Paul the Apostle opens 1 Corinthians with a big statement. He writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that the Gospel is foolishness to the lost. He also quotes Isaiah 29:14, saying that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise. He will completely confuse the wisdom of this world through the message of the cross. According to Paul, the message of the cross is the wisdom of God. Paul then poses a question in verse 20 to the philosophers, the scholars, and the debaters: where does this leave them?
On top of this, Paul says that God chose the foolishness of simple, plain preaching to communicate the Gospel. To the Jews, preaching Christ crucified was offensive; to the Greeks, it was nonsense, but to those who believe it is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23). In fact, those who believe understand this foolishness of God to be wiser than all the wisdom of the world. When he first came to the Corinthians, Paul used plain preaching when speaking the Gospel to them. Instead of relying on human wisdom, he relied on the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:4).
As believers, we have a simple message to communicate plainly. The message, according to human standards, is foolishness. But yet, didn’t your belief, upon hearing that message, change your life through the power of God? What the world needs today is what it has always needed, and will always need, the plain preaching of the Gospel done in the power and demonstration of the Spirit. The world has plenty of philosophers, scholars, and debaters — we do not need to match the complexity of their arguments. The plainness and power of the Gospel, which has changed our lives, is the simplest of arguments that confounds the world.
Thank you for joining me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from 1 Corinthians 1-4