Faith in Focus #6

A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week

Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.

Follow Ben, and subscribe to Intellectual Dissatisfaction to receive next week’s edition.

Sermon Reflection: Walking by Faith in a World That Won’t Believe Its Eyes

Based on Jonathan Land’s sermon, Connection Church Sioux Falls, Dec. 7th, 2025.

Paul insists that the wisdom of God cannot be acquired, mastered, or reverse-engineered, it must be given. In this second week of Advent reading of 1 Corinthians 2, we explore walking by faith, not by sight.

Advent always invites us to wait for what we cannot yet see. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul meets us there, insisting that our deepest need is not more information but a new way of perceiving reality. Jonathan Land opened this week’s sermon with a surprising analogy drawn from particle physics: to the initiated, the language of quarks and gluons makes sense, even if imperfectly. To the uninitiated, it sounds like science fiction.

Paul says something similar about the gospel. To those who have been “called” into God’s presence, the cross makes sense. To those who have not, it sounds absurd. And Advent, with its strange promises of virgin births and world-remaking hope, sharpens that tension.

The World Behind the Text

Corinth was a city where knowledge was currency. Orators sold prestige by spinning arguments so clever that spectators could judge them like sport. Teachers gathered followings based on rhetorical brilliance. Status was built on what you could prove, demonstrate, or display.

Into that world, Paul announces a message that refuses to play by Corinth’s rules. The gospel is not a philosophy to master but a revelation to receive. Paul draws a stark line between:

• Knowledge (the what and how)

• Wisdom (the why — the God-grounded meaning beneath all things)

In the honor-driven air of Corinth, that distinction was offensive. True wisdom, Paul claims, is not the product of human inquiry but the gift of God’s Spirit. Despite how fully Corinth prized cognitive mastery, Paul says its operating system cannot access the wisdom of God at all.

This is why he names the rulers of the age, those with maximum access to knowledge, and says plainly that if they had possessed God’s wisdom, they would not have crucified “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Worldly wisdom and God’s wisdom cannot coexist; one inevitably kills the other.

Walking the Passage

Paul writes as someone painfully familiar with how impressive spiritual sight can feel, and how empty it can prove. In Acts 18 we learn that his Corinthian ministry came amid weakness and fear, not rhetorical grandeur. His message, he insists, rests not on “plausible words of wisdom” but on “a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”

This is the heart of the chapter: wisdom is not acquired; it is given. Paul anchors this claim in Scripture…

• Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”

• Proverbs 9:10: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

• James 1:5: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God… who gives generously to all.”

If wisdom comes through fearing the Lord, through awe, surrender, and rightly ordered reverence, then wisdom is not the reward of intellectual accomplishment but the fruit of divine revelation.

Here Paul turns to the Spirit. The Spirit “searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). Only the Spirit can reveal what God is doing; only the Spirit can teach us to see. This is why Jonathan’s particle-physics analogy lands so well. Without the Spirit, the gospel story looks implausible. With the Spirit, it becomes luminous and intelligible, like learning the language of a new universe.

Many of us, myself included, have said or at least thought: If I had been there to see Jesus’ miracles, I would have believed. Jonathan names the hard truth: sight alone cannot produce faith. Many who saw Jesus did not believe him. Many who witnessed Old Testament signs remained unmoved. Apart from the Spirit’s gift of wisdom, even miracles can look like nonsense.

A Fair Counter-Reading

A fair counter-reading raises the question: Doesn’t Paul risk anti-intellectualism here? Could this text be misused to reject legitimate study, scientific inquiry, or theological rigor?

Yes, if weaponized, Paul’s distinction between wisdom and knowledge can be twisted into an excuse for spiritual laziness. But Paul never diminishes the value of learning. His own letters reveal training in Hebrew Scripture, Greco-Roman rhetoric, and rabbinic tradition. What he rejects is not study but self-sufficiency. He opposes any system that assumes human perception alone can grasp God’s mind.

In other words, Paul is not anti-intellectual; he is anti-autonomy. Knowledge becomes dangerous not because it is wrong, but because it can deceive us into thinking we do not need God.

The Turn

Advent reframes Paul’s argument. A God who chooses to enter the world as a vulnerable infant is the ultimate challenge to human assumptions. A Messiah who conquers through crucifixion overturns the logic of both ancient Corinth and modern life.

Paul is forcing a choice of posture. What guides our lives: sight or faith? Information or illumination? Mastery or surrender?

And here is his pastoral turn: sin convinces us that blindness to God’s truth is normal. It persuades us to trust ourselves. It entices us to treat worldly knowledge as the ultimate truth. But if Paul is right, then real healing begins not with learning more but with receiving something we cannot manufacture.

This is the story of Advent: God gives what we cannot obtain. Wisdom is not earned; it is granted to those who fear the Lord and ask. God is generous with this gift. He gives it freely to those He calls.

Carry It Into the Week

So the invitation this week is simple and demanding:

Ask.

Ask for wisdom. Ask for the vision only the Spirit can give. The kind that sees Christ rightly and sees the world through the cross rather than through cultural pressure. Proverbs says that wisdom begins with fear of the Lord. James says God gives wisdom to those who lack it. Paul says the Spirit reveals what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Walk by faith, not sight. Not because sight is evil, but because sight alone cannot reveal the depth of God’s purposes. And in Advent, this season of waiting for what we cannot yet see, God forms us into people who trust His wisdom over our own understanding.

Song of the Week: Dusty Bibles - Josiah Queen ft. Avery Anna

Josiah Queen has quickly become one of my newer must listen to artists, largely because his lyrics speak directly into the digital age we are all a part of. The chorus rings so true today, “We got dust on our Bibles. Brand new iPhones. No wonder why we feel this way.” It’s a sentiment many Christians recognize, myself included.

I’ve found the same pattern in my own life. Missing one day in Scripture might not register immediately, but by day three or four, the absence becomes noticeable. Life feels heavier, darker, less grounded. Even using a Bible app can create its own challenges; the phone becomes a gateway to distractions, turning time in the Word into just another task to check off.

Josiah’s chorus drives the point home: “I’m done with those idols and dusty Bibles.” It’s a reminder that anything, work, entertainment, even family, can become an idol when it takes your attention away from God.

My hope this week is simple: that we resist letting dust gather on our Bibles, set aside the idols that compete for our attention, and turn our focus back to Him.

Week in Reflection

This week brought a mix of exhaustion, conviction, and ultimately, clarity. After weeks of heavy snowfall left several volunteers unable to serve, I found myself covering at church for the third consecutive Sunday, including one weekend that required double duty. The unexpected workload highlighted a familiar tension: single members often shoulder the extra responsibilities. Yet a fellow single volunteer reframed the moment, reminding me that this season allows for a kind of spontaneous service that helps the church thrive. The fatigue is real, but so is the privilege of being able to serve when needed to further His church.

Childcare during Bible study added another layer of strain. Still processing the recent loss of my uncle, I expected time with the kids to offer a welcome shift in focus. Instead, their restlessness and repeated interruptions to the overall group left me feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. A group member stepped in with perspective, assuring me the disruptions weren’t nearly as dire as I imagined and that without childcare, the study couldn’t happen at all. It was a reminder of the grace others extend when we struggle to extend it to ourselves.

The week culminated in a rare flash of anger at a close friend and roommate. Frustration fueled less by the specific inconveniences and more by months of unspoken expectations. From long-delayed chores to a mishandled parking situation during the snowstorm, every small annoyance converged at once. None of the issues were serious, but they revealed a deeper truth. My roommate couldn’t know what bothered me because I had never clearly brought them up.

Looking back, each moment (the overextended serving schedule, the chaotic childcare shift, the household tension) pointed to areas where I need growth. Better communication. A more patient posture. A clearer understanding that my time, energy, and relationships are gifts from God, not burdens to bear alone.

My prayer this week is for openness: to see my availability to serve as a blessing, to accept encouragement from the community around me, and to address conflict with honesty and grace.

And as always, remember… God loves you, and so do I.