra helping of grace when speaking to the Corinthian church, or that they took extra care in showing the sincerity. I cannot be sure. And I am ok with that, I'll keep thinking about it and letting it marinate.

Application

when I would like to use worldly wisdom or manipulate with my words, I should instead bow my head, and ask for grace, and speak with simplicity and sincerity.