Jews are still waiting for a miraculous sign to confirm the coming of their Messiah. The Greeks still test everything according to their wisdom. The Jews will not accept the Messiah without the sign and the Greeks will not accept Christianity unless it conforms to their established standard of wisdom and intellectual insight. To both the Jew and the Gentile, the message in the text of Scripture is foolish because, from their point of evaluation, the message is still lacking some key ingredient. The Jew wants to add a sign to the message. The Gentile wants to incorporate his wisdom and philosophy into the message of Scripture in order to make it more applicable to people’s lives.
The wisdom of the world is limited and confined to time. This is proven by the fact that man’s wisdom has consistently been refined and updated as it has progressed through the advances and experiences of the 2,000 years since Paul wrote these words. On the other hand, God’s wisdom still stands complete and has always embraced eternity. God’s message has not faltered, but it continues to transform the individual and the society where it is honored.
“God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” – 1 Corinthians 1:21
Salvation does not come through wisdom, but through faith. Our relationship with God is based on our trusting what he says, not in our wisdom, insight, understanding, or intelligence. The simple proclamation and explanation of the Word of God is sufficient. Some in the Corinthian church sought alternatives to expository teaching from God’s message. They feared having an inferior message, The Greek philosophers in Corinth sought to bolster the Apostle’s message with things that would resemble alternative messages, focal points of application, self-help steps, colorful stories, and more pertinent information than the text of Scripture can provide.
Even though men, even churchmen, are ashamed of God’s message and feel the need to reinforce it with “wisdom” that the world considers useful, the principle established by Paul in First Corinthians remains true:
“God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.”
God is still pleased to save those who believe by continually washing their souls with the “foolishness” of the Scriptural text. Paul says:
“Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” – 1 Corinthians 1:17
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