Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
What men call foolishness and weakness in God — Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross as His way to save those who believe — is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. To those who perish it is foolishness, a stumbling block to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek after wisdom, but to those who are called and saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save. God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty, even base and despised things to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Of God, believers in Christ Jesus have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore faith must stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, and preaching is not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Meaning of Foolishness and Weakness
What men call foolishness and weakness in God — Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross as God's appointed way of saving those who believe — is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. Though Jews stumble over Christ crucified as a stumbling block and Greeks dismiss it as foolishness, to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God deliberately chooses people and means the world counts foolish, weak, low and insignificant to confound the wise and mighty, so that human pride is humbled and no flesh can glory or boast in human ability, wisdom, might or riches before Him. In Christ, believers receive true wisdom and strength from God rather than from themselves, for Christ is made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and true glory is found only in Him.
No human being can become wisdom for another, and business ability and worldly cleverness cannot be trusted as the measure of spiritual wisdom. The theories and systems men plan and devise in supposed wisdom, the speculations of philosophy and so-called intellectual men, are vain and foolish beside God and cannot be relied upon unless men are daily learning in the school of Christ. Human interpretation alone cannot rival the eternal truths given through prophets and apostles, for God's wisdom and power are far above men.
This is seen in His temporal kingdom, which illustrates the grand things of His spiritual kingdom. He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heaven by His discretion, He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, His counsels stand forever and the thoughts of His heart endure from generation to generation. He disappoints the devices of the crafty so that they cannot perform their enterprise, while His counsel endures and human schemes and finite judgment cannot match it. He claims the highest reverence, fear, love and obedience, being perfect in goodness and full of mercy and compassion, and He always works for the good and happiness of the human family. Human plans and imaginings contrary to His will and way exalt finite wisdom and destroy His paths, ending in unhappiness, suffering and eternal disappointment.
Beside God, human wisdom is folly and ignorance without His help, and human strength is weakness. Worldly honor, worldly greatness, worldly wisdom and worldly strength have only the low value God places on them. A person's true worth as God estimates it, and all true elevation of character and moral worth, come only through union with Christ, through whom God alone can raise man by imputing Christ's righteousness to the one who yields to Him the heart's best and holiest affections, so that human value is in proportion to alliance with God. What God esteems is therefore to be valued above what men call wise and strong, and recognizing human limitation leads to humility and to faithful use of time and talents in God's service rather than pursuit of one's own pleasure.
Divided Response to Christ
The preaching of Christ crucified divides hearers, for to those who are perishing it is foolishness, while to those who are being saved it is saving power. To unbelieving Jews who require a sign it is a stumbling block, and to Greeks who seek after wisdom it is foolishness, and pride of intellect and worldly judgment keeps most from receiving it, as at Athens where comparatively few received the gospel because they counted it foolishness. Great men, ministers, doctors, the learned and the popular reject these truths because of the cross, because popularity and worldly inducements are too great to yield up and because their minds are darkened, dismissing as worthless what surpasses all human thinking in wisdom and all human ability in strength.
To those who are called and saved, both Jews and Greeks, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save those who believe, a saving gift surpassing all human wisdom and strength. Its saving grace is open to people of every race, and while the Father has hidden these things from the wise and prudent He has revealed them unto babes, so that those who are babes in knowledge clearly apprehend and enjoy them. Without spiritual eyesight men judge by worldly wisdom and count the advocates of truth as humble, commonplace and inferior to promoters of error, while grace in the heart changes that estimate and teaches believers not to measure God's humble working for the saving of souls by worldly methods and standards.
In the wisdom of God the world by its own wisdom did not know God, so it pleased God by what the world calls foolish preaching to save them that believe, and God made foolish the wisdom of this world. He will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, for He does not value the wisdom of the world as men value it. Jews and Greeks represent classes that misunderstand spiritual religion, for the natural person cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned.
Faith must therefore stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Preaching is not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and truth is known and spoken not in words which man's wisdom teaches but as the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This is wisdom among them that are perfect, not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world and which none of the princes of this world knew. It is the things which God has prepared for them that love Him, which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man, but God has revealed them by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, known not by the spirit of the world but by the spirit which is of God, so that he that is spiritual judges all things, having the mind of Christ. Paul, though able to meet oratory with oratory and philosophy with philosophy on their own ground, determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, since character is transformed by God alone through the mighty power of the cross.
God Confounds Human Pride
God has chosen what the world calls foolish to put the wise to shame, what the world calls weak to put the mighty to shame, and base and despised things, even things that are counted as nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are. What appears to be foolishness or weakness in His way, above all Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross, is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. To those who perish it is foolishness, a stumbling block to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek after wisdom, but to those who are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save those who believe.
For this reason not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Great, learned and popular people often reject the cross because of its humiliation, and pride of intellect keeps many, as at Athens, from receiving what babes in knowledge clearly apprehend. God does not value worldly wisdom, greatness, might or riches as men value them, and He has made foolish the wisdom of this world and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
This choosing of lowly instruments is so that no flesh should glory in His presence and no one can boast in human ability, wisdom, might or riches. True glory is only in understanding and knowing God, who exercises lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness, and in glorying in the Lord, in whom believers have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God does His work not by human might or power but by His Spirit, honoring humble, simple, inexperienced means that human plans alone could never make effective.
Christ Our Wisdom and Glory
Of God, those who believe in Christ Jesus receive Christ himself as wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that no one has ground to boast before God but all glory belongs to the Lord. What looks like foolishness and weakness in God's way of saving through Christ crucified is in truth wiser than human wisdom and stronger than human power, and God chooses what the world counts foolish and weak and base and despised and insignificant to overturn what it counts wise and mighty.
Looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith gives the mind its proper level, laying every desire for self-glorification in the dust. Contemplating the cross and seeing God in Christ and Christ in God as they truly are levels human exaltation and pride, bringing a spirit of self-abasement that works lowliness and humbleness of mind and true humility with no self-exaltation. This is so because the Creator of all worlds, the Majesty of heaven rich in heaven's treasure, humbled himself to human nature in meekness and lowliness, clothing divinity with humanity and becoming poor so that through his poverty believers might be made rich. Anyone who cherishes high-mindedness and self-trust out of self-sufficiency and self-complacency therefore dishonors the Maker and will surely be humbled.
The highest education and the science of heaven is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, of more worth than gold and silver and precious stones and more to be desired than worldly honor and empty human applause. The knowledge of God who exercises lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness must be exalted above everything else, sought through Scripture and Christ, with wisdom and knowledge and the fear of the Lord as stability and treasure. To learn science through human interpretation alone is false education that brings confusion, while to learn of God and Christ is to learn the science of heaven. The living Word of God is of infinite value when it enters the heart and understanding as God's Word, and its truths become God's power in transformation of character when believers are not hearers only but doers living by every word from God's mouth under a divine Instructor, leading to holiness and service rather than pride in human achievement and fitness for heaven rather than mere book-knowledge and inventions of men.
What the world calls foolishness is the higher wisdom of heaven, the spirit of light and knowledge given to those who are one with Christ in God. It is received by constantly beholding Christ who lived a life of perfect obedience before men, and the more closely he is beheld the more fully the beholders resemble him in character. They become more efficient in working for those in their charge, are lifted above the trials and perplexities of this life and the contamination of worldly schemes, and reveal God even in business matters, whether their service is in the highest or the lowest place, so that life and immortality are brought to light through them.
God Uses Weak Instruments
What appears foolish and weak by human standards in God's plan is wiser and stronger than human wisdom and power, for He does His work not by human might or power but by His Spirit, choosing lowly, humble, inexperienced instruments to confound the strong and brave. In Geneva, where the bold preacher Farel had been rejected and driven out, He sent the humble, inexperienced Froment, a young man of humble appearance and little courage, to begin as a schoolmaster teaching children. Through that weak means He planted the Reformation, which grew and helped spread the truth until Protestant worship was established.
Human glory and rash action expose the foolishness of relying on human wisdom and the weakness of human strength, which cannot accomplish God's work apart from Him. Moses' human abilities could not qualify him for God's work, but when he lost self-confidence, recognized his helplessness and inability, and trusted and obeyed the Lord, God could work through him. Then God made him an instrument to lead and bless Israel, for faith relies on God's wisdom and power rather than on human ways or qualifications.
God's way, though it may appear foolish or weak by human standards, surpasses human wisdom and power, and He used a poor, unlearned man who simply repeated the announcement of Christ's coming without being able to argue for it to humble a learned man. The Spirit moved the learned elder to kneel and confess his pride before God through that simple witness. God's wisdom and power surpass human wisdom and strength even when His methods appear foolish or weak to boastful, self-confident people.
He works through weak human agents, as earthen vessels, to honor the truth. His people who love and obey His commandments need not be powerless when His law is disregarded and Satan works through opposition to obstruct the truth, for God can frustrate that opposition and make the truth effective. He can bring victory through humble, simple means that human plans alone cannot achieve, and His people must depend on Him rather than seek honor for themselves.
Preaching, Learning, and Daily Life
Christian workers are to proclaim Christ crucified plainly rather than shaping the message to please people, keeping self out of view, lifting up Jesus, and warning of the danger of neglecting eternal concerns. Like Paul, who though able to meet oratory with oratory and philosophy with philosophy determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they are to preach not in words which man's wisdom teaches but as the Holy Spirit teaches, trusting that character is transformed by God alone through the mighty power of the cross. Reformers and preachers must not let doubtful questions, councils, doubt and criticism handicap reforms and new methods, but must keep proclaiming the gospel which pride of intellect dismisses as folly yet which surpasses all human thinking and ability.
God's people must have higher aims than the study of man, and must not exalt man's ideas of education as supreme or extol learned men, which God calls foolishness. Intellectual theories, systems of philosophy, pride of intellect and worldly wisdom cannot be relied upon, for in God's wisdom the world by its own wisdom did not know God, so He made foolish the wisdom of this world and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Men must instead be daily learning in the school of Christ, willing to learn like little children and like babes in knowledge who clearly apprehend what is hidden from the wise and prudent, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will receive the Holy Spirit to see greater heights.
Applied to education, the knowledge of God is above everything else and must be exalted, for to learn science through human interpretation alone is false education bringing confusion, while to learn of God and Christ is to learn the science of heaven. No method of study should crowd out the word of God, rob God of willing service of spirit, soul and body, or replace fitness for heaven with book-knowledge and inventions of men. The living Word is of infinite value when received as God's Word into heart and understanding and obeyed by doers living by every word from the mouth of God, becoming the power of God in transformation of character through a Divine Instructor, with the highest education being knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.
Conscientious observance of the Sabbath and choosing the suffering, self-denying part of religion looks wild and erratic, stubborn and foolish, odd and singular to unbelievers whose happiness is in worldly pleasures and vanities, and even to one's own child, but the faithful must be patient and faint not. Human beings are only God's little children, so all pomposity and all masterly effort to gain supremacy is unbecoming to them. Cherishing high-mindedness, self-trust, self-sufficiency and self-complacency dishonors the Maker and will surely be humbled, for looking unto Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith and contemplating the cross lays all desire for self-glorification in the dust and brings lowliness, humbleness of mind and true humility with no self-exaltation.
Seeing God in Christ and Christ in God aright levels human exaltation and pride, since the Creator of all worlds, the Majesty of heaven rich in heaven's treasure, humbled Himself to human nature in meekness and lowliness, clothing divinity with humanity and becoming poor so that through His poverty believers might be made rich. To reason from human judgment and follow worldly policy counted as wise instead of God's divine policy, which the world counts singular and foolish, lets self in and stamps the work with traits unlike Christ, leaving God almost entirely out and receiving God's disapproval even when men find nothing objectionable. The verse holds precious assurance, comfort and encouragement for the child of God when trouble in the world increases and the Lord's children must suffer, sustaining a faith that will stand the test of trial and opposition. Human strength is weakness and human wisdom is folly when compared with God, which rebukes pursuing one's own pleasure instead of faithfully using time and talents in His service.
What men call foolishness and weakness in God — Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross as His way to save those who believe — is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. To those who perish it is foolishness, a stumbling block to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek after wisdom, but to those who are called and saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save. God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty, even base and despised things to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Of God, believers in Christ Jesus have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore faith must stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, and preaching is not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
Meaning of Foolishness and Weakness
What men call foolishness and weakness in God — Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross as God's appointed way of saving those who believe — is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. Though Jews stumble over Christ crucified as a stumbling block and Greeks dismiss it as foolishness, to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God deliberately chooses people and means the world counts foolish, weak, low and insignificant to confound the wise and mighty, so that human pride is humbled and no flesh can glory or boast in human ability, wisdom, might or riches before Him. In Christ, believers receive true wisdom and strength from God rather than from themselves, for Christ is made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and true glory is found only in Him.
No human being can become wisdom for another, and business ability and worldly cleverness cannot be trusted as the measure of spiritual wisdom. The theories and systems men plan and devise in supposed wisdom, the speculations of philosophy and so-called intellectual men, are vain and foolish beside God and cannot be relied upon unless men are daily learning in the school of Christ. Human interpretation alone cannot rival the eternal truths given through prophets and apostles, for God's wisdom and power are far above men.
This is seen in His temporal kingdom, which illustrates the grand things of His spiritual kingdom. He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heaven by His discretion, He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, His counsels stand forever and the thoughts of His heart endure from generation to generation. He disappoints the devices of the crafty so that they cannot perform their enterprise, while His counsel endures and human schemes and finite judgment cannot match it. He claims the highest reverence, fear, love and obedience, being perfect in goodness and full of mercy and compassion, and He always works for the good and happiness of the human family. Human plans and imaginings contrary to His will and way exalt finite wisdom and destroy His paths, ending in unhappiness, suffering and eternal disappointment.
Beside God, human wisdom is folly and ignorance without His help, and human strength is weakness. Worldly honor, worldly greatness, worldly wisdom and worldly strength have only the low value God places on them. A person's true worth as God estimates it, and all true elevation of character and moral worth, come only through union with Christ, through whom God alone can raise man by imputing Christ's righteousness to the one who yields to Him the heart's best and holiest affections, so that human value is in proportion to alliance with God. What God esteems is therefore to be valued above what men call wise and strong, and recognizing human limitation leads to humility and to faithful use of time and talents in God's service rather than pursuit of one's own pleasure.
Divided Response to Christ
The preaching of Christ crucified divides hearers, for to those who are perishing it is foolishness, while to those who are being saved it is saving power. To unbelieving Jews who require a sign it is a stumbling block, and to Greeks who seek after wisdom it is foolishness, and pride of intellect and worldly judgment keeps most from receiving it, as at Athens where comparatively few received the gospel because they counted it foolishness. Great men, ministers, doctors, the learned and the popular reject these truths because of the cross, because popularity and worldly inducements are too great to yield up and because their minds are darkened, dismissing as worthless what surpasses all human thinking in wisdom and all human ability in strength.
To those who are called and saved, both Jews and Greeks, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save those who believe, a saving gift surpassing all human wisdom and strength. Its saving grace is open to people of every race, and while the Father has hidden these things from the wise and prudent He has revealed them unto babes, so that those who are babes in knowledge clearly apprehend and enjoy them. Without spiritual eyesight men judge by worldly wisdom and count the advocates of truth as humble, commonplace and inferior to promoters of error, while grace in the heart changes that estimate and teaches believers not to measure God's humble working for the saving of souls by worldly methods and standards.
In the wisdom of God the world by its own wisdom did not know God, so it pleased God by what the world calls foolish preaching to save them that believe, and God made foolish the wisdom of this world. He will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, for He does not value the wisdom of the world as men value it. Jews and Greeks represent classes that misunderstand spiritual religion, for the natural person cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned.
Faith must therefore stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Preaching is not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and truth is known and spoken not in words which man's wisdom teaches but as the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This is wisdom among them that are perfect, not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world and which none of the princes of this world knew. It is the things which God has prepared for them that love Him, which eye has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man, but God has revealed them by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God, known not by the spirit of the world but by the spirit which is of God, so that he that is spiritual judges all things, having the mind of Christ. Paul, though able to meet oratory with oratory and philosophy with philosophy on their own ground, determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, since character is transformed by God alone through the mighty power of the cross.
God Confounds Human Pride
God has chosen what the world calls foolish to put the wise to shame, what the world calls weak to put the mighty to shame, and base and despised things, even things that are counted as nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are. What appears to be foolishness or weakness in His way, above all Christ crucified and the preaching of the cross, is in truth wiser than all human wisdom and stronger than all human strength. To those who perish it is foolishness, a stumbling block to Jews who require a sign and foolishness to Greeks who seek after wisdom, but to those who are called it is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save those who believe.
For this reason not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Great, learned and popular people often reject the cross because of its humiliation, and pride of intellect keeps many, as at Athens, from receiving what babes in knowledge clearly apprehend. God does not value worldly wisdom, greatness, might or riches as men value them, and He has made foolish the wisdom of this world and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
This choosing of lowly instruments is so that no flesh should glory in His presence and no one can boast in human ability, wisdom, might or riches. True glory is only in understanding and knowing God, who exercises lovingkindness, judgment and righteousness, and in glorying in the Lord, in whom believers have Christ made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God does His work not by human might or power but by His Spirit, honoring humble, simple, inexperienced means that human plans alone could never make effective.
Christ Our Wisdom and Glory
Of God, those who believe in Christ Jesus receive Christ himself as wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that no one has ground to boast before God but all glory belongs to the Lord. What looks like foolishness and weakness in God's way of saving through Christ crucified is in truth wiser than human wisdom and stronger than human power, and God chooses what the world counts foolish and weak and base and despised and insignificant to overturn what it counts wise and mighty.
Looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith gives the mind its proper level, laying every desire for self-glorification in the dust. Contemplating the cross and seeing God in Christ and Christ in God as they truly are levels human exaltation and pride, bringing a spirit of self-abasement that works lowliness and humbleness of mind and true humility with no self-exaltation. This is so because the Creator of all worlds, the Majesty of heaven rich in heaven's treasure, humbled himself to human nature in meekness and lowliness, clothing divinity with humanity and becoming poor so that through his poverty believers might be made rich. Anyone who cherishes high-mindedness and self-trust out of self-sufficiency and self-complacency therefore dishonors the Maker and will surely be humbled.
The highest education and the science of heaven is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, of more worth than gold and silver and precious stones and more to be desired than worldly honor and empty human applause. The knowledge of God who exercises lovingkindness and judgment and righteousness must be exalted above everything else, sought through Scripture and Christ, with wisdom and knowledge and the fear of the Lord as stability and treasure. To learn science through human interpretation alone is false education that brings confusion, while to learn of God and Christ is to learn the science of heaven. The living Word of God is of infinite value when it enters the heart and understanding as God's Word, and its truths become God's power in transformation of character when believers are not hearers only but doers living by every word from God's mouth under a divine Instructor, leading to holiness and service rather than pride in human achievement and fitness for heaven rather than mere book-knowledge and inventions of men.
What the world calls foolishness is the higher wisdom of heaven, the spirit of light and knowledge given to those who are one with Christ in God. It is received by constantly beholding Christ who lived a life of perfect obedience before men, and the more closely he is beheld the more fully the beholders resemble him in character. They become more efficient in working for those in their charge, are lifted above the trials and perplexities of this life and the contamination of worldly schemes, and reveal God even in business matters, whether their service is in the highest or the lowest place, so that life and immortality are brought to light through them.
God Uses Weak Instruments
What appears foolish and weak by human standards in God's plan is wiser and stronger than human wisdom and power, for He does His work not by human might or power but by His Spirit, choosing lowly, humble, inexperienced instruments to confound the strong and brave. In Geneva, where the bold preacher Farel had been rejected and driven out, He sent the humble, inexperienced Froment, a young man of humble appearance and little courage, to begin as a schoolmaster teaching children. Through that weak means He planted the Reformation, which grew and helped spread the truth until Protestant worship was established.
Human glory and rash action expose the foolishness of relying on human wisdom and the weakness of human strength, which cannot accomplish God's work apart from Him. Moses' human abilities could not qualify him for God's work, but when he lost self-confidence, recognized his helplessness and inability, and trusted and obeyed the Lord, God could work through him. Then God made him an instrument to lead and bless Israel, for faith relies on God's wisdom and power rather than on human ways or qualifications.
God's way, though it may appear foolish or weak by human standards, surpasses human wisdom and power, and He used a poor, unlearned man who simply repeated the announcement of Christ's coming without being able to argue for it to humble a learned man. The Spirit moved the learned elder to kneel and confess his pride before God through that simple witness. God's wisdom and power surpass human wisdom and strength even when His methods appear foolish or weak to boastful, self-confident people.
He works through weak human agents, as earthen vessels, to honor the truth. His people who love and obey His commandments need not be powerless when His law is disregarded and Satan works through opposition to obstruct the truth, for God can frustrate that opposition and make the truth effective. He can bring victory through humble, simple means that human plans alone cannot achieve, and His people must depend on Him rather than seek honor for themselves.
Preaching, Learning, and Daily Life
Christian workers are to proclaim Christ crucified plainly rather than shaping the message to please people, keeping self out of view, lifting up Jesus, and warning of the danger of neglecting eternal concerns. Like Paul, who though able to meet oratory with oratory and philosophy with philosophy determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, they are to preach not in words which man's wisdom teaches but as the Holy Spirit teaches, trusting that character is transformed by God alone through the mighty power of the cross. Reformers and preachers must not let doubtful questions, councils, doubt and criticism handicap reforms and new methods, but must keep proclaiming the gospel which pride of intellect dismisses as folly yet which surpasses all human thinking and ability.
God's people must have higher aims than the study of man, and must not exalt man's ideas of education as supreme or extol learned men, which God calls foolishness. Intellectual theories, systems of philosophy, pride of intellect and worldly wisdom cannot be relied upon, for in God's wisdom the world by its own wisdom did not know God, so He made foolish the wisdom of this world and will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Men must instead be daily learning in the school of Christ, willing to learn like little children and like babes in knowledge who clearly apprehend what is hidden from the wise and prudent, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will receive the Holy Spirit to see greater heights.
Applied to education, the knowledge of God is above everything else and must be exalted, for to learn science through human interpretation alone is false education bringing confusion, while to learn of God and Christ is to learn the science of heaven. No method of study should crowd out the word of God, rob God of willing service of spirit, soul and body, or replace fitness for heaven with book-knowledge and inventions of men. The living Word is of infinite value when received as God's Word into heart and understanding and obeyed by doers living by every word from the mouth of God, becoming the power of God in transformation of character through a Divine Instructor, with the highest education being knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.
Conscientious observance of the Sabbath and choosing the suffering, self-denying part of religion looks wild and erratic, stubborn and foolish, odd and singular to unbelievers whose happiness is in worldly pleasures and vanities, and even to one's own child, but the faithful must be patient and faint not. Human beings are only God's little children, so all pomposity and all masterly effort to gain supremacy is unbecoming to them. Cherishing high-mindedness, self-trust, self-sufficiency and self-complacency dishonors the Maker and will surely be humbled, for looking unto Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith and contemplating the cross lays all desire for self-glorification in the dust and brings lowliness, humbleness of mind and true humility with no self-exaltation.
Seeing God in Christ and Christ in God aright levels human exaltation and pride, since the Creator of all worlds, the Majesty of heaven rich in heaven's treasure, humbled Himself to human nature in meekness and lowliness, clothing divinity with humanity and becoming poor so that through His poverty believers might be made rich. To reason from human judgment and follow worldly policy counted as wise instead of God's divine policy, which the world counts singular and foolish, lets self in and stamps the work with traits unlike Christ, leaving God almost entirely out and receiving God's disapproval even when men find nothing objectionable. The verse holds precious assurance, comfort and encouragement for the child of God when trouble in the world increases and the Lord's children must suffer, sustaining a faith that will stand the test of trial and opposition. Human strength is weakness and human wisdom is folly when compared with God, which rebukes pursuing one's own pleasure instead of faithfully using time and talents in His service.