Applying 1 Corinthians 1-4

While I've struggled making sense of all that the Apostle Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 1-4, this much I do know:

The cross is central to my faith and theology.

My friend Dr. Dan Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary says that too often believers organize their theological beliefs like dominoes. So if they begin to question, say their belief of how the end times unfold, they fear that everything else about their faith is also wrong.

Instead, Wallace suggests, and I concur, that we should arrange our beliefs in a concentric circle. In the center (or bulls eye) are the core essentials of the Christian faith. Toward the outside are less crucial aspects of the faith, like how the end times occur.

As for me, in the center of the center is the cross-- Jesus is God in human form who came down from heaven, lived a perfect and righteous life, died for our sins, and rose again on the third day. He ascended into heaven and will one day come again. Salvation is by grace alone, by faith alone, in Jesus alone. The cross is what sets Christianity apart from all the world's religions.