Godless Intellectualism as a worldview
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
First Corinthians 1:10–17 presented the “presenting problem,” as counselors might put it today, and that is factionalism in Corinth.
Beginning with verse 18, Paul offers a series of antidotes to this problem of factionalism—and the first one of these is to focus consistently on the cross of Jesus Christ. Verses 18 and 19 put it well: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate’” (NIV).
Verses 18–25 contrast what Paul calls the foolishness (by human standards) of the story of Jesus crucified with the so-called wisdom (the best that humans on their own can manufacture) of this world.
God’s foolish method
The general principle that verses 18–21 outline is that God chooses to save by a foolish method. In verse 19, Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 and shows how Scripture is being fulfilled by this twin but opposite pair of reactions of considering the message foolish or considering it wise.
Verses 20–21 go on to not reject all forms of Christian wisdom, as it might seem at first blush, but the wisdom of the world. The philosopher, the scribe, the teacher of this age—these are key qualifiers. Paul is not an anti-intellectual, as at times some of his followers and some of Christ’s Church have been, but he is certainly anti-every-form-of-godless intellectualism if that becomes our central and captivating worldview.
In verses, 22–24, Paul applies this principle of how the gospel of Christ and him crucified seems foolish, first to Jews and then to Greeks: “Jews [seek] signs and Greeks [demand] wisdom.” We recall in the Gospels the multiple occasions when Jewish leaders came to Jesus and asked, “What sign will you work?” to testify and corroborate the astonishing claims he was making—sometimes right after he had worked a miracle. Apparently, they were looking for something even more spectacular.
Wiser than the greatest wisdom
Certainly, the Greeks in and around Corinth (a home of philosophy, a home of sophistry) sought after wisdom, but Paul considers it worldly wisdom and climaxes this paragraph in verse 25 by claiming that God’s foolishness—what seems foolish to a lost world about God’s plans for saving it—is, in fact, wiser than the greatest wisdom of the world that leaves God out of the picture.”
