I’ve been on this soap box before. I do not like to hear
Christians use the term ‘common sense’ in any context. I especially dislike
that term being used from the pulpit (I have not heard it used from a pulpit in
a while, unless you consider Facebook a pulpit). But it is absolutely necessary
for us to understand, as believers, what common sense is and how dangerous it
is.
Paul begins in chapter 1 at verse 18:
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Now to those of us who have been believers for some time,
the word of the cross (I read this as ‘the gospel’) seems like common sense,
not foolishness. We often cannot understand why this is not apparent to our
unsaved family and friends. It’s so simple. We have become comfortable with God’s
wisdom and so it seems somewhat natural to us. But in reality it is anything
but natural. It is anything but common sense. If it were obtainable by the use
of common sense, everyone would be saved, because everyone has common sense. Paul
tells us that to those who rely on common sense, this ‘power of God’ is
foolishness.
You see, common sense is what Paul refers to as the wisdom
of the world in verse 20 when he asks, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of
this world?” Common sense is the wisdom of the world. Paul continues in verse
21 to say that this world did not know God through its wisdom and that God was
pleased to save men through the foolishness of the gospel. Common sense is not
the wisdom of God – the wisdom of God is the foolishness of the gospel.
It always amazes me to hear a Christian brother or sister
comment on some poor lost soul’s behavior as being caused by a lack of common
sense. I can look at the same person and see that their self-destructive
lifestyle is completely attributable to their living according to the wisdom of
this world. The more we exercise common sense, the worse off we become. I think a lot of this misunderstanding comes as a result of
minimizing the fall of Adam and Eve. We are told that they were created ‘in the
image of God’. It therefore stands to reason, to us, that common sense is
God-given – that the way we naturally think is the product of this image. But
we fail to realize how completely our first parent’s fall into sin corrupted the
image of God in human kind. Scripture leaves little doubt that very little of
that image survived. This extends to our way of thinking. The fall of mankind
was the beginning of ‘the wisdom of this world’. Being born with corrupt minds,
we can never on our own recognize common sense for what it is – the wisdom of
this world.
In chapter 3, verse 18-19, Paul returns to the subject once
again:
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
If anyone desires to rely upon common sense to tell them what
is right and what is wrong, they had better seek to become a fool; a fool
according to the gospel, which is God’s wisdom. For the wisdom of this world –
what we often refer to as common sense – is foolishness to God.
Christ died to set us free from the wisdom of this world.
We, as believers, live as people free from the worldly Adam-born concept of
common sense. We are free to serve as we please, to give as we please, to offer
our lives as we please. We are free to die in the act of advancing the
foolishness of the gospel if we please. What place does common sense play in
any of that? None. Common sense will tell you that all of that is foolishness.
That should tell you something about the origin common sense.
Today is April fool’s day. If you are relying on the wisdom
of this world today, for the sake of the one who died that you might be
forgiven your sins become a fool. For only as you abandon this world’s ‘common
sense’ will you begin to live according to the wisdom of God. That is the
gospel truth.
God Bless.
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