God Choose Foolishness

by Jason Joines

In 1 Corinthians chapter1 there are a few things the Apostle Paul is calling wisdom: unity, the death and resurrection of Jesus are plainly understood as wisdom, but the foolishness of God, at first glance, you would not think foolishness of God is wisdom, but Paul will explain it before this chapter is finished.      

 

First off, Paul states the need for unity in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17.  I see this as having two meaning, human and spiritual.  There are divisions among the church that claim to follow different leaders and doctrines, instead of following the one true leader, Jesus.  Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up on its behalf, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the washing of the water in the Word, (Ephesians 5:25b-26).  When we start following people and denominations instead of the true head of the church we can very easily set ourselves up for deception.  As for the spiritual, we have many different attitudes and offenses we carry around with us at church and in walking out our faith in our day to day lives.  “How good and how pleasant is the living of brothers, even in unity (Psalms 133).”  In this small three verse chapter in the Psalms, David himself describes just how precious unity is, and if King David isn’t enough to convince you here are the words of our Lord in His High Priest prayer, “I pray concerning them; I do not pray concerning the world, but concerning the ones whom You gave to Me, because they are Yours. And all my things are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And no longer am I in the world, yet they are in the world; and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, those whom you gave to me, that they may be one as we are (John 17:9-11)”.

Then in 1Corinthians 1:18-24 Paul states that the word of the cross is foolishness to the ones who perish.  Now Paul says that the word of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing, “to the Jews it’s a stumbling block and to the Gentiles (or unbeliever) foolishness but to those who are the called, both Jew and Greek, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”. This brings to my mind what we are commanded by Jesus Himself in Matthew 28:18-20.  This is the wisdom that brings eternal life, what better news is there than to live eternity with our Lord Jesus, all else has to be foolishness compared to this eternal promise.  Jesus is the most important wisdom of God and you can only get this wisdom from our Father God who draws us to Jesus.

The foolishness of God is wiser than any man.  Paul stated in verse 19 of 1 Corinthians (for it hath been written, `I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to naught').  God has chosen the weak, foolish and base things and the despised of the world for the reason that we cannot boast in ourselves but in the Lord and what He has saved us from.  But our flesh loves to take credit for what God has done in our lives and we need to resist that in the wisdom of God that has been given to us.  This reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:3-12. Jesus tells us the poor in spirit, those who morn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecuted for the sake of righteousness, insulted, persecuted and all kinds of evil against you on account of Jesus. Rejoice! You are blessed, be glad for your reward is great in heaven.  God uses us best in our weaknesses to shame the wise of the world, but when we boast in our on strength then the foolishness of God will show you how wise you really are.  The poor in spirit will have the Kingdom of Heaven.  Mourners will be comforted by God. Help us to be gentle. We hunger and thirst for your righteousness.  Help us to give mercy, to receive your mercy.  Work out a pure heart in us, so that we will be able to see you.  Help us make peace for we want to be called sons of God.  Even if persecuted for the sake of your righteousness we will not falter, for we want the kingdom of heaven.  We will take all insults, persecutions, and all evil against us on account of you, for a great and wonderful testimony of your wisdom to be blessed by you.