Bird's-eye view
In this foundational passage, the apostle Paul addresses the root of the divisions in the Corinthian church: a carnal fascination with worldly wisdom and status. He establishes a great antithesis that runs through the entire letter. On one side, you have the wisdom of the world, with its pride, its sophistication, its demand for proofs, and its love of rhetoric. On the other side, you have the wisdom of God, which is revealed in the message of the cross. To the world, this message is utter foolishness and weakness. A crucified Messiah? A God who dies? It is an absurdity. But to those who are being saved, this very message is the raw power of God unto salvation. Paul's point is that God has deliberately chosen this method to demolish human pride. He has set up the entire system of salvation in such a way that no man can boast in His presence. God saves through what the world despises in order to show that the salvation is entirely His work, and not the result of human cleverness, power, or piety.
This section is a divine declaration of war against intellectual pride. Paul quotes Isaiah to show that this is God's consistent way of dealing with arrogant men. He then taunts the wise, the scribes, and the debaters of this age, asking where their vaunted wisdom has gotten them. It has not led them to God. Therefore, God, in His own wisdom, decided to save believers through the "foolishness" of the preached message. This message of a crucified Christ is a stumbling block to the religious and foolishness to the intellectual, but to the called, it is the very power and wisdom of God. The passage climaxes with the glorious paradox that the apparent foolishness and weakness of God in the cross are infinitely wiser and stronger than any human alternative.
Outline
- 1. The Great Divide (1 Cor 1:18-25)
- a. The Cross: Foolishness or Power? (1 Cor 1:18)
- b. God's War on Human Wisdom (1 Cor 1:19-21)
- i. The Prophetic Precedent (1 Cor 1:19)
- ii. The Taunt to the World's Wise (1 Cor 1:20)
- iii. God's Wise Plan of Foolish Preaching (1 Cor 1:21)
- c. The Scandal of the Cross (1 Cor 1:22-24)
- i. The Demands of the Unbeliever (1 Cor 1:22)
- ii. The Proclamation of the Apostle (1 Cor 1:23)
- iii. The Perception of the Called (1 Cor 1:24)
- d. The Paradox of God's Wisdom and Power (1 Cor 1:25)
Context In 1 Corinthians
This passage immediately follows Paul's opening remarks where he thanks God for the grace given to the Corinthians but then quickly pivots to address the central problem of the church: divisions (1 Cor 1:10-17). They were fracturing into personality cults, lining up behind Paul, Apollos, or Cephas. Paul identifies the root of this factionalism as a worldly mindset, a kind of spiritual consumerism that evaluates ministers based on their rhetorical skill and charisma. In verse 17, he states that he was sent not to baptize but to preach the gospel, and specifically, "not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." This sets the stage perfectly for our text. The "wisdom of words" is precisely what the world values, and it is the very thing that empties the cross of its power. The argument of 1:18-25, therefore, is the theological foundation for his entire critique of the Corinthian church's carnality, pride, and division. It establishes the cross as the ultimate standard by which all claims to wisdom, power, and status must be judged and found wanting.
Key Issues
- The Word of the Cross
- The Two Audiences: Perishing and Saved
- Worldly Wisdom vs. Divine Wisdom
- The Foolishness of Preaching
- Jews, Greeks, and their Demands
- Christ Crucified as a Stumbling Block
- The Efficacy of God's Call
- The Paradox of Divine Weakness
The Great Reversal
At the heart of the Christian faith is a great reversal of all human values. What man calls strong, God calls weak. What man calls wise, God calls foolish. What man sees as a shameful defeat, God reveals as a triumphant victory. This is the logic of the cross, and it is the central theme of this passage. The world operates on a system of merit, power, and appearance. You get ahead by being smarter, stronger, or more impressive than the next guy. Religion, when it is corrupted by the world, operates on the same principles. The Jews wanted a Messiah who would perform impressive signs and lead a glorious military revolt. The Greeks wanted a philosophy that would satisfy their intellectual curiosity and sound impressive in the lecture hall. Both were looking for a savior who would fit into their preconceived notions of what power and wisdom should look like.
God's answer to both was the cross. To the Jews, a crucified Messiah was a skandalon, a stumbling block. It contradicted their every expectation of a conquering king. To the Greeks, it was moria, moronic foolishness. A god who dies is a contradiction in terms. But Paul says that this is precisely the point. God deliberately chose the instrument of shame, weakness, and foolishness to be the vehicle of His infinite power and wisdom. He did this to short-circuit our native pride. If salvation came through a method that we found impressive, we would inevitably take some of the credit for ourselves. But because it comes through a crucified carpenter from a backwater town, all the glory must go to God and God alone.
Verse by Verse Commentary
18 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.
Paul establishes the two great teams, the two destinies of all mankind. There are those who are perishing and those who are being saved. There is no third category. The dividing line between them is their reaction to "the word of the cross." This phrase means the message, the logic, the whole story of what was accomplished at the crucifixion of Jesus. To the perishing, this message is not just mistaken; it is foolishness. It is nonsensical, an absurdity. But to the saved, that very same message is experienced as the raw, dynamic power of God. It is not just a powerful idea; it is the power of God itself, at work, saving them. The message itself has power. The perception of the message does not determine its nature; it reveals the spiritual state of the hearer.
19 For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”
Paul is not inventing a new idea. He grounds his argument in the Old Testament, quoting from Isaiah 29:14. This shows that God has always operated this way. He consistently acts to subvert and overthrow the proud intellectual projects of men. Whenever men build their towers of wisdom, whether in ancient Israel or classical Greece, God has promised to come down and smash them. He will not allow human cleverness to be the path to knowing Him. He is the one who sets the terms of engagement, and He has determined that the entrance requirement to His kingdom is humility, not a high IQ.
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
This is a taunt, a rhetorical challenge thrown down to the intellectual elites. The "wise man" refers to the Greek philosopher (sophos). The "scribe" is the Jewish theological expert (grammateus). The "debater of this age" is the professional rhetorician, skilled in argumentation. Paul is asking, "What have all your libraries, your scrolls, your debates accomplished? Show me your results." The implied answer is, "Nothing." For all their brilliance, they have not found God. In fact, God has actively intervened in history through the cross to expose their wisdom as bankrupt. The cross is God's great act of intellectual satire; He has turned the world's wisdom into a joke.
21 For 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.
This verse is dense with theology. First, it was "in the wisdom of God" that the world's wisdom was proven to be a failure. God ordained it this way. He gave men general revelation in creation, but they suppressed the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1). Their failure to find God through their own intellect was not an accident; it was part of God's design to show the futility of human autonomy. Second, because this path failed, God chose another. He was "well-pleased," it was His sovereign good pleasure, to save people by a means the world would consider utterly foolish: the preached message, the kerygma. It is not that the message itself is foolish, but it is foolishness in the eyes of the world. And the condition for receiving this salvation is not intellectual achievement but simple belief, faith.
22-23 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
Here Paul specifies the two main cultural obstacles to the gospel in his world. The Jews demand signs. They want miraculous proofs, displays of raw power that would validate Jesus as the Messiah. They wanted a political, conquering king. The Greeks search for wisdom. They want a coherent, elegant philosophical system that satisfies their reason. They want a tidy, intellectual box to put God in. Paul says "we" apostles do not cater to either demand. Our message is not market-driven. We preach one thing: Christ crucified. And this one message manages to offend both parties perfectly. To the Jews, a crucified Messiah is a contradiction in terms, a stumbling block (skandalon) they trip over. To the Gentiles, a dying god is just plain stupid, foolishness (moria).
24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
What makes the difference? It is not the message, which remains the same. It is not the intellect or piety of the hearer. The difference is the effectual call of God. "To those who are the called," a new reality opens up. This calling is God's sovereign, irresistible work of grace that opens blind eyes and unstops deaf ears. For this group, made up of both Jews and Greeks, the cross is no longer a stumbling block or foolishness. In Christ crucified, they see the very thing each group was looking for, but in a form they never expected. The called Jew sees that the cross is the ultimate sign, the true power of God that defeats sin and death. The called Greek sees that the cross is the ultimate wisdom of God, the brilliant plan that satisfies both God's justice and His mercy. The cross is the answer to both demands, but only the called can see it.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Paul concludes with a stunning paradox. He is not saying that God has actual foolishness or weakness in Him. He is speaking from the world's perspective. What appears to be God's foolishness, His "silly" plan of salvation through a crucified man, is in reality wiser than the most brilliant human philosophy. And what appears to be God's weakness, the shame and helplessness of the cross, is in reality stronger than the mightiest human empire or army. God's lowest is infinitely higher than man's highest. This is the great reversal. God wins by what looks like losing. He demonstrates His wisdom through what looks like foolishness. This is the logic that must govern the church and dismantle the pride that was tearing the Corinthian community apart.
Application
The church today is perpetually tempted by the same spirits that animated the first-century Jews and Greeks. We are tempted to demand signs and to seek after worldly wisdom. The "signs" temptation manifests as a demand for a Christianity that is always spectacular, emotionally thrilling, and full of visible, measurable "success." We want the power of God to look like the world's definition of power: big numbers, big buildings, and political influence. The "wisdom" temptation manifests as a desire to make the gospel respectable to the intellectual elites. We try to sand off the rough edges of the cross, to downplay the supernatural, and to present Christianity as just another helpful philosophy for living a good life.
Paul's message to us is the same as his message to the Corinthians: we preach Christ crucified. We must resist the urge to tweak the message to make it more palatable to the unbelieving world. The offense of the cross is part of the message. The gospel will always be foolishness to those who are perishing. Our job is not to make it sound wise, but to proclaim it faithfully and let the power of God do its work. In our personal lives, this means we must glory in the cross. We must recognize that our salvation depends not on our cleverness, our moral effort, or our spiritual experiences, but solely on the "foolish" act of God in Christ. Our confidence must be in the weakness of a crucified Savior, for it is in that weakness that we find a strength that is not our own, a strength that can overcome sin, death, and Hell.