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.