A Ramble About Reasoned Logic

 I was doing my morning devotions this morning and these verses stood out from 1 Corinthians 4:19-20, "and I will know by experience not the reasoned logic (logos) of those having been inflated but the power; because the Kingdom of God isn't by means of reasoned logic but with power."
     "Reasoned logic" was how the Greek philosophers came to their conclusions about physics, logic, and ethics. That is, they intentionally studied syllogisms, or reasoned deductions to come to their conclusions largely based on the example of Socrates and his successors, though the different schools had widely different conclusions. This was how they operated, and in particular, this was how the school of Stoicism operated. "Because A, and because B, then C." This was neither a bad thing nor a good thing, instead, it was simply a part of their trying to discover, understand, and apply what "the good" was. For the Stoics, it was following "the God" and conforming to nature and what was natural for a human being as a child of "the God."
     Epictetus used reasoned logic to come to his conclusions, as does Marcus Aurelius, Musonius Rufus, and the others and he taught his students how to do the same. But one of the things he continuously mentions, trying to get his students attentions and warn them, is the danger of just trying to learn philosophy in order to seem like an important person. In his mind, there were far too many people who could speak well, use syllogisms well, knew the writings of the philosophers, yet for all their knowledge they seemed to know nothing as they did not put into practice the very philosophy they professed to know, being inflated by their own egos and self-importance.
     It is these latter people who are representative of to whom Paul is speaking in these verses. Those who, like Epictetus' well educated but poorly executed students, had come to their conclusions based on their own well spoken, reasoned logic. I am also reminded of some atheists I recently debated with, who also came to their conclusions based on their own reasoned logic, and more broadly many if not most religious or ethical people for whom religion, a belief in God, or just simply ethical practice is a matter of "reasoned logic," conclusions one comes to based on one's own deductive reasoning.
     While there is certainly a place and a purpose for it, the experience of the Kingdom of God,the experience of manifesting God through cooperation with and submission to the Spirit of Christ, doesn't come by means of reasoned logic. It's not simply one valid opinion among many, because it's not an opinion at all, it is a state of being. It is something one experiences, not something one mentally assents to. There are "teeth" behind it, so to speak. There is real, enabling power and energy driven by the God who is love flowing through the person. Paul here in these verses isn't talking about demonstrating how much better at debate he is than these people, but demonstrating the manifestation of Jesus Christ within and through himself, and through Christ, God the Father.
     When Jesus came, he could have been any one of hundreds of false prophets, messiahs, or philosophers. What set Him apart to begin with was the power which backed up what He said. No one would have paid attention to Him without it. The same is true of the apostles. No one would have paid attention to them if it wasn't for the power and presence of God Himself manifesting through them. Paul knew and understood that.
      When Paul talks about these things, when Jesus talks about these things, when John, when Peter, when any of them talk about these things they're not using reasoned logic to come to their conclusions, they're talking about what they themselves experienced and practiced; what they saw with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, handled with their own hands. When the Logos, the Spirit of Christ, speaks and acts through them, it isn't merely reasoned argument and pretty words, something Paul steadfastly avoided by his own admission, but it is the very power and presence of the God Himself experienced by all those present.
     I think this is what drives me the most insane about modern Christianity, atheism, and everything in between. The emphasis is placed on being able to out-argue one's opponent in an debate. Whose reasoning and logic is better, and based on what evidence that I can dismiss or not? We treat it today like the philosophers in Greece and Rome treated it, not realizing that this is not the Kingdom of God at all. If we were actually practicing the submission to and cooperation with the Spirit of Christ which He taught, and which the New Testament teaches, then others would know, because they would be experiencing the power and presence of God, and all the reasoned logic in the world cannot compete with that reality.