Don't Deceive Yourself with Candy

(1 Cor. 3:18) - "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, 'He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness;' and again, 'The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.'"

What an absolutely incredible and sobering command...'don't deceive yourself!' It would seem that if there is anything one doesn't want to do, it is deceive themselves. Yet that's what Paul here commands the Corinthians, and God commands us through Paul. How deceptive sin is that the very one it claims to care about, itself, it longs only to deceive! In myself, this is the course of action that sin will always choose to take. Notice however that the verb in the verse is active and not passive. Paul does not warn against passively being deceived, but actively deceiving oneself. So you might ask how do I know that in anything I am not deceiving myself? Never underestimate the deceitfulness of your own sin, even and especially, if you are a believer. It would seem that the only way to know that you are not deceiving yourself in anything you are saying, doing, thinking or feeling is by measuring truth by a sinless standard outside yourself that provides objective reality. Getting the advise of others won't inerrantly work either because all men are sinful and liable to deception. But since God is not sinful, His judgment is perfect and never wrong. Therefore, to the degree that I'm believing something that is not affirmed or confirmed by the Scripture, either in precept or principle, I could be deceiving myself. Paul confirms this by next discussing the danger of thinking that you are wise and trusting in your own wisdom. The solution or medicine he provides for such a disease is to become foolish or rather to see that which you once thought wise as foolish. By doing this a man invites God to reveal to him true wisdom.

Notice Paul says that a man wise in his own eyes must become foolish, but only may become wise. Seeing ones own wisdom as foolishness does not save you, but only prepares you (makes you ready) to be saved by God as He reveals to you true wisdom. Man willingly confessing his own wisdom to be foolish does not obligate God to reveal the Truth, yet authentic confession of folly is a true sign that the Lord is at work. One might ask then why does one have to first dismiss his own or the world's wisdom as folly before true wisdom can shine forth? Because God is the All-wise, All-praise-worthy Savior of men and there is no contribution that man makes to his salvation, aside from the corruption he is freed from. The world's wisdom is foolishness to God because, in truth, the world is foolish, deceiving itself into thinking it is depedent upon itself. The Lord catches the wise in their craftiness much like a father catching or exposing the lie that the candy his two-year-old is gourging himself with, which he thinks is nourishing him, is not filling him up at all, but in fact hurting him. The father knows the child's reasoning is corrupt and useless, much like God knows the world's wisdom to be. Therefore, don't deceive yourself by thinking you can discern what is or is not candy without God's help.