The Wisdom of God

Introduction

The last time I spoke to you was from First Corinthians, the first 17 verses of the first chapter and today I would like to finish out that first chapter because I think there are some things of value for us to see there.

Foolishness to the World

1 Corinthians 1:18–31 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly (foolishness KJV) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The word Cross is stauros - (g4716) in the Greek and is used 29 times in ESV NT

The cross is the most recognizable of Christian symbols. We wear it as jewelry, we put it on the steeples of our churches, we find the symbol printed on our Christian literature and on church business cards. Sometimes we have it on stickers on our cars. Audrey has a collection of decorative crosses that adorn the hallway of our home.

It is such a familiar device to a Christian that I fear its true meaning has been somewhat lost over the course of the last few centuries.

The cross, while dear to us, is a symbol of a particular cruel means of torture and death, that is crucifixion. The history of crucifixion goes back to around six centuries before the birth of Christ. It was practiced by the Persians, the Carthaginians, the Romans and some others.

Even though the cross is such a common symbol today, it was not commonly used as a Christian symbol until the fourth century.

I bring this subject of the cross up just to give us a little perspective on a symbol that we tend almost to take for granted.

Can you imagine wearing a small gold guillotine around your neck as jewelry? Can you imagine having a decorative hangman’s gallows hanging on the wall of your home? Can you imagine carrying a small replica of an electric chair in your pocket every day.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not speaking against the way we often display the cross of Christ, I just think we need to have a deeper appreciation for what it means. A first century appreciation for what it means.

Paul states that the cross is foolishness to those who are unbelievers. Today, if we were to see new religion spring up based on a recently convicted criminal who had been executed, I expect that we would consider it foolishness. This the attitude that a lot of people around Corinth had in the first century.

Paul goes on to say:

19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Here he is quoting Isaiah:

Isaiah 29:14 ESV

14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

Let’s understand the people Paul is addressing here. Let’s bring some context to the passage. Corinth is populated by people of many nations, but the majority of the people were Greek. The Greeks were lovers of wisdom, they were into Philosophy. In fact, the literal meaning of the word “philosophers,” is lovers of knowledge. However, there was nothing in the gospel message that appealed to their pride of knowledge.

When Paul addresses the Greeks in the book of Romans he says:

Romans 1:16 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In his relationship with the church at Corinth, Paul is following his commission to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Now what is a Gentile? Basically, anyone who was not a Jew was considered a Gentile.

Next Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions that point out the failure of those considered wise by the world to recognize God and His message of salvation.

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

When we trace human history, we discover a record of man gaining more and more knowledge, but less and less real wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom, although often used together are far from the same thing. We have the collective knowledge of mankind accessible at our fingertips, but the knowledge we find here falls far short of wisdom. I find that few people find real wisdom outside of their relationship with God.

It is the same with all human wisdom, whether of the esteemed Jewish scholar or the Greek philosopher. The brilliance of man cannot appreciate the plan of God.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It is not the self-confidence of obtaining great wisdom that allows us to enter the narrow way, it is only the faith of a child that opens that door.

21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

In Acts Chapter 17, Paul was in Athens, arguable the seat of wisdom and knowledge in the ancient world, and as he addressed this audience in Athens he said:

Acts 17:23–25 ESV

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Even in the seat of earthly wisdom, the wise had missed discovering the nature of God, even the Jews had missed this knowledge in that they followed after a more carnal type of wisdom.

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

Paul says, “For the Jews demand signs,” let’s look at Matthew Chapter 16 where the Jewish leaders are testing Jesus:

Matthew 16:1–4 (ESV)

1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

Jesus had already addressed the Sign of Jonah in Chapter 12, that Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights just as the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Basically, He told them that they already had their answer, and He would not further address the issue.

And Greeks seek wisdom: The Greeks expected a philosophic demonstration of Christianity, where Christ demands faith of the grounds of His word.

You see, Christianity was to begin not with solving intellectual difficulties, but with satisfying the heart that longs for forgiveness.

Paul had preached to Jews and Gentiles all along his journey. He knew that the Jews looked for wondrous signs and the Greeks looked for profound philosophical wisdom. But what did Paul preach?

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

A crucified Messiah defied all Jewish expectations, they were a people in bondage, they had been looking for the Messiah for hundreds of years, but they expected a conquering Messiah, one who would charge in and vanquish their oppressors. Not a Messiah who was nailed to a cross of shame.

And the Christ crucified that Paul preached was dismissed as absurd by the Gentile world. They could not understand how One who died in such seeming weakness and failure could ever be their savior.

You see Paul did not cater to their desires. He says, “We preach Christ crucified.” Paul was not a sign-loving Jew, nor a wisdom-loving Greek, but a Savior-loving Christian.

The Wisdom of God was:

Represented by Christ

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power (dynamis) of God and the wisdom of God.

The word power is dynamis in the Greek, the root of the English word for dynamite. Dy-No-Mite: I bet you never realized that Jimmy Walker was an evangelist.

Those who are being called is the same group listed in verse 18 as those who are being saved. What is a stumbling block, and folly to others, is the power and wisdom of God.

Why do we see the Gospel seemingly falling on deaf ears in our society? Why do we not see people responding to the Gospel message? It is because it is a stumbling block to the world at large. It is folly. It is un-relatable to those without Christ.

So in that case what can we do? People are unlikely to respond to the Gospel message until they get to know the people who have responded to the Gospel message. That’s why relationships with others is so important. They are not going to see the value in a relationship to the Lord until they realize how your relationship with the Lord had made you something different from others that they know.

That is why is it so important for us to protect the testimony that we have in our lives. Believe me, it doesn’t take very much for a person to destroy their testimony. And think of this, if you destroy your testimony before others who are watching you, you may have just condemned them to eternal separation from God. Do you want to take the chance on someone suffering the fires of hell because your walk with the Lord was not strong enough?

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

When Paul speaks of the foolishness of God, he is not making a statement that God is sometimes foolish. The foolishness of God is man’s interpretation of the salvation of mankind facilitated by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The unconverted man sees this act as one of foolishness, because God’s vision is so much higher and grander than man’s vision.

My final point is The Power of God is:

Sown into the Humble

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Paul is saying here that God doesn’t need man’s wisdom and man’s glory. If God needed wise and powerful men, He would not have called me and he would not have called you. There were not many nobles or worldly wise people in the church at Corinth, but God still saved them.

In fact, God deliberately hides His truth from the men who consider themselves wise and powerful. Think for a moment of all the people that God calls in scripture. He calls those that are humble, those that are the “nobodies” of history, and He makes great leaders out of them - Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David, etc.

But also notice Paul says, “Not many wise or not many powerful,” he didn’t not any. No one is un-redeemable to the Lord.

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

Matthew 11:25–26 ESV

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

Every saint is “in Christ Jesus” (v. 30), and Christ is to every saint all that he or she ever needs. When it comes to spiritual things, we don’t need man’s wisdom or power because we have Christ. He is our redemption, our righteousness, our wisdom, our all. To add anything to Christ or His cross is to diminish Him and His work and rob them of their power.

Whenever Christians take their eyes off Christ and start depending on, trusting in, and glorifying man, then they cause divisions. Such divisions rob the church of its power.

31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Conclusion

There was a story a few years ago in the Family Herald and Weekly Star.

It seems a soap manufacturer and an evangelical preacher were walking along together, the former not being a Christian. The soap maker said, "The Gospel you preach has not done much good, for there is still a lot of wickedness, and thousands of wicked people."

The preacher was silent awhile, and in a few moments they passed a child making mud pies in the street. He was exceedingly dirty. Then the preacher said, "Soap has not done much good in the world, I see; for there is still much dirt, and ever so many dirty people!" "Oh, well," said the manufacturer, "soap is only useful when it is applied." "Exactly," replied the other, "so it is with the Gospel."

So, what is the application of the text in our world today? It is that we must apply the Gospel, and that we must approach the throne of God with humility, not trying to impress God with our wisdom or our knowledge, but as children. Just like children who trust their care to the adults in their lives, we place our lives in the hands of Christ for there is no other path to true wisdom on earth.