For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ESV
http://bible.com/59/1co.1.22-25.ESV
There are two ditches and one narrow path between them. Many who walk the ditches in great masses of people believe that they are on the path, but there is only one way, one truth, one life.
Some of us rely on knowledge and understanding alone to understand. Living very disciplined seeking only to measure, to calculate the physical things of this world. These are the Greek minded people of the world, who follow intellect and logic as the sole guide and goal of their lives. If it does not compute within the confines of their rules and comprehension, it is thrown out as error, as impossible, as false.
Some of us are driven by emotion and passion, with plenty of zeal, but little discipline – being carried by the waves of the signs and circumstances around us. Fighting hard against unseen enemies, not always realizing the difference between enemies and friends, but putting up a passionate fight between times of weariness. These are like the Jews, seeking signs to guide us, and waffling back and forth between rebellion and fearful loyalty.
This narrow path can be a stumbling block, because it calls us to neither rely upon our own understanding, nor to fight blindly against untested spirits or men of flesh and blood. It calls us to rely upon God’s strength to guide us and lead us, and calls us to step out in faith upon His promises. It is truly a surrender of both our intellectual and emotional will to submit to His will. To participate in His Kingdom work – neither the prisoner of the Law of Moses nor a slave to the waves of our emotions, but a child freed to experience and share the love of Christ with the world.
If I will be a fool to the Greek minded, let me be a fool for Christ.
And if my voice is a two edged sword to the Jewish minded, let me be a messenger for Christ.
But let it be for Christ and Christ alone, to whom I die daily to gladly pick up my cross and bear it – that He might use me, that I might participate in His Kingdom, in His will being done on earth, as it is in heaven. For He gives me my daily bread, and He forgives my trespasses, even as I forgive those who wrong me, and He leads me not into temptation and defeat, but to victory, for His glory, and His honor, and His power – forever and ever, Amen.
Harold J. Ballinger 