A Know-Nothing

Daily Reading: 1 Corinthians 2-3

Scripture Focus: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2.2)

Devotional Thought: In the 1850's, the Know Nothing movement was born. Nativist, intolerant, and anti-Catholic, it began as a secret society. It later became a political party, but did not live long, dying out in 1860. Those who adopt those kinds of views, are destined to become not only know-nothings, but to become unknown as well.

Was Paul a know-nothing? He testified to the Corinthians that he "decided to know nothing... except Jesus Christ." Paul said that he did not depend on the effectiveness of human efforts - current methods of logic and debate. He didn't rely on his great learning and superior knowledge. None of that was good enough for Paul. He came preaching Jesus: Jesus in weakness, Jesus in death. It's not that the other things were without use and merit. It's just that they were not powerful enough, in and of themselves, for the all-inclusive message of the gospel. For Paul, the gospel of God was too important to depend on the methods of man.

So, in that sense, Paul was indeed a know-nothing, a know-nothing-but-Jesus! Paul's message was full of the Spirit and power! Lives were changed - brought from darkness to light, from death to life, from the power of Satan to God. They received a place among the holy ones of God!

Paul's know-nothing approach was not narrow-minded and exclusive, like the Know Nothings of the 1800's. No, it was so wide, so broad, that it included all people - Jews and Greeks, male and female, slave and free. Whosoever will may come!

What about you? Are you a know-nothing? A know-nothing-but-Jesus? That's the only way the power of God will rest upon you!

Prayer: Father, I know that you have a work for me to do, a life to live. Help me to set aside methods of man for the gospel of God, so that Christ's power may rest on me. Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 112.1-5

1 Praise the Lord!

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,

who greatly delights in his commandments!

2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever.

4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;

he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.

5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;

who conducts his affairs with justice.