The world has its standards. It knows what is strong and what is weak, what is effective and what is not effective. The world has defined intelligence and wisdom and can identify them when it sees them. The world has also defined stupidity and foolishness and can spot those things pretty readily too. Paul argues that God is going to take us back to school and its curriculum is unworldly, other-worldly, foolish in the eyes of the world, weak, and ineffective.

Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 to illustrate the message of the cross. The cross is a simple word-simple enough that everyone can understand its essence, yet powerful enough to radically transform a life. It is also a separating word, for whenever the cross is preached, it causes division; those who reject are perishing, those who receive it are being saved.

When the world around us does not prize the church and its message as much as it does the newest Super Bowl commercial, we can hold our heads high: we’re on the side of God’s foolishness! We will win! It’s easy to find hope and promise in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. It’s much more difficult to let its message shape our lives.

The wise and the scribe collectively describe the intelligentsia of ancient culture. God has deliberately chosen to reveal His own self and unleash divine power whose goal is human salvation. God’s plan and action throughout history demonstrate how foolish the wisdom of this world is. Only the truth of God endures through every situation and culture.

Apart from divine revelation, man can never through his own wisdom come to knowledge of God. Salvation requires belief in the crucified One, not worldly understanding or signs. The mind of Christ is the true discerner of truth.

The two groups of the day (Gentiles and Jews) looked for two different proofs of truth. The Jews desired a miraculous sign; the Greeks sought proof through reason and logic. Paul did not care to cater to their worldly desires for verification: for Paul, Christ crucified was all the proof needed.

To the Jews, a crucified Saviour made no sense, because they were looking for a victorious king. To the Greeks, such a Saviour made no sense because crucifixion was a symbol of weakness and defeat. Yet the message of the crucified one is exactly what provides those who are called with the power and wisdom of God. In Christ, those people rejected were the very things they longed for. The wise, the mighty, and the noble are in the minority of those whom God chooses to serve Him. God will use some influential figures, but only on rare occasions.

Paul uses the language of wisdom and subjects it to the cross, which has become the benchmark for understanding and grasping reality. The “foolishness of the cross” redefines the ordering of the world. Through the human-devised world’s “wisdom”, God revealed in Christ can’t be known.

God uses five things to accomplish His work: foolish things, weak things, base things, despised things and things which are not of this world. The word “weak” can be translated as “sickly, feeble, impotent.” The base things are ignorable. The word “despised” here means “contemptible,” like the way Goliath looked upon David and his God.

Salvation is not earned through one’s own strength but given by the grace of God. God wants two things from His servants: that they not glory in themselves, and that they give glory to Him. God makes the nobodies of this world into somebodies in His kingdom.

God through Jesus is offering us true wisdom. This wisdom can be handled by the weak, the poor, the unconnected, and the invisible ones. In fact, the very wisdom of God came to us as weak and poor and unconnected, an unlikely one not only to teach us wisdom but to embody it too.

God’s wisdom is willing to be mocked, shamed, and understood as foolishness. God’s wisdom is willing to take the blows of violent power and the slurs of arrogant worldly wisdom in order to make it clear that the things of violence and arrogance won’t last. What will last is the foolish proclamation that power can serve and wisdom can be found in the desert, the cave, the cell, and the heart.

(An audio version of this message can be found here: 1 Corinthians 1 verses 18-31 The Message of the Cross)

Bibliography

1. Jeremiah, David: The Jeremiah Study Bible: New King James Version (Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing; 2013; p. 1575)
2. Kyle Fever, “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.” Retrieved from www.workingpreacher.org
3. Scott Hoezee, “1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Commentary.” Retrieved from https://cepreaching.org/authors/scott-hoezee/
4. Richard Carlson, “Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.” Retrieved from www.workingpreacher.org
5. The Rt. Rev. Brian L. Cole, “Foolish Wisdom.” Retrieved from www.day1.org