For Christ has not sent me to baptise, but to preach glad tidings; not in wisdom of word, that the cross of the Christ may not be made vain.
Paul baptised almost none of the Corinthians, and here he says why: Christ sent him to preach. So where does baptism stand next to the gospel, and can polished speech add anything to the cross?
The verse guards the gospel from two rivals at once. One writer sets them side by side:
There is plainly a double warning here. The first is putting baptism, which is an ordinance (or, as some now claim, a means of sacramental grace), in the place of preaching the word by the demonstration of the Spirit, in saving power to the one who believes. The other is pulpit oratory, as though the cross of Christ could gain anything in its effect on the conscience by excellence of speech.
Paul is not dismissing baptism. He is describing his own sending. His words would sound strange from any of the twelve original apostles.
It is not that the apostle Paul slights baptism: who could, that accepts it as Christ's institution? He could not have spoken like this if baptism were the means of life to the soul, as so many wrongly teach. Yet we can hardly imagine any of the twelve speaking as he does here... The others were expressly sent to baptize, and they did it themselves or through others. Paul himself was baptized, and he baptized others. No apostle opens up its meaning more deeply than he does in Romans 6, Galatians 3, and Colossians 2.
Paul held back on purpose. He would not let anyone wear his name.
He worked with great care at Corinth. He baptised very few, so that no one could say he had baptised in his own name. His work was to preach the gospel, not to baptise. He called people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not make disciples who would take his name. John the Baptist had disciples called after him. Paul avoided all that for himself, for what was right in John's day would have been wrong in Paul's day.
Commentators differ on what Paul is refusing. Some read it as polished speech. Kelly reads it as something deeper than style.
He seems to be condemning philosophic speculation, and not rhetoric only. Philosophy leaves no room for divine love on the one side, or for man's utter ruin on the other. The cross of Christ upholds both to the fullest degree.
Either way, natural ability is not the issue. One writer contrasts two preachers:
Fluency of speech is a natural gift. It may be present or absent without harming how effective an evangelist is as a minister of God. Apollos was "eloquent," while Paul was "unskilled in speaking." No human persuasiveness, natural or skilfully crafted, can achieve the purposes of God. His appeal is not to the imagination, and not only to the mind. It is to the hearts and consciences of sinful men.
The reason lies in how God has chosen to reveal Himself — not by describing, but by doing.
Mere words cannot set the gospel out. The Cross sets it out. Here is a principle of the highest importance: God makes Himself known to us by His actions, and not simply by descriptions or statements about Himself. Philosophy and theology try to describe God. But description needs the wisdom of words, and the wisdom of words demands human learning to frame and understand them. God is too great for words to describe, and we are too small to take in mere descriptions.
The same test applies today. Hearers still choose preachers by talent.
People seek out preachers for their eloquence, their logic and their talents, and not for the faithfulness with which they present the truth of God... But God's word is clear. The cross of Christ and the wisdom of man cannot go together. Exalt the cross of Christ, and man's wisdom must come down. Magnify man's wisdom, and the cross of Christ is emptied of its power.
- Commission — Christ sent Paul to preach, not to baptize. He sent the twelve to baptize. Paul himself was baptized and baptized others, so the verse limits his task, not the rite.
- Caution — he baptized few at Corinth so that no one could take his name. What was right for John the Baptist would have been wrong for Paul.
- Content — he carried the cross. Philosophy has no room for divine love or for man's ruin. The cross holds both.
- Conveyance — God makes Himself known by actions, not descriptions. He is too great for words, so the cross tells the story.
- Consequence — the cross and man's wisdom cannot rise together. Lift up man's wisdom, and the cross loses its power.
For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God's power.
The verse draws a line through the human race, and the line is a message. What you make of a crucified Saviour shows where you stand — folly, or the power of God.
The cross was a real instrument of execution. One writer explains why that fact alone made the message sound absurd.
The cross speaks of the lowest extreme of human shame and suffering. It was the harshest penalty for a slave. The Son of God stooped not only to the nature of man but to the death of the cross. This was atonement for man to God, and it was also man's rejection of God. To those who are ignorant of their own sinfulness and of God's holiness, that seems the depth of folly. They must perish, living and dying as they are. That He had to suffer in order to save assumes the hopeless ruin of the race.
The learned are not looking at a different event. They are looking at the same event and missing everything in it.
The wise of this world do not see the glory of the Person nailed to the cross. So they miss the love of God that gave Him to suffer. They miss the holiness of God that demanded such a sacrifice. They miss the utter ruin of man that the cross sets out. All they see is a Man nailed to a cross between two thieves. So the preaching of salvation through the cross seems to them utter folly.
The cross does not leave hearers neutral. It sorts them into two groups, and your own reaction shows which group you are in.
The cross stands as "the great divide" among men whenever it is faithfully preached. On one side of it stand those who are perishing, on the other those of us who are saved. You can tell which group a person belongs to by watching how that person treats the preaching of the cross. To the one it is only foolishness, because they hold to the world and its wisdom. To the other it is the power of God, and that to salvation.
The same writer guards against a misreading of what comes later in the chapter. The scorn falls on the message, not on the act of preaching.
The point of this remark in verse 21 is not that preaching seems a foolish method, compared with working, for instance. The point is the message preached. The word of the cross is foolishness by human standards, yet it is wisdom and power by God's.
Paul calls the cross the power of God. One writer names what that power does for the believer.
The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. To us who are being saved it is the power of God. It saves us from the guilt of sins, from the power of sin itself, and before long from the presence of sin when we go home.
Another writer adds how God can save this way without setting justice aside.
To those who are saved the cross is the power of God to save, because through it God can righteously save the vilest sinner.
Paul does not put salvation in the past tense. The wording keeps moving forward, and the shift to "us" is deliberate. The writer below quotes an older translation, "to us who are to be saved."
To man the word of the cross is the deepest offence and the sheerest foolishness. But to believers it is God's power — not wisdom only — "to us who are to be saved." Here the apostle treats it as a personal fact instead of continuing his general statement. That brings it home more closely. In this letter, salvation is not complete until the Lord comes. It takes in the whole work of bringing us through, until we are made like Christ in resurrection glory.
If the message itself is the power, then dressing it up in clever speech works against it.
The cross of Christ and the wisdom of man cannot go together. If the cross of Christ is to be exalted, man's wisdom must be brought low. If man's wisdom is to be magnified, the cross of Christ must "be made of none effect."
- The message. The cross announces the Son of God dying by the harshest penalty given to a slave. Such a rescue assumes the total ruin of the race.
- The offence. Those who see only a Man between two thieves miss the glory of His Person. They miss the love that gave Him and the holiness that required the sacrifice.
- The divide. The same preaching sorts every hearer. It is folly to one group and power to the other. Your reaction shows where you stand.
- The power. For those who believe, that power reaches the guilt of sins now, the grip of sin daily, and the presence of sin at last.
- The method. Because the power is in the message, human cleverness in preaching does not add to it — it empties it.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and set aside the understanding of the understanding ones.
God has already spoken against human cleverness in the things of faith. Paul reaches back to Isaiah to prove it. So what is God against here, and what does He put in its place?
Paul names two things God will remove. English blurs them, but they are not the same.
In English, the difference between wisdom and understanding in verse 19 is this: wisdom is the effort to use what a man has learned. In Greek you could hardly call it that. We may say that the understanding of the prudent has more the character of discernment, while wisdom is more the knowledge of truth. Hebrew uses far more words for wisdom than English has.
Why this text from Isaiah? One writer says no other scripture would have warned Corinth so well.
Looking for thoughts and words that please the world shows a mind at odds with God. He had already declared that the world's best wisdom is folly in the things of God. Notice that the apostle quotes as proof God's sentence on Israel through the prophet Isaiah (Isa. 29:14). Some do not see how fitting this testimony is, and I cannot agree with them. Many scriptures declare that human resources are not enough, but none suits the apostle's purpose better, and so none serves better to warn the believers at Corinth.
The New Testament quotes these words more than once. Where they came from shows that the loss of wisdom was earned.
Three times this scripture, or part of it, is quoted in the New Testament — twice by our Lord, and once by the apostle Paul. Looking back at Isaiah, we learn that hiding these things from the wise and prudent was not an act of arbitrary power. It was the judicial result of formality and hypocrisy in holy things, and of taking the rules of men in place of the word of God.
Where did God carry this sentence out? One writer points to the cross, where the rulers meant to end Jesus.
The cross was judgment indeed. But it was the judgment of this world. It was shame, indeed. But it was the wisdom of this world that was "made foolish" there. It was death — death dropping like a curtain and closing the story. But though the rulers aimed to "destroy Jesus" (Matt. 27:20), Jesus was not the one destroyed. Instead the cross fulfilled what had been written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart" (1 Cor. 1:19).
God does not leave the Christian without wisdom. He points him to another source.
Christians do not need the help of the wise men of this world, for God has said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart" (1 Cor. 1:19). All wisdom for the Christian is in Him, in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily," and we "have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority" (Col. 2:9-10).
God has discredited human wisdom. Bring it back into Christian life and it does damage in three places.
He would strip fallen man of all glory, so that He may make Christ Jesus to be to the believer "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." How worse than useless, then, to bring the thing God has discredited into the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of God's truth, or the ordering of His Church. Brought into the preaching of the gospel, it empties the cross of Christ of its power. Brought into the teaching of God's truth, it breeds quarrels and sects.
One writer follows the verse to its end, and asks what becomes of the clever men themselves.
Not only does the discernment of the discerning come to nothing (1 Cor. 1:19); the rulers of this age themselves come to nothing. The final result, the sum total, of all the clever doings is NOTHING. The clever men themselves come to NOTHING. In contrast, the Apostle John tells us that "whoever does the will of God abides forever"... The believer, and the believer only, has power to work at what will last for eternity.
- Written — Paul does not invent this. He quotes a sentence God had already passed through Isaiah, the one text best fitted to warn this church.
- Two words — wisdom is knowing the truth; understanding is the discernment that handles it. God sets both aside in the things of God.
- Deserved — God did not hide truth from the wise at random. Empty religion earned it, and so did putting men's rules where God's word belongs.
- The cross — God carried the sentence out there. The rulers set out to destroy Jesus, and the cross made their own wisdom foolish.
- Nothing, or forever — the clever doings and the clever men both end in nothing. The believer alone works at what lasts, with all his wisdom in Christ.
Where [is the] wise? where scribe? where disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
Paul asks three short questions, and none of them looks for information. Behind them stands a church in Corinth that admired clever speech, and a cross that had already settled the matter.
The three questions are not idle. Paul backs them with words God had already spoken through Isaiah. One commentator says no scripture could suit his purpose better:
I cannot agree with those who fail to see how fitting this testimony is. Many scriptures declare how far human resources fall short. Out of them all, it would be impossible to find one better suited to the apostle's purpose, and so one better able to warn the Corinthian saints... The last words are no more than an illustration drawn from Isaiah 33. There we hear a burst of surprise at the rescue from the scornful power of the enemy. Here we hear a triumphant challenge over the failure of its proud claims against God.
The same writer describes what the Corinthians were dreaming of:
They valued those who were wise, scribes, or debaters of this world. They were used to the schools of their age and country. Christianity did such great things while those who had it were poor and simple. So what might it do, they imagined, with the ability, the learning and the philosophy of men behind it! How it must ride triumphantly to victory! How the great must bow, and the wise be brought in!
The verse names three kinds of men the world looks up to. Set them beside what God has revealed, and see what they become:
No doubt these are prominent men in the world's eyes. But in the light of God's revelation they become like the magicians of Egypt when the plague of boils struck them. They could not stand before Moses (Ex. 9:11). Indeed, this matchless revelation actually renders foolish the wisdom of this world.
One writer points to the cross. Faith can already see the outcome there:
Worldly wisdom and strategy may have its day, but sooner or later it will fail completely. Faith already sees its folly and its moral overthrow at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified," said the apostle — "to the nations foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, God's power and God's wisdom."
If the wisest cannot answer, then knowing God is not a matter of brainpower. One writer sets the greatest mind beside the simplest believer:
Christ is revealed to the humble soul. Intellectual attainment is not in question here; it is no matter of great learning or of philosophy... The most brilliant mind could never discover the ways of God. We get effort, but never success. The simplest Christian already knows what such a mind cannot reach — things "hidden from the wise and prudent" but "revealed to babes." How painful are man's efforts to arrive at darkness! "What is truth?" asked Pilate, and crucified Christ.
Being called a fool stings. One writer calls that truth both humbling and healthy:
Here lies the great moral secret of the whole matter. Man has to find out that he is simply a fool, and that all the wisdom of the world is foolishness. Humbling, but wholesome truth! Humbling, because it puts man in his right place. Wholesome, yes, most precious, because it brings in the wisdom of God.
So where are these men? One writer names the one place you will not find them:
They have turned their backs on everything that makes much of man, everything that men boast in and trust by nature... Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Not in the Christian assembly where the presence of the Lord is.
- Written — The challenge is not Paul's opinion. It rests on God's earlier word through Isaiah, aimed at Christians who prized clever speech.
- Named — The world looks up to the wise, the scribe and the debater. Beside God's revelation they cannot stand, like Egypt's magicians before Moses.
- Cross — This is where God made that wisdom foolish; faith already sees its overthrow there.
- Hidden — No amount of intellect finds God. Pilate asked what truth was, and then crucified Christ.
- Wholesome — Finding out that you are a fool is humbling. It puts man in his right place, and it brings in the wisdom of God.
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom has not known God, God has been pleased by the foolishness of the preaching to save those that believe.
This verse holds two surprises. Man's failure to find God happened inside God's own wisdom, and then God chose to save people through a message clever men laugh at.
The phrase "in the wisdom of God" does not describe how the world searched. It describes God's decision to let the search run its full course before He spoke. One writer explains the point as an intentional delay:
It was in the wisdom of God, says the apostle, that the world by wisdom did not know God. This is an inspired declaration. Thinkers of the highest natural intelligence and the widest learning had used their powers to the full and reached their final results. It was all a vain attempt to find out God by searching. In other words, God's wisdom held back the announcement of saving grace in the name of the Son of God on purpose. He waited until man's natural ability had every opportunity to reach its highest point.
God did not leave man in the dark. The darkness was man's own choice:
God never left Himself without witness. He never meant to leave man to the blind gropings of a darkened intellect... So, in the darkness they chose for themselves, their wisdom ripened. In Greece, the nation that stood for all the peoples outside Israel, among people who claimed to seek wisdom, it produced its finest blossoms and its ripest fruits. God's wisdom gladly gave ample time for this development. Israel under law had to show that man was without strength and ungodly. In the same way, the nations had to show that the world by wisdom did not know God.
The verse does not say the world was too stupid to find God. The failure came through wisdom itself:
It was not that the world by its ignorance or stupidity did not know God, but by wisdom it did not know God. All the wisdom of the ages, the combined efforts of the keenest minds in the world, ends in one result. It leaves man in complete ignorance of God, and in complete ignorance of himself.
Greece put the result on public display. One writer then asks the same question of the Christian world today:
What did the philosophy of Greece do for its disciples? It made them the ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The words carved on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the whole universe. And may we not rightly ask whether philosophy has done better for the Christian world than it did for Greece? Has it given the knowledge of the true God? Who would dare to say Yes?
Commentators are agreed that the word does not mock the act of preaching. It names the message — the content that men judged absurd. The Greek noun behind it points to the thing proclaimed:
The apostle here speaks not exactly of preaching as a mere instrument, but of the thing preached... This the Jews derided, as well as the Greeks. It was foolishness to them. That is no surprise, if they did not see the glory of the person of Christ, given to die in God's love to sinners. To the natural mind, what could seem less reasonable than a crucified man as the only Saviour from sins and the wrath of God?
Part of the offence is how plain the message is:
This great wisdom comes in words so simple and clear that a child can understand it. That is why men who pride themselves on their superior wisdom are arrogant enough to despise it and call it foolishness. It is of course not the fact of preaching that is despised, but the subject matter.
Salvation comes from God's pleasure alone, and the tool He chose looks weak:
Note this too: men owe their ruin to themselves, but salvation is from God alone. It pleases Him to save. As to the means, it is "the foolishness of preaching." To do the mightiest of works, He uses what the natural mind judges the most inadequate of means. In this way He displays both His wisdom and His power.
Faith receives the message, not ability. That reverses the entry rules of every human system:
In this Christianity stands in sharp contrast with every human system of wisdom. Philosophy wants philosophers, science needs scientists, astronomy must have astronomers. Unless a man has the brains and ability their demands call for, he cannot claim to be their disciple. Not so with the grace that saves. The "wise and prudent" are set aside, and "babes" are put in their place.
- Delay — God's wisdom held back the gospel until human wisdom had its fullest chance and reached its finest results.
- Verdict — The failure was not stupidity. Wisdom itself left man not knowing God, and not knowing himself.
- Evidence — Greece's altar to an unknown God announced the result. Philosophy has done no better for the Christian world since.
- Message — What men call foolish is not the act of preaching but its content. A crucified man is the only Saviour from sins and God's wrath.
- Reach — Salvation comes by believing, not by intellect. So the wise are set aside and babes take their place, and God shows both His wisdom and His power.