1 Corinthians 1:21, commentary and pictures

In God's wisdom the world by its own wisdom did not come to know God, so it pleased Him to save those who believe through preaching that the world counts as foolishness. That preaching is Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews who demand a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek wisdom, yet to those who are called Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. No human learning, reasoning, philosophy, or study of creation by itself can bring a person to a true knowledge of God, and a lifetime spent seeking Him in that way ends in ignorance and confusion. Saving believers in this way is not an experiment but God's devised and approved plan for spreading the gospel, and its message is the cross received by faith, which is foolishness to those who perish but the power of God to those being saved. Therefore the highest education is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is life eternal, for human ability alone cannot give that knowledge or fit a person for His work apart from dependence on Christ.

Verse Wording and Context

In God's wisdom the world by its own wisdom did not know God, so it pleased God to save those who believe by preaching that the world regards as foolishness. Human wisdom cannot bring people to know God, and the means of preaching seems foolish to worldly wisdom and especially to worldly-wise people whose worldly outlook makes the preaching of the cross seem foolish. The knowledge of God and salvation stands above human learning or achievement, true wisdom is found in God and received through faith, and preaching is God's means of salvation with faith as the response by which people are saved.

The surrounding verses explain this preaching as Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek after wisdom, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Human wisdom, scribes and disputers cannot reach God, for God has made the wisdom of this world foolish, while the preaching of the cross and of Christ crucified is foolishness to those who perish but the power of God to those being saved. Applied, this calls for the working of the Holy Spirit to mold hearts, for thanksgiving for grace and gifts while waiting for the coming of the Lord, and for all to speak the same thing with a plain thus saith the Lord, perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment with no divisions.

The wider passage teaches that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world, destroys the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent. He calls not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the mighty, and base and despised things and things which are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Of God believers are in Christ Jesus, who is made to them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, giving power to become sons of God with character formed after the divine similitude, perfect in man's sphere as God is perfect in His, so that he who glories must glory in the Lord. The inclination to extol men and exalt man's ideas of education as supreme is the foolishness God condemns, and the verse rebukes the rich and learned who exalt themselves above those who come to Jesus to be saved, showing that learning, riches and standing do not lead to knowledge of God. God's people have higher aims than the study of man and are to hunger and thirst after righteousness and receive the Holy Spirit, while educators must not exalt disloyal wise men but keep education directed to God.

That preaching must not come with excellency of speech or enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. The true wisdom preached is the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto glory which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, and God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, for man has nothing that he did not receive and has no ground to glory, and spiritual things are spiritually discerned and require humble, diligent study. The instruction in the first, second and third chapters of First Corinthians is of the greatest importance to all who have entered the Lord's army. Its instruction declares that the weakness of the church is the envy and strife cherished by members, which makes them carnal and walking as men, shown in withdrawing from some and binding up with others while saying I am of Paul and I am of Apollos, when Paul and Apollos are only ministers by whom believers believed, while God gives the increase.

The failure of human wisdom was demonstrated through ages and centuries of heathenism and was fully tested and proved wanting at the coming of Christ, when men did not know the true wisdom that comes from God as the source of all good. God allowed people through that long testing of their own wisdom to prove its want, weighed in the balances and found wanting, and still evident when Christ came is that knowing God and Christ comes through the revelation of God's word by the Holy Spirit, not through human wisdom or education alone. This saving by preaching is God's devised plan for spreading the gospel, not an experiment but an approved way carried forward through successive generations, by which from the beginning conviction came upon people and the world was enlightened concerning the gospel of God. The same lesson applies within the church: when people test their own wisdom and unfaithful teaching weakens the church, reliance on human wisdom can bring weakness and declining faith, but when crisis, trial or oppression comes God can intervene, defend and deliver and purify His people, remove unfaithful teachers, and raise up those who remain faithful. Advising students to pursue one line of human education after another in hope of attaining perfection is positively perilous and leaves education deficient in every way, for advanced learning and magnified human ability cannot take the place of a sound knowledge of God, while the highest grade of schooling is the schooling given by the divine Teacher, greatly needed as the close of earth's history draws near. This is shown by Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians but had to account a large part of that education as foolishness and have its impression blotted out by forty years of experience caring for sheep and tender lambs until his heart became tender and fit to shepherd God's heritage instead of magnifying his own abilities and trusting advanced education.

Human Wisdom Cannot Know God

No human wisdom, learning, reasoning, argument, logic, oratory, philosophy, eloquence, depth of reasoning, or study of creation by itself can bring the world to a true and correct knowledge of God. A person may spend a lifetime in laborious searching after God by reason, argument and logic and still end ignorant and confused. Education or human ability alone cannot give knowledge of God or fit a person for His work, and dependence on Christ is necessary. God has made the wisdom of this world foolish and saves those who believe not by human wisdom, oratory or philosophy but by what the world calls the foolishness of preaching. That preaching is spoken not in words that man's wisdom teaches but in words the Holy Ghost teaches, and its power is the working of the Spirit of God. Eloquence and reasoning without vital connection with Him do not draw people nearer to God, and such knowledge is imperfect and does not conform them to His character.

Exalting human judgment as God's wisdom, extolling learned men, and treating man's ideas of education as supreme is foolishness in God's sight that leads people astray. God's wisdom is too wise to err, so human opinions must not be maintained against His will and wisdom. Finite wisdom cannot judge rightly about God or His law, and this fulfills God's purpose to convict and convert those tempted to exalt their own powers. God destroys the wisdom of the wise and brings to nothing the understanding of the prudent, choosing the foolish, weak, base and despised things and things which are not to confound the wise and mighty and bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish but the power of God to those being saved, Christ crucified a stumblingblock to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek wisdom, but to those called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men, and not many wise after the flesh, mighty or noble are called.

Pride, self-sufficiency, self-trust, selfishness, worldly outlook, worldly attractions, sin and spiritual blindness keep the worldly wise from recognizing truth. To those proud of their own wisdom and self-sufficiency the preaching of the cross seems foolish and unintelligible, because they have not experienced its saving power. Their worldly outlook makes that preaching seem foolish, while God uses what the world calls foolish or weak to overturn human pride and prevent boasting. The worldly wise fail to recognize the truth and beauty of Christ, especially in His humility, suffering and self-sacrifice, and sin and spiritual blindness keep them from seeing their own part in His suffering or the things that bring peace. Even abundant knowledge leaves people without knowledge of God when they are proud in it and fail to recognize His beauty, majesty, justice and goodness and the wisdom and holiness of His law which reflects His character. Those who accept the light in humble obedience can be saved.

Knowledge gathered from created works without Christ remains imperfect and does not bring people into harmony with God's will or conform them to His character. Without accepting God's revelation of Himself in Christ, the personal Saviour and express image of the Father, people gain only imperfect knowledge from nature. Apart from Christ human wisdom is inefficient and efforts to read nature correctly surely fail, and without the guidance of the divine Teacher God remains unknown, as with the Athenians and their altar to the unknown God. Such study does not give exalted conceptions of God nor elevate mind and soul nor bring the whole being into conformity with His will. Instead it can lead people to exalt nature and its laws above the Creator and become idolaters who place nature above God.

The world's ignorance was deepened because Satan hid God by misrepresentation. He ascribed to God all the evils of suffering humanity and pictured Him as delighting in the sufferings of His creatures, revengeful and implacable. He originated the doctrine of eternal torment as punishment for sin in order to lead men into infidelity and rebellion, distract souls and dethrone human reason. Through these misrepresentations many were so deceived that they worshiped a false god clothed with the attributes of the satanic character. The world lay in ignorance and moral darkness under dense clouds of spiritual darkness and gloom where no reflection of truth was seen, so because the world did not know God He had to be revealed to human understanding by spiritual light. Heaven knew a divine Instructor must come to earth, and the Lord Jesus alone was able to roll back the clouds, for He is the light of the world, and by His presence He could dissipate the gloomy shadow Satan had cast between man and God.

This weakness of human wisdom was fully exposed when Christ clothed His divinity with humanity. Human reason and wisdom cannot form correct views of God through His way and His works, and the world by its own wisdom cannot acquire correct knowledge of the true and living God. This was made fully manifest by the treatment He received from the highest authorities of a nation professing to know God, whose rejection of Him exposed the weakness of human wisdom and reason. A new revelation came by Jesus Christ representing the Father and declaring Him to the world by living every specification of the law in humanity. Vital connection with God comes only through Christ the Sin-bearer on behalf of all who repent of sins and believe in Him, and through faith in Him He makes it possible to live that law, so that as a person accepts Christ's righteousness he partakes of the divine nature and keeps the commandments and lives the law as the apple of his eye.

The most humbling lesson is the nothingness of human wisdom and the folly of trying by unaided effort to know God. A man may exert his intellectual powers to the utmost and have what the world calls superior education, yet still be ignorant in God's eyes. The ancient philosophers boasted of wisdom, but it weighed nothing with God. Solomon with great learning still had foolishness, because he did not know how to stand in moral independence, free from sin, in strength of character molded after the divine similitude, and he pronounced his wisdom altogether vanity. The world's estimation of the divine character and imperfect knowledge of God's attributes did not enlarge mental conception, minds were not ennobled in conformity to the divine will but plunged into grossest idolatry, and this is the worth of all learning and knowledge apart from Christ.

Salvation Through Preaching Christ

It pleased God to save believers by what the world calls the foolishness of preaching, and this is His devised plan for spreading the gospel, not an experiment but an approved way carried forward through successive generations and even through centuries of heathenism. From the beginning conviction has come upon people through this method and the world has been enlightened concerning the gospel of God. Pursuing one line of human education after another in hope of attaining perfection is positively perilous and leaves education deficient in every way, while the highest schooling is that given by the divine Teacher. That divine teaching gives the knowledge most needed for gospel work as the close of earth's history draws near, bringing human minds by living faith out of darkness into God's marvelous light as His human instrumentalities.

The saving message is the preaching of the cross and of Christ crucified, received by faith, which is foolishness to those who perish but the power of God to those being saved. To those proud of their own wisdom and self-sufficiency it seems foolish and unintelligible because they have not experienced its saving power. To Jews who require a sign it is a stumbling block, and to Greeks who seek after wisdom it is foolishness, yet the gospel and Scriptures are to be received on the authority of God's word and not treated as arguments whose truth must be tested by human reasoning. The true wisdom preached is the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto glory which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes, spiritual things are spiritually discerned and require humble diligent study, and man has nothing he did not receive and therefore has no ground to glory.

The gospel is a mystery hidden for ages that human wisdom cannot sound out by trying to know God through wisdom. No one can attain true knowledge of God without divine aid, for no one knows the Son but the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals Him. Christ knew the righteous Father whom the world did not know, even when He by whom the world was made was in the world, and He manifested the Father's name to those given Him out of the world. In gospel seed-sowing the same laws govern as govern earthly seed-sowing and reaping, so the Word of God is to be communicated as truth and interwoven with the whole practical life.

Preaching must not come with excellency of speech or enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that faith stands not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Its power is the working of the Spirit of God, spoken not in words man's wisdom teaches but in words the Holy Ghost teaches. Paul could have met oratory with oratory and philosophy with philosophy on their own ground, yet he determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God alone can transform character and bring back what was lost through the mighty power of the cross of Calvary.

God uses what the world calls foolish and weak to overturn human pride and prevent anyone from boasting before Him. He can use a person who appears foolish and offers no learned arguments to awaken conviction in the learned and humble them to confession and a right position before God, for the power belongs to God and not to human eloquence or status. Looking unto Jesus and contemplating the cross lays all desire for self-glorification in the dust, gives the human mind its proper level, and brings a spirit of self-abasement promoting lowliness, humbleness of mind and true humility with no self-exaltation. The cross reveals the Creator of all worlds humbling Himself to human nature in meekness and lowliness, the Majesty of heaven clothing His divinity with humanity in humiliation, rich in heaven's treasure yet becoming poor for our sake that through His poverty believers are made rich, and God in Christ and Christ as God seen aright levels human exaltation and pride.

The verse rebukes the rich and learned who exalt themselves above those who come to Jesus to be saved, showing that human wisdom, learning, riches and standing do not lead to knowledge of God. God destroys the wisdom of the wise and makes foolish the wisdom of this world, giving power and salvation to believers through Christ crucified, choosing the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak and base and despised things to bring to nothing the mighty and noble, so that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Any person who cherishes high-mindedness and self-trust from self-sufficiency and self-complacency dishonors the Maker and will surely be humbled.

The saving message of Christ is for all people regardless of race, and all may receive His grace. All may receive it by humble obedience to the light, while worldly attractions and pride can blind people to Christ and keep them from recognizing the truth. Those who come to Christ as lost sinners receive the wisdom that leads to salvation, while those who exalt their own wisdom fail to receive the light only God can give. The Greeks' preference for their own learning explains why the gospel met with little success in Athens, for no eloquence or argument can convert a sinner and God alone can apply truth to the heart. Even eminent scholars and statesmen have saving truth set before them and are left free to accept or reject it, but persistent rejection of His power leaves a person beyond its reach.

True Education and Knowledge

The highest education is knowing God and Jesus Christ, which is life eternal, and no schooling, learning, human ability or achievement by itself can give that knowledge of God or fit a person for His work, so dependence on Christ is necessary and learning must not displace God's word or become glorying in human wisdom. In Christ, who is made wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, God's wisdom confounds worldly measures of learning and ability, and true wisdom is received through faith and must lead to faith and a life that shares His light with others. The knowledge of God and salvation stands above human learning, for worldly judgment calls God's chosen means of saving believers foolish.

Knowing God and Christ comes through the revelation of God's word by the Holy Spirit, not through human wisdom or education alone, and this failure of human wisdom was demonstrated through ages of heathenism and was still evident when Christ came. True wisdom comes from learning of God and Jesus Christ rather than relying on human interpretations, philosophy, invention, speculation and theories as the way to find truth, so God's word must take priority to purify and prepare people for God's family and attention must turn to the eternal truths given through prophets and apostles. The same lesson applies within the church, where testing human wisdom and unfaithful teaching bring weakness and declining faith, yet in crisis, trial or oppression God defends and delivers His people, removes unfaithful teachers and raises up the faithful.

True knowledge of God is found alone in the Bible, and the gospel and Scriptures are to be received on the authority of God's word and by faith, not treated as arguments whose truth must be tested by human reasoning. A person may spend a lifetime in laborious searching after God by reason, argument and logic and still end ignorant and confused, for God has made the wisdom of this world foolish and mere reasoning will never convince anyone of truth. Depth of reasoning is not what does the most good, but knowledge of God comes when holy people speak as moved by the Holy Spirit.

All treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ, so in the last days faith must be established by knowledge and wisdom from God alone and not from any human source, since even great human intelligence is not enough to grasp revelations hidden for ages. Wisdom is therefore sought by coming in faith to Christ to receive His fullness and close union with Him rather than by seeking wisdom from those who have not learned God's wisdom, and those to whom God reveals His word by His Spirit receive understanding of the mystery of godliness hidden from eternal ages in the Father and the Son. Urging students to pursue one line of human education after another as the way to perfection is positively perilous and leaves education deficient in every way, because advanced learning and magnified human ability cannot take the place of saving knowledge of God. Schools will always be needed, but education must not absorb every spiritual interest, while the highest grade of schooling is the schooling given by the divine Teacher, greatly needed as the close of earth's history draws near when those under God's training bring minds by living faith out of darkness into His marvelous light as His human instrumentalities.

Learning that exalts self must be unlearned and blotted out by humble experience until the heart becomes tender and fit to shepherd God's heritage. This is shown by Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians yet had to account much of that education as foolishness and have its impression blotted out by forty years of caring for sheep and tender lambs, so that instead of magnifying his own abilities and trusting advanced education he became tender-hearted and faithful. The world's wisdom was fully tested and proved wanting at the coming of Christ, when people did not know the true wisdom that comes from God as the source of all good, proving advanced education cannot take the place of sound knowledge of God. Education without a practical knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ whom He sent is without eternal worth, while true education is of more value than gold and silver and precious stones and more to be desired than worldly honor and the empty applause of mortals.

Divine instruction is accessible even to those with limited understanding, for those who humbly become learners can receive wisdom from the Great Teacher greater than that offered by human schools. This divine teaching, rather than accumulated human learning, gives the knowledge most needed for gospel work, leading minds from darkness into God's light and enlightening the world through God's established plan of preaching across generations and even through centuries of heathenism. It is the highest education, especially needed near the close of the world's history, and true spiritual knowledge comes from God rather than from accumulating human learning. There are two opposite wisdoms, the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world, and true education is walking in the wisdom of God and not in the wisdom of the world. Breaking every yoke must come first before the message of present truth in all its fullness can be carried to other countries, with educating and educating to prepare true reformers who will understand the message and then give it to the world.

Creation is to be understood by faith in the great creative power of God through Jesus Christ, believing with Hebrews 11:3 that visible things were not made from things present to the eye. Human reasoning and explanation cannot tell the whys and wherefores of the creation of the world, and the truth of creation can be stated but must be received by faith.

Proclaiming Message and Living It

God's appointed means of saving souls is through the foolishness of preaching, for Christ teaches through His servants to turn sinners from the darkness of error to the light of truth. Though ministers are human and compassed with human frailties, they are God's messengers, and their office is to be magnified not only to bring men to knowledge of the truth but by warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Preaching Jesus leads men to repentance, but the work does not end there; Christ's servants must continue watchcare and interest by keeping the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ before the people by precept and example. They must sanctify themselves so that their hearers also may be sanctified, and thus all grow in godliness going on from grace to grace until the ambassador for God can present every man perfect and mature and complete in Christ Jesus, when the ministerial office will be seen in its true sacred character.

This preaching preserves the knowledge of God and reveals the Father and the pure character of Christ amid the darkness covering the world and the gross darkness of error and superstition enveloping the people, instead of misrepresenting Christ by hardness of heart. Conversions can happen without a sermon, as when persons deprived of every means of grace are wrought upon by the Spirit of God and convinced of the truth through reading the word, but preaching remains God's appointed way. Christ is grieved when little is effected by ministers' labors, so every minister in the great harvest field should magnify his office by warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom. Those who receive the light have no authority of their own, but as messengers reflecting light from God they speak with authority entrusted to them by its Source.

What does good is not depth of reasoning but holy men speaking as they are moved by the Holy Spirit, and work in neglected fields needs faithful persevering workers of that kind who can minister, not merely preachers. The same laws that govern earthly seed-sowing and reaping govern the sowing of the seeds of truth, so in gospel seed-sowing the Word of God is to be communicated as truth and interwoven with the whole practical life. Because men in worldly wisdom know not God and cannot see by themselves the beauty, loveliness, goodness and holiness of divine truth, there must be a channel through which truth comes to the world, and the church has been constituted that channel. Christ reveals Himself to His people so they may reveal Him to others, and through His people the riches and glory of His unspeakable gift are manifested.

Vital connection with God comes only through Christ the Sin-bearer in behalf of all who repent of sins and believe in Him, because the world by its own wisdom cannot acquire correct knowledge of the true and living God and human reason and wisdom cannot form correct views of God through His way and His works. A new revelation came by Jesus Christ representing the Father and declaring Him to the world by living every specification of the law in humanity, and through faith in Jesus Christ He makes it possible for man to live that law, so that as man accepts the righteousness of Christ he partakes of the divine nature and keeps the commandments and lives the law of God as the apple of his eye. Knowing God through Christ who reveals the Father prepares people to meet Christ at His coming and changes them into His image, while eloquence and reasoning without vital connection leave knowledge imperfect and unconforming to His character. This saving by preaching that looks foolish brings marvelous blessings to faithful humble followers of Jesus Christ who follow on to know the Lord.

God's people have higher aims than the study of man and are to hunger and thirst after righteousness and receive the Holy Spirit, with God's Word taking priority over human philosophy and invention to purify and prepare them for God's family. The same lesson applies within the church: when reliance on human wisdom and testing of own wisdom with unfaithful teaching brings weakness and declining faith, God in crisis, trial or oppression defends and delivers His people, purifies them, removes unfaithful teachers, and raises up those who remain faithful. God designs that through human beings His glory, not the glory of men, shall be manifested, with His light shining through His agencies and with providence and revelation working in divine harmony to reveal God and Jesus Christ as first and last and best in everything.

To know God in the working out of His providence is true science: true knowledge is recognizing God in His providence and seeing the justice, goodness and love revealed in His plan worked out through the mediation of His Son, even through feeble instruments, though pride, selfishness, self-sufficiency and self-reliance keep men from recognizing and accepting it. The world in its wisdom does not behold the beauty and harmony of God's special work to meet emergencies and fails to see the designs of heavenly wisdom in times of necessity and the simplicity of God's plan searching hearts. Even those who respect the truth coming through God's messenger and have wisdom to defend it may be perplexed and not immediately discern God's purpose, so they must wait and watch and pray and let God's words go to the people while angels impress minds. God's wisdom is displayed in the humble methods and instruments He chooses, and victory comes through dependence on His power rather than human skill or impressive systems, so God's simple faith-filled means succeed where human plans apart from His power fail.

Worldly men and women do not realize they are daily deciding their own destiny and that as believers in His Word they should walk very softly before God, and immortality, a life that measures with the life of God, is obtained not through human beings but through Christ. Therefore God's faithful servants who preach His Word and seek to win souls to the truth are to be respected and their counsel heeded, while unbelievers are not to be honored or linked with because of supposed great wisdom, since association with those who believe not the truth proves a savor of death unto death. Those who feel their completeness needs no addition must learn of God and know Him aright in Jesus Christ with true knowledge of self from God before undertaking or continuing the work of the ministry, realizing that of themselves they can do nothing, lest unsanctified judgment, human feelings, human wisdom and perverted zeal put the work out of order.