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The Word of Knowledge in the Service of Christ and His Church · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there is an
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expectation of precision. Right.
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Yeah, you expect a clear answer. Yeah, it resembles engineering.
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You know, you break your arm. The X-ray shows that jagged
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white line on the screen and the Doctor just points to it.
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And gives you a definitive, unquestionable answer.
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Right. And the binary nature of that
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scenario provides a lot of comfort.
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Oh, absolutely. I mean, we naturally gravitate
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toward things that are visible, categorizable, and clearly
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defined by empirical evidence. But then you step into the world
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of ancient religious history. Yeah, that changes things.
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It really does. You look at modern spiritual
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claims and suddenly that X-ray machine just shatters.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is entirely
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murky, filled with, you know, the subjective feelings and
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conflicting theological opinions.
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It gets very messy very fast. It does.
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Welcome to reform thinking. We're analyzing 2 rigorous,
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heavily researched texts today to dissect a highly debated
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phrase found in the New Testament.
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Specifically, the Word of Knowledge from First
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Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 8.
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OK, let's unpack this. Modern Christianity is just
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flooded with claims of spontaneous revelations, psychic
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like predictions and massive emotional frenzies.
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You see it everywhere. You do You see people on
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television or even in local congregations claiming to
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receive a sudden supernatural download of hidden information
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about someone else's life. And they attribute all of this
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directly to the Holy Spirit. Right.
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But we need to figure out what the Apostle Paul actually meant
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when he wrote those specific words to an incredibly chaotic,
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fractured church in Corinth 2000 years ago.
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The texts we are analyzing approach the subject from a
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strict, cessationist, historically grounded
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perspective. Which means what for our
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listeners? Well, it is rooted in the
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theological framework of a closed scriptural Canon.
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Keeping in line with the Westminster Confession, the
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authors argue that to comprehend Paul's letter, we have to strip
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away our 21st century assumptions.
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So we cannot just read modern charismatic practices back into
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the ancient text. Precisely.
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Instead, we have to establish the literal, grammatical,
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historical, and redemptive parameters Paul set in place
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when he originally penned that letter.
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To comprehend why Paul had to write a massive corrective
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letter about spiritual gifts in the 1st place, we must examine
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the massive cultural baggage the Corinthian converts brought into
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their local assembly. You cannot grasp the letters to
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Corinth without grasping the city of Corinth itself.
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Right. It was not some quiet,
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contemplative village filled with Stoic philosophers.
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It was loud, brash, aggressively commercial, and completely
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saturated in Pagan mysticism. We really must anchor ourselves
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in the reality of Corinth around the years 8053 and 54.
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What's it going on then? Well, Julius Caesar actually
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rebuilt the city in 44 BC as a Roman colony on Greek soil.
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It sat directly on the Isthmus of Corinth.
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Which is a huge geographical. Advantage.
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Oh massive. It meant it controlled the major
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land route running North and South, as well as the sea trade
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running east and West. They have that thing, the
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Diolcos, right? Yeah.
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Yes, the Diolcos. It was this paved frack way
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where merchants would physically drag their ships across the
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landmass. Just to avoid the dangerous sea
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journey around the Peloponnese. Right, because the waters down
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there were notorious for shipwrecks.
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This geographical setup brought in sailors, merchants and
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immense wealth from all over the known world.
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So it's a transient, upwardly mobile city, very fast-paced.
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Very. But dominating the skyline, both
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physically and culturally, was the Acrocorin.
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That massive, steep rock outcropping rising 2000 feet
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above the city center? It is huge and right at its
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peaks at the Temple of Aphrodite.
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And what was happening up there? Well, according to historical
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accounts particularly, particularly from the geographer
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Strabo, this temple housed 1000 priestesses who engaged in
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ritual prostitution. 1000 That is wild.
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Yeah, now whether Strabo was exaggerating the numbers or not,
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the cultural mythos of the city was entirely tied to this
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blatant public immorality. The economy basically thrived on
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it. It did.
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A vice was not some back alley enterprise, it was the primary
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civic religion. It is crazy to think about that
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being the daily backdrop for a brand new Christian Church
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trying to establish Orthodox worship.
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It was an incredibly hostile environment.
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But the cultural rot extended way past physical vice, didn't
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it? The society was aggressively
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mystical. Oh absolutely.
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The Corinthian citizens were fully immersed in the Greco
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Roman mystery cults. For instance, you have the
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famous oracles of Delphi located just across the Gulf of Corinth,
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right? How did those specific Pagan
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worship practices operate, and how did they define divine
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interaction for the people living there?
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Well, the Pagan worship of the Greco Roman world was defined by
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static chaotic frenzy. If you went to consult the
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Oracle at Delphi, you would see the Pythea, the High Priestess,
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enter an underground chamber. And she wasn't just sitting
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there quietly meditating. No, not at all.
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She would often inhale natural volcanic vapors, what they
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called the numerizing, from a chasm in the earth.
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Or she might enter a trance induced by chewing Laurel
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leaves. So it was drug induced or from a
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biblical perspective we would identify this as demonically
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inspired activity. Correct.
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The priest would lose all bodily control, her hair would fly
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wildly, she would ride on the ground, and she would produce
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unintelligible manic babbling. Then the temple priests known as
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the Prophet. I would translate that chaotic
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Babble into poetic hexameter for the paying customer.
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So the citizens of the Greco Roman world looked at that
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terrifying loss of physical and mental control, and they
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accepted it as authentic divine communication.
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It did. They believed that the more out
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of control a person was, the more the gods had taken over
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their faculties. So madness was equated with
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divine inspiration. That is the core of it.
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If you were calm and rational, the gods were not speaking.
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If you were foaming at the mouth and babbling uncontrollably, you
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were a conduit for the divine. So you have these citizens of
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Corinth steeped in this frantic religious culture for their
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entire lives. Apostle Paul comes to town,
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preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit
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regenerates a remnant of these pagans.
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They are brought out of darkness, they are saved, and
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they gather to form the local church.
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But the texts point out a massive problem.
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These new believers conflated the ecstatic Pagan practices
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they grew up with with the genuine work of the Holy Spirit.
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They carried their cultural baggage right through the church
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doors. They naturally assumed that
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intense emotional hysteria equated to true holiness.
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Yes, they thought that if the Holy Spirit was truly moving
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among them, it should look somewhat like the frenzied
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trances of the mystery cults. So what does this all mean?
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Well, they began to prize the most visible, loud and
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spectacular spiritual gifts above all others.
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They were weaponizing them as badges of spiritual superiority
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to create a caste system within the congregation.
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Spot on. It is like a new convert walking
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into a solemn, reverent worship service today but expecting the
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atmosphere of a loud, chaotic nightclub with strobe lights, a
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smoke machine and a mosh pit. Just because that is the only
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way they previously knew how to feel.
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Something right? They had no category for
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reverent, orderly worship. They thought volume and chaos
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were the unquestionable metrics for spiritual authenticity.
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That analogy captures the tension perfectly.
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Paul addresses this catastrophic misunderstanding head on.
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Where does he do that? In First Corinthians chapter 12,
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verse two, he gives them a diagnostic reality check.
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He writes. You know that when you were
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pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were
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led. What is he getting at there?
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He is telling them that intense religious experience by itself
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is not a proof of theological truth.
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Wow. A person can be highly moved,
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emotionally stirred and totally overwhelmed by a spiritual
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atmosphere, yet be completely LED astray by demonic forces or
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just fleshly manipulation. The divining mark of the
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Spirit's work is not a frenzied loss of control, but the true
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Orthodox confession of Jesus Christ is Lord.
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Exactly. I mean, absolutely, because the
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Corinthians were using spiritual gifts to create this hierarchy
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of the spiritual elite, ranking themselves based on who had the
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most spectacular visible manifestations.
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So Paul answers their chaos with rigid, airtight grammar to crush
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their pride. He does not just give them a
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moral suggestion to play nice, he constructs A theological
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fortress. Look at how Paul lays out a
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magnificent Trinitarian framework right out of the gate
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in verses 4 through. What does he say?
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He writes Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same
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Spirit, and there are varieties of ministries, and the same
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Lord. There are varieties of effects,
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but the same God who works all things in all persons.
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Notice the deliberate repetition of the Greek word autos meaning
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the same. Yes.
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He acknowledges diversity of the distribution varieties of gifts,
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ministries, and effects, but he grounds that diversity entirely
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in the absolute unity of the Divine Source.
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He is hitting them over the head with the concept of unity.
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The same Spirit, the same Lord, the same.
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Godfather, Son and Holy Spirit are all working in perfect
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harmony. He is telling the Corinthians
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that they cannot divide the local church over gifts that all
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originate from the exact same Triune God.
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Right, then we get into the actual Greek syntax of how these
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gifts are distributed, and it completely dismantles the idea
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that everyone should possess the same spectacular gift.
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Let's look at that syntax. It is incredibly precise and
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restrictive. Very restrictive.
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When Paul lists the specific gifts in verses 8 through 10, he
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uses a very specific Greek correlative conjunction, which
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is Komen all day. Translated into English, this
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means to 1 and to another. OK.
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Unpack that for us. He says 4 to 1 is given the word
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of Wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of
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Knowledge according to the same Spirit.
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This specific grammatical construction proves absolute
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exclusivity. It does.
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The Holy Spirit deliberately segregates the gifts.
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So the distribution is diverse, intentional, and entirely
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dependent on the Spirit's choosing.
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Guaranteeing that no single believer possesses every gift
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and no single gift is given to every believer.
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We also have to analyze the specific verb Paul uses in this
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section, the Greek word Dido Tai.
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Which translates to is given. The text highlights that this
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verb is in the passive voice. Right.
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Meaning the believer is merely A passive receptacle in this
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transaction. The active agent doing the
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giving, the one initiating the action is the Holy Spirit.
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Paul seals this argument in verse 11.
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He states that one and the same Spirit works all these things,
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distributing to each one individually.
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Kathy's Bulletei. Which translates to just as he
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wills. The sovereign, uninfluenced will
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of the third Person of the Trinity is the sole determining
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factor in who receives what specific gift.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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Oh yeah, if the Holy Spirit distributes these gifts strictly
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as he wills, and the believer is an entirely passive vessel in
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the receiving of them, how does this confront modern name it and
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claim it theology? It is a massive collision,
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right? We see large segments of the
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modern prosperity gospel telling people they can activate
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miracles on demand, or that they could decree and declare a
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specific spiritual gift into existence by the force of their
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own positive confession. Which contradicts the text
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completely. Exactly.
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Absolutely. If we cannot conjure, demand, or
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activate a gift by our own free will, what happens to those
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modern claims of activating the supernatural?
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Those modern claims are completely dismantled by the
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grammar of this text. The syntax of First Corinthians
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12 stands as an absolute repudiation of the idea that
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human beings can manipulate divine action.
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You cannot demand a spiritual gift.
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No, you cannot learn a specific prayer technique or attend a
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seminar to activate the Holy Spirit.
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The spirit is not an ethereal, impersonal force waiting to be
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harnessed by human faith. He is the Sovereign Lord who
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operates according to His own eternal counsel.
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Demanding a specific gift as a proof of your salvation, or
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trying to decree a miracle into existence to prove your elite
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spiritual status. It is a direct violation of
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Cathos Billitai. He distributes just as He wills,
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not as we demand. That shifts the paradigm
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entirely. It takes the focus completely
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off human performance. Vocal techniques and supposed
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spiritual elite status and places it entirely on sovereign
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divine grace. It really does.
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So with that sovereign source firmly established, we have to
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figure out what this specific gift actually was in the ancient
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church. We are looking at the word of
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knowledge. What was it, and how does the
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historical reality contrast against modern charismatic
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assumptions? To accurately define this, we
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have to execute a rigorous lexical breakdown of the grief
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phrase logos nocios. Let us look at the first word,
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logos. Mentally, logos means a
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vocalized communication, a reasoned statement, or a public
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discourse. So it is not an internal
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intuition, A fleeting feeling in your gut, or a silent
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impression. No, it inherently involves
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public didactic articulation. A person possessing this gift
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was given something specific and structured to say aloud to teach
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and instruct the gathered assembly.
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It is vocal, it is reasoned, it is meant to be heard and
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understood by the mind, right? What are the second word Gnosios
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coming from the root gnosis? In the ancient Greek world, and
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specifically within the New Testament context, gnosis refers
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to the objective, systematic comprehension of divine facts
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and redemptive reality. It denotes a deep structural
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comprehension of theological truth.
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It is the mental grasp of objective facts concerning God's
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nature and His redemptive plan. The authors of our source text
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make a brilliant point here by showing us the specific Greek
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words Paul deliberately chose not to use.
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Yeah, this is key. He did not use the Greek word as
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thesis. Which refers to moral perception
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or discernment. Right.
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And he did not use epic gnosis, which often carries the nuance
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of relational experiential feelings he chose.
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Gnosis. Furthermore, it differs entirely
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from the gift mentioned right beside it, the Word of Wisdom or
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Logo Sophias. While wisdom deals with the
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practical daily application of divine truth to specific life
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situations, knowing how to live out the truth ethically,
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knowledge deals with the deep structural comprehension of the
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truth itself. So the text defines the word of
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knowledge as a temporary supernatural impartation of
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massive doctrinal facts. It was the God-given ability to
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spontaneously comprehend and articulate the deep mysteries of
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the Christian faith before the New Testament documents.
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Think about that. Imagine being a believer in the
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ancient church in 1854, right after the resurrection and
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ascension of. Jesus of the Old Testament
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scrolls the Septuagint, but the New Testament does not exist
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yet. Imagine trying to explain the
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massive theological concept of substitutionary atonement.
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Or trying to articulate how Jesus perfectly fulfilled the
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entire Old Testament Levitical priesthood.
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Yeah, before the Apostle Paul ever wrote the book of Romans,
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or before the book of Hebrews was ever penned.
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The early Church had an immense, desperate human need for
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doctrine. They needed a divine systematic
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theology textbook temporarily downloaded into the minds of
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specific individuals so they could stand up and accurately
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teach the congregation the objective facts of the New
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Covenant. And that supernatural download
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of objective theological fact is the true biblical word of
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knowledge. What's fascinating here is how
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this historical lexical reality completely invalidates the
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modern charismatic definition of the gift.
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Oh, totally. Today, you will often hear the
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word of knowledge described as a sudden, spontaneous realization
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that someone in the audience has lower back pain, or a secret
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financial struggle, or a hidden moral failure.
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The authors argue forcefully that such practices treat the
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biblical gift like a psychic parlor trick.
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Guessing personal secrets or having an intuition about
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someone's physical ailment cannot be found anywhere in the
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lexical bounds of Logos Noceos. The historical biblical gift was
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about establishing the infant church in objection, redemptive
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truth, not exposing private earthly circumstances.
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It is the difference between someone standing up in the
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assembly and delivering A flawless, divinely inspired
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exposition on the two natures of Christ.
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Versus someone standing on a stage with a microphone and
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saying I feel like someone in the third row has a cousin named
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Gary who needs a job and God wants to bless him.
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Right. One builds the eternal
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foundation of the universal Church.
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The other is pragmatic, emotional theater.
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But this raises a critical question if if this gift was
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such a vital supernatural download of essential doctrine,
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why do the texts argue that it no longer happens today?
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Why would God stop giving such a useful gift?
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Yeah, this brings the analysis directly into the redemptive
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historical timeline and the theological framework of
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cessationism. We have to analyze the specific
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era in which the Corinthian church existed.
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It was the initial building phase of the Church Age.
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The New Testament Canon, the finalized written revelation of
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God, was not yet complete. Because of this lack of written
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authority, the early local assemblies were highly
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vulnerable. They were surrounded by
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aggressive Pagan philosophy, early Gnostic heresies
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threatening to distort the nature of Christ, and Judaizers
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trying to drag the new Gentile converts back under the yoke of
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the Old Covenant law. They lacked the finalized
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written word to defend themselves against these
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sophisticated theological attacks.
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They were quite literally building the airplane while
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flying it. They needed immediate,
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infallible instruction to survive the cultural and
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theological onslaught. The authors introduce an
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excellent analogy to explain this theological mechanism, the
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concept of scaffolding. I like this analogy.
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When you were constructing a massive, intricate building,
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scaffolding is absolutely essential.
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You cannot put the bricks in place, pour the mortar, or build
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the roof without it. A miraculous sign.
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Gifts, specifically, including the Word of Knowledge and the
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Word of Wisdom, acted as that necessary scaffolding for the
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early church. They authenticated the Apostles
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message as genuinely divine and provided direct, infallible
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instruction to the local assemblies.
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But once the foundation is fully laid and the final capstone is
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placed on the building, the scaffolding is no longer needed.
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In fact, keeping the scaffolding up obscures the beauty and the
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permanence of the finished building.
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So once the building is finished, the architect
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sovereignly removes the scaffolding.
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The texts point to a specific verse to prove this removal
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correct. Yes, First Corinthians chapter
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13, verse 8. Paul explicitly states in that
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verse, love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy,
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they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will
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cease. If there is knowledge, it will
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be done away. The specific knowledge mentioned
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there is the exact same miraculous gift of the Word of
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Knowledge established in Chapter 12.
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Paul uses the Greek verb cutter you O, which means to render
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inoperative or to abolish. The texts argue that this
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cessation happened when the perfect arrived.
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The Greek word Teleon. The Reformed, historically
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grounded perspective identifies this perfect not as the Eternal
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State or the Second Coming, but as the completed, finalized
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Canon end of the 66 books of the Bible.
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Once the written revelation was finalized, the temporary oral
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revelations were rendered inoperative.
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I want you, the listener, to consider the sheer grace of this
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historical timeline for a moment.
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It is beautiful. God did not leave the early
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believers defenseless against the wolves of heresy.
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He provided direct, infallible, supernatural instruction to
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protect His Bride until the written word was entirely
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secure. It is a massive proof of God's
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sovereign care for His people. He gave them exactly what they
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needed, precisely when they needed it to survive.
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And then he gave us the completed Bible, which provides
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an even more sure word of prophecy.
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The transition from the temporary oral miraculous gifts
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to the permanent written word is a definitive sign of the
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Church's maturation. The partial piece meal
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revelations were perfectly suited for the church's infancy,
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keeping them safe while the foundation was poured.
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And the completed Canon is suited for the Church's
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maturity, providing everything necessary for life and godliness
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throughout the rest of human history.
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We need to look at how the texts apply this ancient grammatical
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and historical analysis to modern controversies.
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Right, because the authors apply this rigid cessationist
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theological view to severely critique the modern evangelical
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landscape, addressing both church practices and broader
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societal frameworks. The authors take an aggressive
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stance against several modern ecclesiastical movements.
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They explicitly critique the seeker sensitive movement, the
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Word of Faith movement, and the chaotic practices found within
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modern Pentecostalism. The texts argue that these
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movements by constantly seeking ongoing extra biblical
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revelation, prioritizing emotional frenzy, and utilizing
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pragmatic manipulation over doctrinal truth.
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They are actually mimicking the Pagan purvoyance of Ancient
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Greece rather than practicing orthodox biblical Christianity.
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It is worth noting how the author applies this rigid
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theological framework to modern social and political issues as
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well. Yes, the text explicitly targets
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the creeping influences of liberal theology, secular
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philosophy, and modern Sophia political constructs like
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critical race theory. The author views these specific
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frameworks as hostile attempts to supplant the clear teachings
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of the written word. And we have to be super clear
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here for you listening. We are entirely impartial,
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Marshall, on this point. Absolutely.
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We are not endorsing these political views.
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Right. And we aren't condemning them
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either. We are simply reporting what the
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source material argues to maintain neutrality.
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It is an argument about ultimate authority.
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From the text's strict viewpoint, we can analyze that
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underlying logic clearly. The argument asserts that
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anything whether it is a charismatic prophecy claiming a
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brand new word from God, a secular philosophy claiming to
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hold absolute truth about the human condition, or a political
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framework demanding total ideological allegiance.
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If it claims authority outside the closed Canon of Scripture,
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it is viewed as a direct hostile rival to biblical sufficiency.
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If the 66 books of the Bible are the final, complete and
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sufficient revelation from God, than any other system that tries
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to bind the conscience of a person dictating what is
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definitively moral or immoral outside of chapter and verse is
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an illegitimate rival. The authors are drawing a hard,
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unyielding line in the sand regarding where absolute truth
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is found. The authors maintain that the
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faithful church must resist both unbelieving skepticism, which
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denies the supernatural entirely, and charismatic
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mysticism, which treats subjective impressions and
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emotional whims as authoritative guides.
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Both extremes, in their view, bypass the objective finalized
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authority of the written word. The close cannon protects the
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believer from being tossed back and forth by every wind of
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doctrine, whether that wind comes from a secular university
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or a charismatic revival tent. But a rigid adherence to correct
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doctrine, if we are completely honest about human nature, can
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easily become cold. It can devolve into a sterile
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intellectual exercise devoid of any real spiritual life or
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affection. That brings our analysis to
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Paul's final regulating principle.
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Principles for these gifts and for all.
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Christian conduct, Christ and love.
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The entire discourse on spiritual gifts in First
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Corinthians is fundamentally Christological.
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The Holy Spirit never operates independently of the Son.
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The texts quote Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, noting that
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in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
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knowledge. Christ is the absolute infinite
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embodiment of all divine truth. The Holy Spirit is fundamentally
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shy in his operations. He acts as a divine floodlight.
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He never points the beam of light at himself, but always
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shines the light to illuminate the majesty and the finished
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work of the sun. The Spirit's job is to make much
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of Jesus if a supposed spiritual gift, or a theological lecture
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for that matter, distracts from the finished work of Christ on
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the cross. Or draws the congregation's
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attention to the human speaker instead of the Savior it.
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Fails the most basic core biblical test.
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Paul provides another crucial metric in chapter 12, verse 7.
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He states that the manifestation of the Spirit is given prose to
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Simferon, which translates to For the Common Good.
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The miraculous gifts and the ordinary gifts we possess today
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we're never given for self edification, personal branding,
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or private spiritual thrills. They were bestowed entirely for
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the corporate benefit, the building up of the local church.
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Then Paul drops the hammer. In chapter 13, he proves that
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possessing massive theological knowledge without love renders a
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person spiritually bankrupt. He explicates explicitly states
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that even if you can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, but
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do not have love, you are nothing.
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You are a climbing symbol. So let me ask you this.
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If someone today spends hours reading dense Puritan theology
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like John Owen or Charles Spurgeon, authors highly
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recommended in our source text. But they take that massive
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intellectual knowledge and use it to arrogantly win arguments
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online or to belittle people in their local church who are less
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educated. Rather than building up the
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body, are they committing the exact same sin as the ancient
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Corinthians? The texts make this precise,
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piercing point. A cold, arrogant orthodoxy that
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lacks love is not Pauline's spirituality.
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It is just another form of Corinthian pride dressed up in
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theological vocabulary. The ancient Corinthians
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weaponized miraculous gifts to create a hierarchy.
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A modern reformed believer can easily weaponize systematic
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theology to create the identical hierarchy.
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The root sin is the same, using a gracious gift from God,
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whether that is a first century miracle or a 21st century
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theological education, to inflate the ego rather than to
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help the brethren. Knowledge without love puffs up,
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but love builds up. We have analyzed an immense
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amount of historical, grammatical and theological data
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today. We really covered a lot of
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ground. We looked at the chaotic, vice
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ridden culture of ancient Corinth, the strict Greek syntax
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of sovereign distribution through correlative
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conjunctions, the definition of the gift is massive doctrinal
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truth rather than psychic guessing, the cessation of the
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Apostolic scaffolding, and the ultimate metrics of Christ and
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love. If we pull all of this together,
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what is the practical application for your daily life
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as a believer? If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, the application is a massive, unshakable, resting in
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the sufficiency of the finished Canon.
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The texts argue that the modern church is often tempted to seek
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fresh, audible words from heaven because it has grown bored with
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the written word. But true spiritual maturity is
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recognizing that God has spoken finally, perfectly and
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sufficiently in the Scriptures. If you want to hear God speak,
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you read the Bible. If you want to hear him speak
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audibly, you read it out loud. That is a massive course
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correction for anyone caught up in the anxiety of trying to
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decipher subjective feelings, reading into coincidences, or
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waiting for a specific sign to make a decision.
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The texts demand that believers start looking for secret
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whispers, emotional manipulation or psychic readings.
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You do not need a crystal ball or a charismatic prophet.
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You have the complete mind of Christ right there on your desk,
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printed in black and white. The practical outworking of this
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theological reality is a demand for orderly worship.
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The text calls the church back to the ordinary means of grace.
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This means prioritizing faithful verse by verse, expository
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preaching of the word, corporate prayer, and the correct
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administration of the ordinances.
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It is a call to reject the pragmatic theater of modern
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church growth models, which often rely on manufacturing an
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emotional atmosphere with lighting and music, and instead
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trust that God's ordinary means are spiritually effective
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because he has promised to bless them.
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It is about trusting the recipe God actually gave us, rather
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than trying to invent our own ingredients to make the church
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more appealing to a Pagan culture.
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We started by looking at the prideful frenzy of Pagan
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Corinth, where new believers tragically conflated demonic
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trances with the Holy Spirit. We walk through the rigid Greek
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syntax that proved God is absolutely sovereign in how He
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distributes His grace and highly apart from human demand.
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We define the Word of Knowledge as a brilliant, temporary,
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supernatural download of massive doctrinal truth meant to build
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the early church. And we saw how that scaffolding
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was graciously removed once the church possessed the solid
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sufficient rock of the completed Scriptures.
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The Bible is enough. The transition from Corinthian
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chaos to biblical sufficiency is one of the most vital
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theological realities a believer can grasp.
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It protects the local church from emotional manipulation and
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grounds the believer's conscience entirely in objective
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truth. It gives a firm place to stand.
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I want to leave you with a final lingering thought.
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Something that that builds on everything we have discussed,
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but brings the tension directly into our modern reality.
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What is that? We established that the early
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church in Corinth possessed immense spiritual vitality and
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faced massive cultural opposition, relying solely on
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the oral temporary word of knowledge because they did not
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have the physical New Testament to read.
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They cherish the oral truth they received.
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Today, you and I have massive, unprecedented access to the
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finalized text. We carry dozens of translations
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of the complete Digital Bible in our pockets on our smartphones.
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We have commentaries, lexicons and centuries of sermons
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available at the top of the screen.
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Yet statistically, our overall biblical literacy is incredibly
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low. We possess everything the
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Corinthians lacked, yet we often know far less about our own
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faith than they did. That is a sobering reality.
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So here's the question you need to Mull over today.
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When history looks back on our specific era, will our
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unprecedented access to the written word be viewed as our
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greatest blessing, or will it be the standard by which we receive
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our harshest judgment?