Insight for Living

Chuck Swindoll: When you get the cross in the right perspective, everything comes together. Everything comes together. When you get Christ in the clear focus, it is amazing how you know which one is the right goal line. It's amazing how you know how to walk and how to run the race set before us.

Bill Meyer: There's a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from striving, from working hard, doing the right things, saying the right words, and still feeling like something is off, like you're moving but you're not moving toward the goal.

Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that the Christian life was never meant to feel like that. Centuries ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to a church that was busy, passionate, and completely off course. Not because they stopped believing, but because they stopped focusing on the right thing. Chuck titled today's message "The Cross We Proclaim".

Chuck Swindoll: During these weeks, we are focusing on the greatness of our God. Four messages were delivered on the character of the Father which took place in Sundays past. And then for the next four messages, we've been focusing on the cross of Christ, today being the fourth in that series of four. Then beginning next Sunday and for the balance of this month, the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

When we think of our Father, it is His character that draws us to Him and near Him. When we focus on the Son, it is the cross, always the cross. Always. I have a colleague in ministry who, before I would get up to preach for almost 20 years, would lean over and say to me, "Preach grace. Preach the cross." So it rings in my ear to this day, preach the cross.

Then when we think of the Spirit of God, we think of the empowerment He provides. How we thank our God for the cross. Thank You for the cross. Say that with me. "Thank You for the cross." Again. "Thank You for the cross."

We will see that theme woven into the reading of the scriptures out of 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. If you have a Bible, turn if you will to the 18th verse of the first chapter of the first letter written to Corinth, 1 Corinthians 1:18. We'll read randomly through chapter 2, verse 5.

"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Verse 22, "For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

"For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God."

"Verse 1, chapter 2. And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God."

Few things are more demoralizing than realizing you've been helping the wrong side. And that demoralization is intensified when you didn't even know it. Sports fans the world over will remember the name Roy Riegels, especially football fans. Way back when the Rose Bowl was being played, Roy Riegels was a ballplayer for the California Golden Bears.

They were playing Georgia Tech, and right in the middle of the game at a crucial point, there was a fumble. Roy Riegels, a player for the Bears, picked up the ball and he only had 30 yards to run for the touchdown. Seems simple enough. However, Roy ran almost 70 yards in the wrong direction.

Now, what you may not remember is that one of his teammates, Benny Lom, realized it, even though four other players were blocking for him. They were all confused. And Benny is running along hoping to tackle him before he goes across the wrong goal line, at which time Roy yells out, "Get away from me! This is my touchdown!" thinking that Lom wanted to get the glory for the touchdown. And six inches before the goal line, down went Roy Riegels.

And well, actually Georgia Tech won the game, but nobody remembers the score. Nobody remembers the date. But sports fans all over remember "Wrong Way Riegels", the nickname given this poor chap who ran the wrong direction. Every time the story is told, sports fans chuckle. It's laughable, but one man feels the sting, and that's Riegels.

It's possible in the Christian life to help the wrong side and not know it. We could call individuals like that "wrong way Christians", or if you want to go back to that group that seemed to sort of set the pace for it to start with, "wrong way Corinthians". My Bible is open to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and there we read the rather sad account of a church that was squabbling with one another.

Think of that. Goes all the way back into the first century. Churches not able to get along. Paul calls it like it is, verse 11, chapter 1. "I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you." There are quarrels among you. Now, what are the quarrels about? "Well, I mean this, that each one of you is saying, 'I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. I am of Christ.'"

You see, there were splinter groups in the church. One group said we follow only Paul the apostle, the one on the road to Damascus who was wonderfully transformed, and he's the founder of our church and we listen only to Paul. Others would say, but have you heard Apollos? I mean, compared to Apollos, Paul is tongue-tied. Apollos, wonderful rhetoric, wonderful ability, wonderful eloquence, wonderful mind, trained in Alexandria, mentored by Aquila and Priscilla and Paul himself. Oh, there's no one like Apollos.

And the third group said, but Peter. Peter was walking with the Savior before either Paul or Apollos named His name as Lord. Peter we follow. Then there was this ultra-pious group: we follow only Jesus. We only listen to Him. They're the ones, by the way, who write you letters of hate saying, "In the love of Jesus," and they sign their name. Or usually, they don't sign their name. They're the ones who say Jesus told me to do this. I always want to know, is He baritone or is He bass? Tell me what His voice is like. And they don't like that question because you're taking them literally, but of course, these people believed it literally. We need no earthly leader, only Jesus. And from that group, by the way, the "Jesus-only" cult began, which may be of interest to some of you.

They're all "wrong way Corinthians". Verse 13, "Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he?" A little sarcasm in that. "Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God I baptized none of you." A little barb in that. "Except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name."

Now verse 17, "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. Not in cleverness of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void." I love that. You love that. When I preach Christ, it's not done cleverly or with an emphasis on how I look or sound. It's the cross. It's the cross. You remember the cross when I finish speaking.

So Paul decides to set them straight and he does it without mincing words. Chapter 3, verse 1. I love this about the apostle. He flings political correctness to the winds. He doesn't worry about what they say or think about him. He tells them the truth, which is the only way to operate as a spokesman for God. "Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh."

The Greek term is sarkinos, S-A-R-K-I-N-O-S, from which the word "flesh" is translated. I could speak to you only as carnal. Wrong way Corinthians. Wrong way. "Even as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, but you were not able to receive it. Indeed, even now you're not able." That's the tragedy. After all this time, you still expect to be nursed, bottle-fed.

Why? Verse 3, because you're still sarkinos. You're still flesh. You're still driven by the things that characterize lost humanity. You're still fleshly, for since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not sarkinos? Are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men, meaning like the lost person?

Surprised you to hear this, some of you, but you cannot tell the difference between a carnal Christian and an unbeliever. Sometime the carnal Christian can be even more snotty, more difficult, more demanding, more self-willed. The enemy loves it when we operate in the flesh. "Now you're talking. People know you're a Christian. Listen to me, I'll tell you how to walk. I'll tell you how to run." Problem is, it's in the wrong direction.

And how many folks discover it late in life. For he says when one says "I'm of Paul" and another "I'm of Apollos," don't you sound like you just a bunch of lost people following the popular one? "What then is Apollos, and who is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, after planting Apollos watered, after watering God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth."

Back to chapter 1, verse 18. What the apostle decides to do when he exposes these people in all their carnality is to point them to the cross. Let me tell you something, folks. When you get the cross in the right perspective, everything comes together. Everything comes together. When you get Christ in the clear focus, it is amazing how you know which one is the right goal line. It's amazing how you know how to walk and how to run the race set before us.

David Jackman, a British expositor, writes this: "In the spiritual context, we must never remain content with childishness. To be so is for Paul synonymous with worldliness, that is, the flesh. It is to drift back to the old way of living, to the world's outlook and value systems, behaving only in a human way, in other words, like a natural man. The indisputable evidence of this is their elevation of favorite teachers to the position of party leaders and the consequent lining up behind them as rival parties. That is behaving only in a human way, adopting the world's lifestyle."

Paul's point is that this worldliness, this fleshly-driven lifestyle, illustrates they have not yet come to grips with the message of the cross. I hope you never forget that. When you operate in the flesh as that man writes, you have not come to grips with the message of the cross. It's still all about you. It's just all about people. It's all horizontal. It's all so human.

All about impressing, all about holding to this person over all the others, and that's the only one you listen to, that's the only CD you'll own, that's the only time you'll tune in, that's the only one you respect. That's a mark of adolescence, even worse, childishness. When we act like this without realizing it, we wound the body of Christ, and our adversary dances with glee. Wrong way Christians have not come to terms with the message of the cross.

You will not drift from the truth if the cross remains your focus. By that, I mean all that the cross represents, all that it symbolizes. It will reduce your pride to zilch, to nothing, and it will lift up the person of the Savior and your whole way of life will be transformed. And you will again run in the right direction. Truth be told, some of you are just now discovering the right way to run. You've never been taught it before, because religion will send you to the wrong goal line every time.

Now look, verse 18 begins a series of statements this apostle makes regarding the message of the cross which we proclaim, which he proclaimed. "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." Stop right there. See the word "foolishness"? The Greek term is moria. Guess what word we get from it in English? To the people who are perishing, the cross is moronic. I mean, how stupid can you get? You cut off your head when you come to know this Jesus, when you start believing in some cross message. How moronic. That's the word of the lost person. That's the person running in the wrong direction.

In fact, Paul describes this conflicting opinion as those who see the cross as foolishness. And then he says, "But to us who are being saved, why, it is the very power of God." Then he quotes from Isaiah 29 in the verse that follows: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." That was hundreds of years earlier and we still haven't learned the message. It's thousands of years from our time and we still haven't learned Isaiah's warnings. I will destroy the cleverness of the clever. I have no place for it among my teachers, my spokesmen and women, among those who communicate the truth. The wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever.

And then he asks, look at the different desires that emerge. Verse 20, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?" Pinpoint each of the three subjects. Let's let the wise represent the unsaved Gentile intellectual. Where is that individual? What does he believe? Where is the scribe? That would be the learned Jewish scholar who is lost. Where is the debater of this age? The debater of this age would be the Greek philosophers, experts in debate and disputes and dialectical skills. Oh, they love to argue! Love it! I've said for years philosophers are the people who talk about things they don't understand, making it sound like it's your fault. That's a pretty good definition of a philosopher.

And they love to talk about questions because questions lead to more questions and questions need to lead to additional questions and there's more questions and additional questions and all of it kind of piles up and it becomes a series of questions, questions, doubts, debates, deliberations. Their desire is to appear brilliant and impress you with things like vocabulary or way of thinking. "Oh, listen to that vocabulary! Whoa! Wonder where he studied. Look at those letters after his name. Whoa! That guy is unreal. Look at that!"

But read further. "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" One man writes, it is impossible to exaggerate the almost fantastic mastery that the silver-tongued rhetorician held in Greece. Plutarch says they made their voices sweet with musical cadences and modulations of tones and echoed resonances. They thought not of what they were saying but how they were saying it. So impressed with their own stuff. So proud.

Why, God looks on that and brings them back to reality. God's desire is to use the declaration of God's truth to save those who believe. Simple as that. One man wrote it this way: it was Paul's claim that he set before men the cross of Christ in its simplest terms. To decorate the story of the cross with rhetoric and cleverness would have been to make people think more of the language than of the facts, more of the speaker than of the message. It was Paul's aim to set before others not himself, but Christ in all His grandeur. I love that statement.

Look here. "Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." Don't think preaching is foolishness, it's just a method that seems foolish to the world system. Why on earth would intelligent people come and sit and listen to somebody preaching? I mean, how moronic can you get?

I like the way Eugene Peterson renders this section. Listen. "Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in His wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things—to bring those who trust Him into the way of salvation." Well, then what does the lost person want? Well, read on. Verse 22, the Jews ask for miracles. The word "signs" is the idea of miracles. "Show us a miracle, prove it with a miracle and we'll believe it. Do what you cannot do in natural ways and whoo, we'll be impressed. We're looking for signs." And the Greeks search for wisdom. We're looking for those rhetorical comments, those eloquent words, the things that impress.

And as a result, verse 23, he preaches Christ crucified. We're back to the cross. To the Jews, it's a stumbling block. To the Gentiles, there's our word again: moronic.

Bill Meyer: The world has always had its own terms for accepting God: impressive signs, eloquent arguments, intellectual credentials. But Paul refused to negotiate. The cross was his message, his method, and his confidence. And it can be yours as well. You're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll.

If today's message from Chuck hit close to home, if you've ever suspected you might be running hard in the wrong direction, we have something we'd love to put in your hands. It's Chuck's brand new booklet, The Cross We Proclaim. It's drawn directly from what you heard today. It's the kind of message you'll want to read slowly, underline, and return to again and again.

Maybe you've been praying for a loved one, perhaps a prodigal who's been resisting the truth. This booklet, which is non-threatening, brief, and clear, includes a winsome invitation to return to the cross of Jesus. We'll send you Chuck's booklet, The Cross We Proclaim, when you give a donation to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Request your copy today when you call or write to us and support this ministry with a gift of any amount. Your generosity helps us carry this life-changing message about the cross to countless others who desperately need to hear it. And I can assure you, your contributions to Insight for Living are touching lives. We know this is true because we have the privilege of reading the notes and letters from grateful listeners. They tell us about their spiritual awakening.

Call us at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/donate. To send a check in the mail along with your request for the booklet, The Cross We Proclaim, just write to us at Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034. Our web address again is insight.org/donate, or call us at 800-772-8888.

Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his message called "The Cross We Proclaim", Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "The Cross We Proclaim", was copyrighted in 2008, 2009, 2016, 2019, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.