What I believe about ... human wisdom vs. God's wisdom

I believe a recurring theme throughout the Bible is "Human wisdom vs. God's wisdom." In a way, all sin is a case of choosing human wisdom over God's wisdom, such as when Adam and Eve ate the fruit against God's admonition. God's wisdom is the way of life. It brings blessings, not always physical blessings, but in the end I believe God's wisdom is more trustworthy.

Here's how I define human wisdom and God's wisdom, roughly:

Human wisdom is
1) Self-preservation and self-promotion
2) "An eye for an eye"
3) Reason is the ultimate truth

God's wisdom is
1) Our focus is on God, not ourselves
2) Love your enemies
3) Truth is revealed by God, the ultimate Truth

I believe many of the things wrong about the church today are the outworking of human wisdom. For example, many ministers promote themselves, not Jesus. I don't believe any ministry should be named after any person except Christ. We are also often at war with society when we should be in love with them. I don't mean we should indulge in "worldly" things, but rather that we should not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

Perhaps most importantly, we need to stop imposing human wisdom--in the form of human institutions--on the church, such as a denominational, hierarchal clergy (as opposed to pastors raised from among the flock). My own pastor pointed out modern churches' obsession with their seats: the early church didn't have seats! We are so wrapped up in our conventions and ideas of what church should be like that we can't accept what God really wants to do. Here is a classic example of human wisdom vs. God's wisdom in the church:

(From Luke 13:10-16)
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath."

The Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?"

LOL! I can just imagine the synagogue ruler, all red-faced and huffy, telling Jesus that God's house was not the place for healing. Remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Amen!