1Corinthians 3:20 – Reasonings of the wise

…And again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.

In order to make his point that the wisdom of the world is foolishness for GOD, Paul refers to a Psalm this time (94:11). The Hebrew text speaks of ‘habel’ (Abel), which is also the famous word which is used often in the book ‘Ecclesiastes’: ‘vanity’. It means: empty and meaningless.

From the word for ‘reasonings’ in the Greek, our word ‘dialogue’ is also derived. Literally: through-reasoning. A reasoning is a line of thought with a conclusion. Especially the wise and intellectuals are trained in it. What is striking in this verse is that the reasoning of the wise are called vain. We can imagine that this applies to the ignorant, but why to the wise? The answer is: “the wisdom of the world” does not take GOD into account. That makes her starting point false and makes all her reasonings meaningless and foolish.

Everything that “the wisdom of the world” has to report about the origin, the meaning and the purpose of our existence, is useless in advance. For true wisdom begins with the recognition of GOD (Ps. 111:10). And she listens to what He says. Only that gives meaning!

Delen: