This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 586: 1 Corinthians in Context 4 - Philosophy & Wisdom with Sean Finnegan This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode. Audio file: 587 1 Corinthians 4.mp3 Transcript: 00:00 Hey there. 00:01 I'm Sean. 00:02 And you are listening to Restitutio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today. 00:12 Paul wrote extensively about worldly wisdom in First Corinthians due to the prevalence and esteem of philosophical schools, he probably felt a need to explain how Christianity measured up in this lecture. We'll survey the five main philosophical options available to 1st century Christians. 00:15 Thank you. 00:31 Including Platonism, cynicism, skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism. 00:38 Then once we've got a cursory grasp of how each of these approaches worked, we'll contrast them to Paul's idea of. 00:44 Spiritually discern truths which are available only to the mature in Christ. 00:50 Which he lays out in the first 3 chapters of First Corinthians. I think this is one of those episodes that's really gonna make the Bible come alive for you. Once you're able to read First Corinthians over against the background of its own time. 01:05 Hopefully this will pop for you. 01:07 Here now is Episode 587, part four of our first Corinthians and context class. 01:13 Philosophy and wisdom. 01:15 0. 01:23 Typical people in Corinth would probably not have thought of Christianity as a religion. For us, that sounds. 01:32 Christianity Today is the biggest religion in the world. When people talk about religions, they usually talk about it in comparison to Christianity. 01:41 But in the Roman world, religion was kind of different than what we talk about today. 01:49 Religion was about Piatos, which is where we get the word piety from, and it's the idea of duty. 01:56 And you have a duty collectively as a society, or in the case of Corinth, as a city to the gods. They had a phrase. Do you dis? I give that you might give the idea was simple. 02:09 Take care of the gods. 02:11 The guys take care of you. 02:14 Faith wasn't a category. Faith wasn't part. 02:16 I know it sounds like a really weird thing to say, but like. 02:20 Nobody cared if you believed in the. 02:21 Everybody believed in the gods like it wasn't. It wasn't significant. 02:26 And how you lived wasn't really the concern of religion either. It was just. 02:31 Taking care of, let me let me show you what I mean. 02:33 You had augers. 02:36 Augers are professionals that observed the movements of animals, especially birds, to decipher omens. 02:46 And inform important people on making. 02:49 So if there would be a battle, they would have an auger come and they would observe the how the birds were flying and they would say, oh we. 02:58 Delay. Let's wait till tomorrow. And so that was one way they exercised their religion. 03:05 Another was. 03:06 Haro's buses, which is where you cut open animals like sheep, goats. 03:13 Cattle or pigs and you examine their internal organs to decipher a message from the gods, especially the liver. 03:23 They want to look at the. 03:24 They want to see what shape it is, what colour is, and they would tell The Enquirer the gods are not happy or the gods are happy. And this sort of thing. 03:36 They had trained priests called Sacrificial and. 03:41 They had assistance called victim Ari, and they would slaughter animals at altars and offer them to the gods. 03:51 Then there were pontiffices, which were priests of different types. 03:58 They offered animal sacrifices. 04:00 Had temples. 04:01 And. 04:02 They had statues. 04:04 This is religion in Corinth. 04:07 Christianity doesn't do any of these things. 04:10 Christianity doesn't observe the flight of birds. 04:13 Christianity doesn't care what the liver looks like in an animal. 04:16 Christians don't have priests. 04:19 At least not at this stage. 04:21 Christians didn't have animal sacrifices. We had no temples. 04:26 At least the Jews had a temple back in Jerusalem. 04:28 Christians had no temples. What? 04:32 And there were no statues. You call yourself a religion? 04:37 So what do Christians do? 04:41 We emphasize beliefs. 04:43 And behavior, beliefs, and behavior we ate together. 04:47 Gathered to hear authoritative texts. 04:50 Read out loud, guess what? 04:53 That's what everyone would associate with a philosophical school. If you were a sect of philosophy. You did those things. 05:01 Worried about what to believe? 05:03 How to behave? You ate together and you heard authoritative texts read out loud like the works of Plato, for example. 05:12 So philosophers focus on wisdom. If you didn't know, philosophy is a compound word of. 05:22 The word love and the word wisdom. So it means the love of wisdom. 05:26 Corinthian Christians may have even presented themselves as a school of philosophy early on. 05:33 When it comes to the subject of wisdom, Paul does a lot with it. 05:38 In one Corinthians, especially in the 1st 4 chapters. 05:42 Paul Gardner writes. 05:43 The main underlying issue that Paul addresses concerns the possession of wisdom and knowledge. 05:49 The Corinthians regarded these as spiritual gifts and gave them a significance and importance. 05:55 That caused spiritual arrogance among some. 05:59 These people were definitely spiritually arrogant. 06:01 OK. And that's one of the things Paul is is addressing over and over again. 06:05 We read in first Corinthians 1. 06:07 It says for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel. 06:14 And not with eloquent wisdom, so that the Cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 06:19 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. 06:25 But to us, who are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is written. 06:31 I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. 06:38 Where is the one who is wise. 06:41 Where is the scholar? 06:42 Where is the debater of this age? 06:45 Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the? 06:49 For, since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. 06:53 God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. 06:59 For Jews, ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified. 07:05 A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks. 07:12 Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God for God's foolishness, is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. 07:24 Thanks once again. 07:26 Delights in how God said it all up. 07:30 He knows the story about a crucified hero is utter nonsense in a city like Corinth where you have all these different ideas competing with each other. 07:41 Only if it had been so simple could God reach so many with salvation. 07:47 If it was so great. 07:49 The wisdom of this world, if it was so great. 07:53 Then the philosophers would have. 07:55 Discovered God. 07:57 The philosophers would have discovered salvation, but they didn't. 08:02 So the wisdom of this world is defective. 08:05 There's something wrong with it, so it's not like he says wisdom is stupid. 08:10 Cares about it? 08:11 That's not what he's saying. 08:12 It's more sophisticated than that. 08:14 We'll come back to this in a minute, but for now, let's try to familiarize ourselves with the philosophical schools that were in the city of Corinth in the 1st century. 08:24 Now philosophy was a big deal. By Paul's time, philosophy was already 6 centuries old, like the earliest Greek philosophers. 08:31 Before Socrates were six centuries before Christ and then in the 3rd century. 08:37 The 4th and 3rd century there was a huge renaissance. A huge, not really renaissance, but explosion of Greek philosophical schools in Athens, but also in other places throughout Greece. 08:50 So we get philosophers like Plato, Diogenes, Pyro, Epicurus and Zeno. Philosophy sought to answer the question how do I lead the good life? 09:03 That's what they wanted to know. 09:07 The practical guide to achieving this was to pursue eudaimonia. 09:13 That's a Greek word. The Latin word is Felicitas. 09:16 We have the word Felicity from it, right? 09:19 This is the idea of flourishing. 09:22 Or happiness. But like in a deeper sense, you're like, you want to have a good life. 09:27 Want to have? 09:28 You want to be able to handle whatever life throws at you. 09:32 The philosophers were trying to figure that out. 09:36 Now I can't cover all the philosophers. 09:38 I'm. 09:38 Not going to hit Socrates or. 09:41 I don't know if you notice, they're both missing from my chart, but I'm focusing on the ones that were ascendant at the time that Paul was there in Corinth and that Paul is writing to the Corinthians. 09:53 OK, Aristotle will have his heyday 1000 years later. 09:57 Plato even wasn't. 09:58 That big of a deal in the 1st century. 10:00 It wasn't really till the 3rd century that Neoplatonism really got going. 10:06 So I'm just going to focus on the ones that were there at that. 10:10 First up, we're going to look at Platonism, but we also are going to look at cynicism, skepticism, Epicureanism, and. 10:16 And I'm going to be as brief as I can, which is very hard for me, but I'm going to try 'cause. I just want you to have like. 10:24 A snapshot, just a brief understanding of each of these five schools of thought, because these are the competitors for Christianity in chorus. 10:33 It's not worshipping. 10:36 People are still going to be worshipping Apollo whether. 10:39 They like it or not. 10:40 Know what I? 10:41 Like that was something different, but you would be arguing with a Stoic philosopher, or you'd be arguing with an epicurean, or you see a cynic. 10:49 Be like yo, what is that guy doing? 10:51 Let's go talk to him. 10:52 Let's tell him about Jesus. 10:54 Right. These are the. These are the kinds of conversations. 10:56 Were happening. 10:57 All right, so Platonism is first, Plato writes about Socrates. 11:02 Socrates doesn't write anything Plato writes about Socrates. 11:06 And we don't know too much about Plato himself. 11:09 But we do know that many of his books have survived. 11:13 He talked about another realm of the forms, a realm of unchangeable entities that were perfect, and our world is a copy. We live in a shadow world of this other, higher world, where the real things are. 11:28 And our goal is to pursue virtue so that we can lead the good life. We want to be as close to those perfected forms of reality as we can be. And of course, at the top of all the forms is the good with a capital G. 11:46 Or the one. 11:48 Which is identified typically as like the supreme God overall. 11:53 Our souls are able to ascend through contemplation of philosophical truths to the higher realm, and that is something that Plato talks about a lot. 12:07 Detachment from the physical world, pursuing virtues, cultivating virtues, pursuing virtues is the way to happiness, and having a good life. I can say a lot more about Plato, but in all honesty, Platonism. 12:23 That big in corn from the 1st century. So I'm just gonna leave it there. 12:26 Gonna move on to the next one, OK, cynicism. 12:29 The founder of Cynicism was a guy named Diogenes. 12:34 Sano pay he lived from 4:12 to 323 BC. 12:39 He believed in a life of. 12:41 One day he was watching a mouse run around. 12:46 And he noticed that the mouse was a. 12:49 And the mouse didn't carry things with it, and it didn't worry about the things that people worry about. 12:54 He said there is the wisdom of the. 12:56 I must learn from this mouse and I will simplify my life. 13:04 So he didn't seek shelter anymore. From then on, Diogenes lived outside. 13:04 Go ahead. 13:10 He didn't search for what people search for, and he doubled his cloak so that it would work as a garment, but also to sleep in. 13:20 He carried a knapsack with him for food and embraced homelessness. 13:24 Was an ultra. 13:26 He only had 1 cup. 13:31 He had One Cup and one day he was at the fountain getting water and he saw a child using his hands to drink and he threw away his cup and he said, I've been outdone by a child. 13:46 Throw away his cup. 13:47 Never use it again. 13:48 The child has outdone me. 13:51 He believed in training himself physically and. 13:54 Diogenes would roll around in the hot sand in the summer. He would hug snow covered statues in the winter. 14:02 He tried to eat raw meat, but he couldn't digest it. 14:06 He would stay outside in the rain. 14:09 He once begged alms of a statue. 14:13 That's how he got money, he begged. 14:15 And he was baked. One day, they saw him begging of a statue and they said, do you know, why are you begging money from a statue? 14:24 To which he replied to get practice in being turned down. 14:30 He trained his body and his mind both to be strong and he wanted to act according to nature. 14:35 As revealed by his body, so if he was hungry, he ate. It didn't matter. 14:41 What time it was or what other people thought if he was tired, he slept. Did it matter? 14:47 What everybody else was doing, if he was tired, he slept. 14:50 He had no concern for tradition, customer etiquette when reproved for eating in the marketplace, he said. It was in the marketplace. 14:58 Got hungry. 14:59 So this is basically the guy in the grocery store. You see pop open a bag of chips and start eating while he's shopping in the store. All right, that's Diogenes. 15:09 He had lots of interactions with Plato. 15:11 I'm not really going to go into it, but they they criticized each other a lot. 15:14 He didn't really like Plato. 15:16 Didn't really like Diogenes. 15:18 Diogenes made fun of Plato's Long windedness. 15:22 Plato criticized Diogenes Vanity and his surfer's reputation, and Plato named Diogenes the dog. 15:31 And so he and he kind of was a dog. He lived outside. And he just, like, went for scraps. You know, he like, he kind of. And he and he owned it. 15:37 Embraced that identification. 15:42 When Plato was applauded for defining a man as an animal with two legs and no feathers, Diogenes tore the feathers out of a rooster. 15:51 Brought it before the class and said, behold Plato's man. 15:58 He had interactions with Alexander the Great. 16:02 One time when Diogenes was sunbathing in Corinth, Alexander the Great came up to him and said. 16:07 Ask whatever you desire to which diocese replied. 16:11 Stand out of my light. 16:15 Once, Alexander said to. 16:16 I am Alexander the Great King, to which Diogenes replied. 16:21 And I am Diogenes the dog. 16:25 Another time Alexander came to him and said, don't you fear me? And Diogenes said. 16:30 What do you? 16:31 Are you good or evil? 16:33 Alexander. 16:33 I am good, Diogenes. 16:35 Why would I fear what is good? 16:39 He was provocative one time when watching a bad Archer, he sat next to the target and said. 16:47 So I won't be hit. 16:49 When asked what wine he enjoyed, he replied somebody else's. 16:55 When asked by tourists where Demosthenes was, he pointed him out with his middle finger. 17:01 And the middle finger meant you know what it means for us, more or less. 17:06 When someone hit him with a beam and said look out, the Diogenes hit him with a staff and said, look at yourself. 17:15 These are just the funniest stories. 17:17 I could go on and. 17:18 We're going to have to skip ahead all. 17:20 He was loved by the Athenians. The people in Athens, but he was also laughed at a lot. 17:24 Jerome Murphy O'Connor says the fundamental principle of Diogenes philosophy was that happiness could be achieved only by satisfying one's natural needs in the easiest and cheapest way. 17:35 Since this inevitably involved a certain shamelessness, he was known as the dog Sinai and followers as cynics. 17:46 Here's a little story about him, told by a different Diogenes Diogenes Laertius. He talks about Diogenes of Sanopia, he says. 17:54 And he endured being sold into slavery with great dignity. 17:58 On a voyage to Gina, he was captured by pirates under Skirp Palaces Command transported to Crete and put up for sale. 18:08 You imagine that your ship. 18:10 Taken over by pirates and being sold into slavery, how devastating would that be to a normal person? Diogenes is just totally fine, and when? 18:18 Herald asked him. Asked. 18:19 What if he was good? 18:20 He replied, ruling over men pointing to an affluent Corinthian. 18:26 The above mentioned zinniates, he said. 18:29 Sell me to him. He needs a master. 18:32 Thus, Zinniatis purchased him, took him home to Corinth, put him in charge of his own sons, and entrusted him with his entire household, and Diogenes performed all his duties in such a manner that Zinniades went about saying. 18:48 A kindly deity has entered my house. 18:51 Diogenes Friends wanted to ransom him, for which he called them imbeciles, for he maintained that lions are not the slaves of those who feed them. 19:00 It is the feeders rather. 19:02 Who are the lions slaves? 19:04 For fear is the mark of a slave, and wild beasts make men fearful. 19:08 Diogenes possessed astonishing powers of persuasion, and hence could easily sway anyone he liked with his arguments. So, as this story tells us, Diogenes, who was from Athens, who was a conversation partner for Plato. 19:24 Who was a very provocative person ended up in Corinth. 19:28 He lived until the age of 90. 19:29 Died in Corinth. 19:31 He was buried by the gate, going out towards the isthmus. 19:35 Of. 19:36 And there was a memorial of Diogenes there in Corinth, even 450 years later, when Pasanius gets there, which is like about a century after Paul, he talks about how there are memorials to Diogenes as he goes into Corinth. 19:52 So he was a. 19:53 Deal had a big influence in Corinth. 19:58 Onto skepticism. The founder of skepticism was a man named Pyro of. 20:03 Ellis. 20:05 Who live from 360 to 270 BC. 20:11 We learned about him that Pyro introduced the notion of inability. 20:16 To attain conviction and that of suspension of judgment for he said that nothing is beautiful or ugly or just or unjust, and that likewise in all instances nothing exists in truth. But men do everything by custom and by habit. 20:33 On a voyage at sea, a storm arose and Pyro was on the ship and he looked over and there was a pig, and it was just. 20:40 His food. 20:41 Totally unconcerned about the storm and Pyro says. That's how I want to be. 20:47 I want to be like that pig. 20:49 That pig could go through a storm. 20:51 Have peace. 20:54 And that was the idea of pursuing tranquility over certainty. 20:59 Pyro thinks that it's all this dogmatic philosophers that are so certain of all these truths that they are proclaiming that's really the cause of anxiety. 21:08 Just need to recognize that we don't know and just embrace the doubt and move on with life. 21:15 That was pyro's approach. For every argument, he said. There's an equally good counter argument. 21:20 You can't know anything with certainty. 21:23 Our senses are. 21:24 Our cognitive faculties are deceivable, so embrace doubt. 21:30 Just live according to customs and pursue the practical necessities. This is like exactly the opposite of Diogenes. 21:37 Is like give me your custom. 21:41 Just destroy your customs. 21:42 Whereas Pyro is like, yeah, you know, who knows? Let's just follow the rules like they're supposed to be. 21:48 About him, Diogenes Laertius writes to them the skeptics reply. 21:53 We acknowledge our human feelings, for we recognize that it is day that we are alive and many other things that appear in life. 22:00 But with regard to the things the dogmatic philosophers affirm so positively an argument. 22:05 Claiming to have comprehended them, we suspend judgment on the grounds that they are not certain. 22:11 And we know only what we feel. 22:14 We admit that we see. 22:15 We recognize that we think. 22:17 This or. 22:18 But how we see or how we think we do? 22:20 No, and in ordinary conversation we say that a certain thing appears white, but without affirming strongly that it actually is white. 22:30 So that's the skeptics. Next to the Epicureans and Epicureanism. 22:35 Founded by Epicurus, who lived from 3:41 to 270. 22:42 Epicurus gets a bad reputation. Everybody thinks Epicurious was just a hedonist who taught pursuing short term pleasure regardless of the consequences. 22:51 Totally not the case. 22:52 He was a sophisticated philosopher as late as the 3rd century, so 2 centuries after Paul went to Corinth. 23:00 We have reports of Epicurean schools. 23:03 Well ordered, with established leaders still carrying on. So it was a significant force in the ancient world. 23:14 He believed that the gods existed. Sometimes people say Epicureans were atheists. 23:18 Were. 23:19 Or at least Epicurus. 23:20 There might have been some Epicurean atheist, but Epicurious himself believed the gods existed. 23:25 But he didn't think that they cared about humans. 23:30 He. 23:30 There are two great fears. Fear of the gods and fear of death. 23:35 And he said, look, the guys want to pursue pleasure and avoid pain just like us. 23:40 So there's no way that they're worried about how we're doing. 23:44 World is a. 23:44 There's so much suffering here, there's no way the gods care about us. 23:47 So you don't need to worry about the gods. 23:50 And then with death, he said. Look dead people don't exist. And so long as you're alive, death doesn't exist. 23:58 So don't worry about death and he said. 24:00 You don't need to worry about the guys. 24:02 Don't need to worry about death. 24:03 You just pursue what is good for you. 24:07 Here are some of the teachings of the Epicureans. 24:11 According to Diogenes Laertius, even when he is tortured, the wise man is content. 24:16 The wise man will not consort with women in any manner. 24:20 By law. 24:21 Nor will he punish his servants. The Epicureans do not think that the wise man will fall in love, nor will he be concerned about his burial. 24:30 Nor do they think that love is sent by the gods. Nor will the wise man make fine speeches. 24:35 They maintain that sexual relations are never beneficial and that one should be grateful not to be injured by them. 24:42 The wise man will not marry and bigot children. He will not talk nonsense when drunk. 24:47 He will not participate in politics or make himself a tyrant, or live like a cynic or be a beggar. 24:53 The wise man will also experience grief. He will avail himself of the law courts. He will take thought for his property and for the future. He will love the countryside. 25:04 So just a flavor of the Epicurean philosophy. 25:08 Not nearly as hedonistic as you would have. 25:11 Like he's like, nobody should even have sex at. 25:13 Like if you could avoid it, don't. Don't get married. Don't have any kids. 25:16 So this. 25:17 A little different than probably your thinking. 25:20 Here's another statement from Epicurus himself in his letter to Manafort, he says pleasure is the beginning and the end of a happy life. 25:29 And it is because pleasure is our first and innate good that we choose every pleasure that we often forgo many pleasures when a greater annoyance results from them, and we regard many pains as preferable to pleasures when a prolonged endurance of pains brings us greater pleasure. 25:46 For simple, fair brings as much pleasure as. 25:50 Feast. Once the pain of want has been removed and barley cake and water give a hungry man the greatest pleasure. 25:58 To accustom. 25:59 Therefore, it's as simple, inexpensive fare supplies, the essentials of health. 26:04 It enables a man to face the demands of life without shrinking, and puts us in a better condition when we encounter. 26:11 Expensive fare from time to time. It makes us fearless of fortune. 26:15 But when we say that pleasure is our goal, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the self indulgent as the ignorant think, or those who disagree with or misinterpret our views. 26:27 By pleasures, we mean the absence of pain in the body and of torment in the soul. 26:33 For it is not drinking bouts and continuous carousals, nor the pleasures to be had with boys and women. 26:40 Nor the enjoyment of fish and all other delicacies. 26:43 Luxurious table furnishes that produce a pleasant life. 26:46 But the sober reasoning that examines the basis of every choice and aversion. 26:51 And vanishes the beliefs that afflict the soul with its worst torments. 26:55 Man, come right, huh? 26:59 Epicurus. 27:00 If you adopt this way of life, you will live like a God among men. 27:06 Onto stoicism. 27:07 Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium, who lived from 3:34 to 262 BC. 27:16 He was initially trained under the cynic teacher Kratis, but he couldn't embrace the shamelessness of the cynics. Xeno's, like I see your point. But. 27:27 I don't know. 27:28 About just doing the stuff you guys did. 27:32 I mean, I didn't tell you any of the X-rated stuff about Diogenes, but you can look it up yourself if you really want to know. 27:39 Zeno is like. 27:40 I see your point, but I'm not going that far. 27:43 I'm going to go in this direction and he starts his own school and so Zeno gave lectures walking up and down painted STOA or columns, which is why. 27:53 Followers were known as the Stoics, the people of the columns, because that's where they hung out and had their lessons. 28:00 Zeno himself says Diogenes was sullen and curt and of a shriveled countenance. Not the nicest way to start. 28:09 He was extremely frugal, his thrift, cloaking, a barbarous stinginess. If he rebuked anyone, he did so tersely, without elaborating and keeping his distance. 28:20 His powers of endurance and the austerity of his way of life were unequalled. 28:24 The food he ate was uncooked, and the cloak he wore was thin. These are compliments. 28:30 By the way, at least towards the end there. 28:34 The goal is to live in harmony with nature. 28:37 That's what Zeno said. 28:39 What are the virtues? 28:42 Wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. 28:45 That's what the Stoic is looking. 28:47 They want to cultivate these virtues in their life. 28:49 Wisdom, courage, justice, and. 28:51 All good things. I think everyone would agree. 28:54 And then, of course, the vices are the opposite of those. 28:57 And each person has a duty. You have a duty to yourself to cultivate these virtues. 29:02 Have a duty to your family. 29:04 Duty to your city. 29:07 He also taught asceticism, which is the idea of denying pleasure. 29:10 This guy is literally the opposite of. 29:13 Epicurus is saying, look, we all want pleasure, which is the absence of pain. 29:16 Let's just find ways to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. 29:20 Xenos, like you know, pleasure. 29:22 Is actually bad for you. 29:23 Let's pursue discipline. 29:27 Pleasure is an irrational elation at obtaining what seems to be desirable. 29:34 Here's a little teaching summary about the wise man. According to Zeno, the wise man is free of passion. 29:40 The wise man is free of vanity, for he is equally indifferent to good and bad reputation. 29:47 The good aim genuinely and vigilantly for their own improvement. They are unpretentious. 29:52 They are not overly busy. 29:54 They will drink in moderation, but will never get drunk. 29:57 Nor will they go crazy. The wise man will not be afflicted by grief, since grief is an irrational contraction of the soul. 30:06 The good are also God fearing, for they are conversant with customs that concern the gods. 30:11 Piety is knowledge of how to serve the gods. 30:14 Moreover, they will sacrifice to the gods. 30:17 And they keep themselves pure by avoiding offenses against the gods. The wise man will take part in politics. 30:23 If nothing prevents him and he will marry and bigot children and he will live like a cynic, it's almost exactly the opposite of what Epicurus said. 30:31 And he will live like a cynic, since the cynic way of life is a short cut to. 30:35 The Goodman will not live in solitude, for he is suited by nature for society and for action. He will also submit to training for the sake of physical endurance. 30:44 The Wise man does everything well. 30:47 Virtue is sufficient for happiness. 30:51 The Stoics also had a strong belief in fate, so whatever happens was meant to happen, and your job is to accept it regardless what it was. 31:01 So self-control. 31:02 Stiff upper lip. self-made man. 31:05 That is stoicism. 31:10 So we have these 5 philosophical. 31:13 They were all in Corinth at the same time as Christianity. 31:16 And Christianity is competing with these guys for adherence, for people to join their meetings. 31:23 How you gonna do it? 31:25 These guys are three centuries old by the time Paul, this Jewish rabbi, always a Pharisee. Nobody even knows what that is in Corinth except for the the Jewish synagogue. 31:34 The Jews, they know what? 31:35 But like, he's got nothing. How? 31:38 How is he going to deal with this? 31:40 Urbane. Sophisticated. 31:42 People. 31:44 And convince them that this little tiny movement is the. 31:49 Is the true way to lead the good life. 31:51 How? 31:52 Is he going to do it? 31:56 How can Paul convince these people? 31:59 That. 31:59 The way of Christ is the good life. 32:02 Let S see I Corinthians chapter 2. Paul says. When I came to you brothers and sisters, I did not. 32:08 Com proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech wisdom. 32:12 Wisdom. 32:14 He just he just opts out from the first sentence. 32:18 He's like, look. 32:19 I ain't a philosopher. 32:21 I come with superior speech or with wisdom. 32:28 Verse 2 for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 32:33 And I came to you in weakness in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power. 32:51 Of God. 32:52 Paul claims weakness and lack of sophistication up front. 32:57 He didn't engage philosophically. 33:00 I mean, you hear these different philosophical schools? 33:02 Hear the. 33:03 You're like, you know what? 33:04 A lot of intellectual humility there. I think the skeptics are right. 33:07 Then you hear. 33:08 You're like, you know what, he's got a lot of great points too. 33:11 And then you hear Zeno and he's saying the exact. 33:13 And then there's brother Diogenes over here, and he's homeless, and he's saying to everyone you're all you're all suckers. Why are you in the rat race? 33:22 I'm the only one that's truly free. 33:25 Course he's a slave of some Corinthian, right? 33:28 Like, how do you? 33:29 How do you know who's right? 33:31 Paul says they're all wrong. 33:33 He doesn't like, say, philosophy is dumb and you shouldn't care, but what he says is that. 33:38 This is something different. 33:41 Is something. 33:42 It's not just another. 33:44 Slice of the same apple. 33:47 Instead, he brought an absurd message about a crucified hero. 33:52 And he knew it was. 33:54 And he boasted in it being absurd. 33:58 But he also talks about this new category. 34:03 Spirit. 34:05 And power. We'll come back to that. I Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6. Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom. Sophia. 34:13 That's every time you hear the word wisdom, you should think half of the word philosophy. OK. 'cause. Sophia is half of the word philosophy. 34:20 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age. 34:24 Which interesting. It's not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are being destroyed. 34:33 But we speak God's wisdom, a hidden mystery which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 34:41 And which none of the rulers of this age understood for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. 34:48 So he says to them earlier. 34:50 Didn't come with wisdom. 34:52 But then here, he says. 34:54 Well, there actually is a wisdom among the mature we do speak wisdom. 35:02 Right there is a wisdom. OK, tell us about the wisdom. 35:07 It's an exclusive wisdom most people can't understand it. 35:10 That's what he's. 35:11 He's saying only the mature can understand it, and even the rulers of this age. 35:16 They missed. 35:17 They didn't understand the wisdom. 35:21 Hidden mystery. 35:22 Only the mature get. 35:24 And now he's going to segue to talk about the Spirit verse 9. 35:28 But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those. 35:34 Who love? 35:35 That's a quote from the Old Testament. 35:37 These things God has revealed to us through. 35:40 The spirit for the spirit searches everything, even the depths. 35:45 Of God. For what human knows? What is truly human, except the human spirit. 35:50 That is within. 35:52 So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except. 35:56 The spirit of God. 35:58 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God. 36:03 So that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God, and we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom. 36:10 But taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. 36:16 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's spirit, for they are foolishness to them. 36:22 And they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things. 36:30 And they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny. 36:34 He just took a lever and justice knocked over all the philosophical schools. 36:40 In one paragraph and said we guys thought it better, it's better. 36:47 He's undermined Plato, Diogenes, Pyro, Epicurus, and Xeno, all at once. 36:52 Forget the plateness. Forget the synnex. 36:54 The. 36:55 Forget the stoics. Forget the epicureans. 36:59 They missed it. 37:00 There's a deeper truth beyond worldly wisdom. 37:04 It's not taught by human philosophy, but divine wisdom through the spirit. 37:12 Verse 14. Again, those who are unspiritual do not receive the gift of God spirit, for they are foolishness to them and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 37:23 If the Corinthian Christians are in a different plane, a spiritual plane, they should expect. 37:29 That the Stoics, the Epicureans, the cynics, and so forth, wouldn't understand what they're talking about. 37:35 It gives them a kind of pride, I think in a positive sense. 37:41 Knowing that they're insignificant, but that God's spirit can empower them to have the truth that these really significant people all missed. 37:53 Which I think is really powerful and empowering. 37:58 So Paul drives home his point. If you guys have received God's spirit. 38:03 And have something better than all the philosophers. 38:07 Stop fighting with each other. 38:09 That's where he goes. 38:11 Chapter 3, verse 1. And so brothers and sisters. 38:15 I could not speak to you. 38:17 As spiritual people, but rather as people. 38:19 The flesh. 38:21 That's a slap to the face right there. I couldn't speak to you as spiritual people, only people of the flesh. 38:27 Rather, people of the flesh as infants in Christ. 38:30 I fed you with milk, not solid food for you were not ready for solid food, and even now you are still not ready. 38:38 Another slapped in. 38:39 Face for you are still of the flesh. 38:43 For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving according to human inclinations? 38:52 For when one says I belong to Paul and another, I belong to Apollos, are you not merely human? 38:59 You guys need to get along. 39:00 Fighting with each other. 39:02 Get on the spiritual plane. 39:03 You see how? 39:04 Effective the apostle Paul was at his. 39:07 If you want a case if you want an argument for. 39:10 The inspiration of God in the new. 39:13 Here it is like he's navigating in a possibly complex situation and he he finds like this one category that can make sense of everything. This idea of spirit and being spiritual. 39:25 And then he says to them. 39:26 You know, and by this point in the letter, they're just like, yeah, that sounds really good. 39:31 On. 39:32 I want spirit. Let's do this. 39:33 Let's do that. 39:34 That's awesome. 39:36 And then he turns to him and says, but not you guys. 39:39 Now you're fighting with each other. 39:40 You you're not spiritual. 39:43 So effect. 39:46 It's just such a powerful way of dealing with this. They yearn for significance and Paul showed them how the gospel was superior to everything else and that pursuing unity was necessary for those who would be mature. OK, enough of philosophy and divisions. 40:02 What I recommend you do. 40:04 Is read 1 Corinthians one through 4 just on your own? Read it. 40:11 And here's my hope my prayer for. 40:14 Is that a lot of these things we've talked about with status and wealth and Corinthian bronze and philosophies and all this stuff will be able to inform you as you read this on your own where you're like, Oh my goodness, that's what he's talking about. 40:32 And it'll hopefully make it come alive for you. 40:35 And then I want you to ask yourself the question, what about me? 40:41 What about me? Now in the 21st century? 40:44 3. 40:45 How should I think about status? 40:48 Should I think about? 40:50 Wealth. How should I think about knowledge or philosophy or education? 40:57 These are all important questions for us to ask ourselves as well. 41:00 And Spirit, we're going to talk tons about spirit because it's an important concept in First Corinthians. 41:07 All. 41:07 So next time we're going to leave this whole section of First Corinthians behind, jump into Chapter 5 and 6, which deals with sexual immorality. 41:18 And so I hope you'll join me in our next session together and see how Christians dealt with sexual issues 2000 years ago. 41:29 Because, believe it or not, I think how they dealt with it is really helpful for us today. 41:34 Because. 41:36 As crazy as our world seems to us. 41:40 Their world was even crazier. 41:43 And I look forward to showing you how that's the case and also then asking the question how can we stand faithful to the ethics that we have received in our time? 41:51 That's what we'll do next as we continue through this class 1st Corinthians. 41:59 Well, that brings this session to a. 42:01 What did you think? Come on over to restitudio.org and find Episode 587 and leave your questions and thoughts and feedback there. 42:12 Now at the close of my last episode, I read out a negative review for my book Kingdom Journey that somebody had posted on Amazon, and to that, Manuel wrote in saying, hey, Sean, I want to say your remarks about the rant really hit home to me. 42:29 It made me really think about the strength in our agreement and what. 42:32 We do believe. 42:33 I'm really sorry that person gave you a bad rating. 42:36 We do have differences, but we need our strength in what we believe together to get the message of the Kingdom. 42:42 Out there. 42:43 Thanks for speaking about this. 42:45 Well, thanks for writing in Manuel and for the words of encouragement. 42:49 67 It certainly was an ironic time for this person to write in such a negative review on my book, even though this person agreed with me literally on everything, apparently, except for how much importance I assigned to one's understanding of the Millennium. 43:05 0. 43:06 They're basically just like a riority. 43:08 This person wanted me to be equally dogmatic on something that's actually called gospel. 43:14 And something that is really secondary and we're we're honest hearted. 43:19 Have lots of. 43:20 And you know, I think it's pretty clear, but I'm willing to have fellowship with Amillennialists and postmill. 43:27 And really, just focus on what Jesus focused on, which is that the ultimate Kingdom is certainly coming and that that is part of this gospel message that we're called to proclaim anyhow, as it turns out, I I was reading that out last week on our episode about. 43:43 Factions and divisions within the church and this spirit is still sadly very much alive of factionalism and divisiveness. 43:54 And that's something that I I hope you heard at the end of this presentation. 43:58 Is something that Paul's fighting against? 44:01 This idea that you have all these philosophical sects, and they're all saying, Oh no, you're wrong about this. You're wrong about that. 44:07 They're all forming their own schools, and they're all in competition with each other. 44:12 Of course, not all competition is bad. 44:14 But within Christianity, we want to be. 44:19 We want to err on the side of unity as much as we can, even with people that we disagree with. 44:27 On doctrine or on practice, so long as you're not compromising who you are and what and what you believe and how you live, you know if you can be in fellowship with a Christian who has different beliefs, I say you do. 44:40 Do it. 44:40 Why not? 44:42 How else are you going to convince that person that your way of seeing it is better if you don't have any contact? If you don't have any conversation and connection? 44:52 Also, we have to recognize, and Gavin Ortlan wrote a book about this. 44:56 Not too long ago was it finding the right hills to die on. 44:59 We have to realize that not every doctrine is equally important. 45:03 There are some doctrines that are salvation. 45:06 Get it wrong. You're not saved. 45:09 That's the most critical information there is. 45:12 What we call gospel. 45:14 And then you have other doctrines that need to be in agreement in order to have fellowship with other Christians in a worship setting, right? 45:22 Like maybe you could go eat lunch with them. 45:24 Out at a diner or attend a conference with that person, so long as the conference was clearly not going to take sides or or violate anyone's sense of what should be done and not done, obviously. 45:37 If you want to actually have. 45:38 Sunday Fellowship, for example, with somebody. Then you do need to have a certain amount of common agreement, or else you just run into chaos in the meeting at. 45:47 And then there's an even narrower door for those in church leadership. 45:51 Those in church leadership really do need to be in agreement on a high percentage of the church score and secondary beliefs, and sometimes even tertiary beliefs. 46:04 And each church has to work that out for themselves as to how strict they want to make that door to eldership in particular. 46:11 And this is totally understandable because the elders are going to be the ones empowered to. 46:17 Handle church discipline and teach others, especially in discipleship context. 46:22 What the church believes and answer the questions that people raise. 46:27 So that's a couple more thoughts on doctrine. The importance of doctrine. 46:31 Obviously I'm a big fan of doctrine. 46:33 I like to think about doctrine a lot and I don't like to divorce it from practical Christian living. I think both are equally important. 46:40 You can do the right thing for the wrong reason and you can do the wrong thing for the right reason and I want to do the right thing for the right reason. 46:47 About you. 46:50 I hope God will be gracious enough to help us see areas in which we are incorrect, whether in our practice or our belief as we continue to pursue truth wherever it leads. 47:00 Well, that's going to be it for today. Next week we are having an episode on Sexual Immorality. 47:06 Tackling first Corinthians chapter 5. 47:09 Definitely an episode where I would discourage you from having your kids listen to if they're not of the age to hear about deviant sexual practices from the ancient world. 47:20 Which I would say is pretty much just most kids. 47:22 Anyhow, that's up to Paris to decide, but it's going to be an interesting episode. I can promise you that. 47:28 And and we'll turn to that next week as we continue in this class. 47:33 01 last thing I wanted to mention is that the UCA today has come out with the call for papers for the London Conference in England, which will be held July 24th, 27th, so if you. 47:48 Are somebody, especially if you are a British somebody or a European? 47:53 Somebody and you would like to present at the Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference coming up this July. 48:02 Please submit your paper by May 15th to the e-mail address. 48:09 Ukconference@unitarianchristianalliance.org. 48:13 You can get all that info@unitarianchristianalliance.org the website so you can see the requirements there. 48:20 Think it's 6000 words, not counting footnotes. 48:23 And if your paper is selected by the Blind Review Committee, then you will be invited to speak, which would be. 48:31 Wouldn't. 48:32 So I'm planning to be there this time around, looking forward to going back to England. I have been to England. 48:38 Once before. 48:39 Oh boy, that was a long time ago. 48:40 Now let's see robably in the. 48:43 So yeah, long enough ago that it's that it will basically be an all new experience for me and I can't wait to meet folks that are there. 48:51 I heard Andrew Perryman presented last year and I'm a super big fan of his book in the form of a God. 48:58 Just have been leaning on a little bit for this first Corinthians class, in fact, so. 49:02 Hopefully I can meet him. If not, I look forward to meeting the other brothers and sisters that are there at the event. And if you are interested in coming, whether you're planning on presenting a paper, you just wanna do a trip. Hey, why not do it? So I. 49:17 To see you there. 49:18 That's July 24 to 27 this summer, coming up five months from now, and we'll see you there. 49:26 If you'd like to support restitudio, you can do that online at our website, which you can access on your phone or on your PC, or even if you have a Mac. 49:36 I guess you can still do it. 49:38 That's restitudio .0 R. 49:40 It's like the word restitution with no N you could come on there and we do have a donate button and we certainly appreciate those who are helping us out financially. Also, probably an even bigger way you can support us is just by sharing. 49:55 This episode or other episodes? 49:58 By sharing it with your friends, either sending them an e-mail to a link, I have this episode on YouTube as video. I have it on YouTube as audio. I have it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and pretty much any other podcast app that's out there. 50:15 In fact, if you know of an app or use something that restitudio is not on, please let me know so we can get on there and fix that. 50:23 Yeah, please share it if this did encourage you or bless you or you think that others might find it interesting. 50:29 I'll catch you next week and remember, the truth has nothing to fear.