1 Corinthians 1:17 - Meaning and Application

Paul preached the gospel, and the cross of Christ, without relying on clever language or polished speech (1 Corinthians 1:17). He did not use the persuasive style, the ornate oratory, or the exact philosophical phrasing that Greeks valued so highly, and that some in this church seemed to admire. He avoided that approach so that the cross of Christ would not lose its power. If people had believed because of human skill, they might have praised the preacher instead of the truth of the crucified Christ.

Paul had been trained in Jewish learning at the feet of Gamaliel, a respected teacher, but he set that learning aside when he preached Christ. He spoke plainly about the crucified Jesus, telling people that the one crucified in Jerusalem was the Son of God and the Savior of humanity. He taught that all who want to be saved must turn from sin, believe in him, and submit to his rule and commands. This truth did not need fancy decoration. It shone by its own light and spread by its divine authority, with the Spirit’s power and no human aid.

The plain preaching of a crucified Jesus was more powerful than all the oratory and philosophy of the pagan world. But people responded to it in very different ways. To those who are lost, it looks like foolishness, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews because they could not accept him. They expected the Messiah to be a great earthly ruler, so they would not receive one who appeared so lowly and died such a shameful death as their deliverer and king. They despised him and treated him as cursed because he was hanged on a tree, and they would not be satisfied with a sign that met their own demands, even though his divine power appeared in many miracles. The Jews still asked for signs (1 Corinthians 1:22; Matthew 12:38).

To the Greeks, Christ crucified seemed foolish. They mocked the idea of a crucified Savior and scorned the apostles’ way of preaching it. The Greeks prized wisdom. They were people of learning, skill, and debate, and for a long time they had been known for knowledge and study. Nothing in the plain message of the cross suited their taste, fed their pride, or satisfied their love of clever argument. So they received it with contempt. How could someone be saved by one who could not save himself? How could they trust one who was condemned and crucified as a criminal, born in low condition, and put to such a disgraceful death? Pride in human reason and learning could not accept that message. The Greeks treated it as foolishness, and in their pride and stubbornness they were left to their ruin. It is right for God to leave people to themselves when they mock his wisdom and grace so proudly.

Yet to those who are called and saved, Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. Those who are called and made holy, who receive the gospel and are enlightened by the Spirit, see more of God’s wisdom and power in the doctrine of Christ crucified than in all his other works. Those who are saved grow reconciled to the message of the cross, and they come to know the mysteries of Christ crucified in real experience.

This also fulfills the old prophecy, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (Isaiah 29:14). Where are the wise? Where are the scribes? Where are the debaters of this world? Has God not made the wisdom of this world look foolish? (1 Corinthians 1:19-20). All the learning that the world prized was humbled, defeated, and outshone by the Christian message and the glory of the cross. Pagan rulers and philosophers, Jewish rabbis and teachers, and even those who searched deeply into nature’s secrets were all brought to a standstill. This plan was beyond the reach of the best statesmen, philosophers, and scholars, whether Jewish or Greek.

When God chose to save the world, he did it in his own way, and for good reason. The world, with all its wisdom, did not know God (1 Corinthians 1:21). All the learning of the pagan world could not truly bring people back to God. Even with all their wisdom, people still stayed ignorant and wicked. Their supposed knowledge made them proud and pushed them farther from God. So it pleased him to save believers through what people call the foolishness of preaching. That is not foolish in truth, only in common human judgment.

The message itself seemed foolish to worldly people. That we live through one who died, receive blessing through one who was made a curse, and are declared right with God, meaning justified, by one who was condemned, all seemed like nonsense to people blinded by pride and attached to their own prejudices and ideas. The way the gospel was preached also seemed foolish to them. God did not use famous philosophers, great speakers, or leading statesmen to plant the church or spread the gospel. He called a few fishermen and sent them on this work. These were the ones sent to make disciples of the nations and to carry the treasure of saving knowledge to the world.

At first glance, nothing about them looked grand or impressive enough to have come from God. So proud people who valued learning and status despised the message because they despised the messengers. And yet the foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Corinthians 1:25). The ways God chooses, which proud people may criticize as weak or unwise, have more real wisdom, strength, and success than all human learning. You can see your calling, brothers, that not many wise, powerful, or noble people are called (1 Corinthians 1:26). Christianity carried an outward appearance of lowliness and weakness. Few people of high rank, wealth, learning, or public honor were chosen for the ministry. God did not choose philosophers, orators, statesmen, or men of wealth and influence to announce the gospel of grace and peace.

Not the wise people by human standards. People might think that a reputation for wisdom and learning would help the gospel succeed. Not the powerful and noble either, though many might imagine that social rank and public honor would make people more ready to receive it. But God does not see as people see. He has chosen the foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world, and the low and despised things of the world, people of humble birth, low status, and little formal education, to be the preachers of the gospel and the builders of the church. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways. He judges better than we do what tools and methods will best serve his glory.

Few people of high rank and good reputation were called to be Christians. As the teachers were poor and humble, so most of the believers were too. Few of the wise, the powerful, and the noble accepted the message of the cross. The first Christians, among both Jews and Greeks, were weak, foolish, and lowly by the world’s standards. They had little learning, and they held very modest positions in life. Even so, what great signs of divine wisdom we see in the whole plan of the gospel, and in this one part of its success.

This shows how well the gospel is suited to bring down human pride and vanity. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, people with little learning to shame the most learned, and the weak things of the world to shame the mighty. People of low rank and poor means are used to overthrow and outlast the power and authority of earthly kings. He also chooses base and despised things, things people hold in the lowest respect, to bring shame on all that people prize and admire. He chooses things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. The conversion of the Gentiles, whom the Jews looked down on most, was to open the way for the ending of the old Jewish order, an order the Jews loved and used to set themselves above the rest of the world.

The Jews often spoke of the Gentiles in this way, as if they were nothing. The gospel destroys that proud way of thinking. It shames Greek learning and learning pride, and it brings down the Jewish system on which they boasted so much. In this way, no one has room to brag before God (1 Corinthians 1:29). Divine wisdom alone planned the way of salvation, and divine grace alone revealed it and made it known. People could not have discovered it by themselves. Yet the gospel spread in spite of every attack from human cleverness or human power. God did this so that human pride would be put to shame and his glory would shine through everything. The gospel order is made to humble people.

But it is also wonderfully fitted to glorify God. There is great power and glory in the heart of Christianity and in all that it produces. Though the ministers were poor and unlearned, and though most converts were from the humblest rank, the Lord’s hand was with the preachers, and his power worked strongly in the hearts of the hearers. In Christ, both ministers and believers received what is truly great and honorable. Everything we have comes from God as the source, and through Christ as the way it reaches us.

Christ is made by God to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). He is everything we need and everything we can truly desire. We are foolish, ignorant, and blind in the things of God, despite all our claimed knowledge, and he becomes wisdom for us. We are guilty and under the sentence of justice, and he becomes our righteousness, our great sacrifice and payment for sin. We are corrupted and sinful, and he becomes our sanctification, the source of our spiritual life. From him, the head, that life comes to all the members of his spiritual body through the Holy Spirit. We are in bondage, and he becomes redemption for us, our Savior and deliverer.

Notice this: where Christ becomes righteousness to a soul, he also becomes sanctification. He never frees a person from sin’s guilt without also freeing that person from sin’s power. He is made righteousness and sanctification so that, in the end, he may be complete redemption, freeing the soul from sin itself and raising the body from the grave. The purpose of all this is that all flesh may glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31). God wills that all our boasting should be in the Lord, and because salvation comes only through Christ, that purpose is fully secured. In the whole plan, man is humbled and God is glorified and lifted up.