deceiving ourselves

1 Corinthians 3:18–20 (NIV) — 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

Paul returns to his discussion on wisdom from 1:18-31, and he does so with a strong warning. Do not deceive yourselves! If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.

How do we deceive ourselves with the wisdom of this age? There’s probably no end to the possible answers to that question. In the immediate context Paul has been talking about building God’s temple – you and I. Building and growing God’s church is different from building and growing a business, but often churches try to imitate “good business practices” rather than God’s methods. Let me give you some examples:

There is a difference between “marketing” and “evangelism”. There is a difference between “customers” and “brothers and sisters in Christ” or “visitors”. There is a difference between “business” and “ministry”.

There is also a difference in how success is measured. In business success is ultimately measured in terms of dollars in the bank. But intermediate measures include customers served and product sold. Almost every measure of success is in the terms of numbers on a spread sheet.

In ministry success is often measured differently. Some measures are numerical, for example, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” (Acts 2:41)  But those are not the most important measures. Building in wood, hay or straw may result in impressive numbers, but we saw the “success” of that in verses 3:13-15. Building in gold, silver or costly stones may result in less impressive numbers or perhaps even a “loss”, but success may be more enduring. Changed lives are impossible to quantify.

We should be careful that we don’t use this to hide dishonesty, or an excuse for laziness or apathy. Not all business practices are bad – some of those practices business got from the church! But it takes real wisdom – God’s wisdom to know the difference.

Are there things your church does that are more business-like than Christ-like? Are there things your church does that you think should be more business-like? How can you learn more about what success God wants to measure your church by, and the practices He wants to be followed?