God’s Foolishness
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2025 · 4 May 2025
The book of 1 Corinthians is divided basically into Paul's discussion of the various problems that existed in the Corinthian church. Beginning in chapter 1:10 and going into chapter 16 deals with the areas of problems in the assembly. And the first problem was the problem of division. The church was divided into parties. They were fighting against each other. Three chapters are dealing with the problem of division.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul is continuing to deal with this problem of division in the church. That portion of Scripture from 1:18 to 2:8 covers the subject matter of the foolishness of God. This, is one of the greatest sections in Scripture, because it gives a contrast between the foolishness of men, which they think is wisdom and the wisdom of God which, they think is foolishness. It contrasts human wisdom with divine wisdom.
Now you say, "But how does that relate to the subject of division in the church?" We all know that the Greeks were in love with philosophy. They would tell various philosophies and would attract people to them and so the Greek culture was philosophically divided into little groups. Well, in Greece there may have been 50 dominating philosophies that divided the populous among those 50 different philosophies.
They were all separated into groups that held varying philosophies regarding man's meaning and destiny. There were people who loved human wisdom and they developed systems and people gravitated to those systems so there are factions of philosophy in Corinth. Now, when the church was born and all these people were saved, even though they were united in Christ, they still held on to their original philosophies.
And this was cause for division in the church. Philosophy is unnecessary. Why? Because, you don't need a philosophy. The Bible tells you what's right. If it's wrong you don't want it. So Paul says, "Since you've become Christians and you're united around God's revelation as it climaxed in the cross, forget these philosophies." There are churches today that are split over politics, economics, and education.
Now the gospel is the good news. And what is the good news? The revelation of God that winds up in the redemptive act of Christ on the cross. The gospel. Now, here Paul introduces the basic contrast that's going to dominate his thinking to the end of chapter 3. He sets human wisdom against the cross. "I came to preach the gospel not human wisdom. The doctrines of human wisdom are opposite the truth of God.
Now, philosophy has always been a threat to revelation. You do not need to add human opinion to divine word. Do you understand that? When God has said it, it is done being said. Let me give you a couple of illustrations of how philosophy messes up revelation. The Bible teaches that the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were written by one man. Who was that man? Moses.
They are called by the Jews the Law of Moses, the Pentateuch, which means five. Along came a group of men about a hundred years ago and they said, "We are the rationalists." Our philosophy is that only that which is rational to the human intellect is true. And so they looked at The Old Testament and they said, "Oh, oh. Several things here we just can't understand." We do not agree that Moses wrote these five books.
Moses could not have known that much information that early. The evolution of law came a lot later. But Moses did write those books and those people were wrong not too many years ago when somebody discovered the Code of Hammurabi, which was a sophisticated legal system that predates Moses. The Bible teaches that God created everything. You read Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
On the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day, God created. The seventh day God rested. Now, the Bible is very explicit that God created this. Human philosophy says, “No, the only explanation for the existence of things is evolution." It all began from a primeval puddle. And there was a one celled thing who split and became two. And then, everything went wild and here we are.
Now the Bible tells a lot about how to live, doesn't it? The Bible tells an awful lot about how to get rid of guilt, confess your sin. If you know the word of God and you understand the word of God, you know the reason for everything. You understand what you need to know and you have solutions to your problems. Human philosophy changes the truth of God into a lie and worships the creature more than the creator.
Verse 18, "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.” Now, notice this, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish. That is to those who are without God, those who are dying in sin, and those who will spend eternity in hell, for whom God's heart is grieved. To them the preaching of the cross is foolishness. But to us it is the power of God.
And the reason it's foolishness to them is because they have elevated their own philosophy. And the cross looks so stupid to them. They have such complex philosophies that to come along and say, "I want to give you a simple message. God in human flesh died on a cross, paid the penalty for your sin, by faith in that act, and His resurrection you can be saved and your eternal destiny is secured in heaven forever."
And they said, "Oh, ridiculous. How stupid did the death of the one man, on one hill, on one piece of wood, that one moment in history is the determining factor of destiny for every man who ever lived." They couldn't buy it. Foolish. The word foolishness, really means moron. From which we get the word moronic, stupid. You'll notice the word preaching in verse 17. It's the word logos for the word of the cross.
And there's the contrast. He contrasts the word of wisdom with the word of the cross. Human wisdom is set against the cross. The word of the cross here means all that is involved in the cross. The logos is the total revelation. Everything before the cross pointed to it and everything after the cross explains the cross. This is the revelation of God which peaks in the cross is set against the wisdom of men.
Paul says, "These two things are opposites." And so the people who hold to worldly wisdom think the cross is moronic, but we who are saved know it to be the power of God. You see men, because of their rationalism, because the elevation of the human ego, because they want their own philosophies can't stoop to something as simple as that. Jesus said, "Unless you become as a little child you can't enter the kingdom."
"When I arrived in Corinth," in verse 1 Paul says, "I didn't come in wisdom of words, but I came to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified." You know why he said that? Because he wasn't about to offer them another philosophy. He wanted to give them something that would be something very opposite to what they believed. Something simple, something very historical and he gave them the cross.
Every religion that man has ever developed is complex. That appeals to his brain, to his ego. Man won't come down to the level of the simplicity of the cross and the fact that he recognizes that it doesn't matter what he thinks, but that you're saved not through your intellect, but through faith alone. People don't like the cross because if you come to the cross you have to admit that you're a sinner and that they hate that.
The cross is still the issue. God's revelation peaks in the cross. But you know human philosophy doesn't understand it. Peter didn't even understand it. Peter had a philosophy or opinion. He thought the Messiah would come and set up his kingdom and everything would be just fine. Jesus said one day in Matthew 16, "I'm going to die." How did Peter react to that? "No, Lord you're not going to die."
One thing revelation doesn't need is Peter's opinion. But you see, Peter's philosophy was at variance with the truth. And so Jesus said to him, "Get thee behind me Satan." Then they got in the garden and the soldiers came to capture Christ in John 18. Peter took his sword out and tried to cut them up. And Jesus said, "Will you put that thing away. Haven't you gotten the message yet?" Finally, after the cross, he understood.
So the contrast is established then in verses 17 - 18. The cross is the power of God to salvation. It does save us. But to the world steeped in human wisdom it is moronic. Now with that as an introduction from verse 19 through chapter 2:8, Paul gives five reasons why he considers God's wisdom superior to man's wisdom. Reason number one, God's wisdom is permanent. It's permanence.
Verses 19–20, “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the intelligence of the intelligent. 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?” Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14, "Therefore, I will again confound these people. The wisdom of their wise will vanish, and the intelligence of their intelligent will be hidden.”
And let me help you to interpret that. That can have an ultimate fulfillment. There is coming a day when all of the philosophies of men will be swept away. Christ will reign as King of Kings. When all of man's wisdom becomes ashes. The tribulation period as we study it in the book of Revelation is the disintegration of all of man's wisdom, but it has more than just a future fulfillment. It also has an immediate fulfillment.
This is what was going on when Isaiah said that. There was a king named Sennacherib. He was king over Assyria. And they wanted to conquer Judah. God through the prophet Isaiah says to Judah, "Don't worry. Deliverance will come. Sennacherib will fail in his conquering." But God said, "It won't be because of your wise men." God says, "I will do it myself. He called over one angel and he killed 185,000 soldiers.
What all of the political advisers of Israel couldn't do, what all of the wisdom and knowledge and acumen of the best of the people couldn't come up with, God did with one angel. And He says, "I'll just wipe your wisdom out." God told Israel, "I'll fight for you." We have the wrong idea when we want to solve everything by our own ingenuity rather than let God do it. So Paul uses that passage and it's a fantastic thing.
Listen, if you reject revelation, what wisdom is left? There isn't any. God is set against worldly wisdom. Man's wisdom is defined in the Bible in James 3:15 when it say, "This wisdom descends not from above." It's just plain man's wisdom. Now, listen. "It is earthly, sensual and demonic." Human wisdom is one, earthly. That is, it never gets beyond the earth. It never really understands supernatural reality.
It is based upon human desire and lust. Three, demonic. Its source is Satan. God's wisdom is permanent." Verse 20, "Where is the one who is wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?” Human wisdom never solved anything. We just made our sinning a little more accommodated. It just makes us more comfortable with our problems.
They were left without the one thing they needed most and that was the knowledge of God. They never knew God, because it was only in God that these things could be found. Peace, joy, forgiveness, freedom from guilt, meaning the life, eternal hope and all of human philosophy never met God. That's what Paul says. It all just came out moronic. They thought the cross was stupid. It was their philosophy that was stupid.
Look at verse 21, “For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of what is preached.” It really means, "For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Now notice, "The world with all of its wisdom never knew God."
It never reached the ultimate goal of man to know God. And so since man's wisdom couldn't do it, God did it through the cross. We have had philosophers and sages for ages. And what do they know and what have they offered? Wars increase, crime increases, injustice increases, hate, cruelty, problems, mental breakdowns, drugs, alcohol, problems, problems, problems, problems. Never ever change.
Because men cannot obtain salvation, they cannot have a transformed nature. They cannot know God by their own wisdom. Now notice at the beginning of verse 21, "Since in the wisdom of God, the world-" This is the wise plan of God that He allowed the world to go on in its own wisdom. Here, we are surrounded by God's wisdom and ignorant of it. The invisible things of God can be seen by the creation.
Every time he looks at a mountain, every time he looks at his hand he sees the wisdom of God. At the stars, at the intricacies of nature, he sees God's wisdom. And he applies his own wisdom, rejects God's wisdom and never knows God. The astronomer looks through his telescope and sees stars, but no God. The natural scientist studies his biology and whatever else and he comes up with evolution without a source.
God just did something so simple and by the very simplest thing that God did, He accomplished what all of the philosophers and wise men of the ages never could do. The wisest of the wise men are stupid compared to the simplest of a wise God. The content of the cross to save them that believed. The point here is the foolishness of the gospel itself. Something so silly, something so distasteful. To the Jews a stumbling block.
That simple thing. Jesus dying on a cross. You just have to do what? To save them that believe. God didn't save us because we were so smart. He made it so simple. It doesn't matter how smart we are. We just need to believe. No, faith appropriates what God has done, because it has nothing to do with intellect. Check the people next to you. "How that not many wise men, not many mighty are called, but God has chosen the foolish things."
That's us. There are not many wise. There are not many mighty and there are not many noble. Most of us are just plain old common folk. And you know what? God did that purposely to stand as a rebuke for all time against human wisdom. God never needed it in the past. He doesn't need it now. All He needed is the cross and those that believe in the cross are saved. That's the message of salvation. Let's pray.