1 Corinthians 1:21 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 1:21

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The apostle proceeds: ‘For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it please God, by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’ It is God’s purpose to overturn society through the preaching of the gospel. Let our churches always be gospel proclaiming churches. We must never lose sight of this. One service every week should be dedicated to the persuasion of sinners, and the presentation of Christ in the gospel. This, and this alone, is where the power of God lies, and that is the answer of the apostle Paul to the cause of the cliques and the groupings at Corinth.In the wisdom of God, he determined the world would not be allowed by worldly wisdom to find God. In the providence of God, the world and its philosophers were allowed first to do their utmost to discover truth, in order that their failure should become all the more apparent. Do you not think that because they mean well, even though they are going in the wrong direction, God will let them make some real progress? No. He will never allow his truth to be found by pride or vaunted wisdom: that would result in the exaltation of man. God brings his truth into the world by the seeming foolishness of preaching, by a message which is foolish in eyes of a proud world. God says, this is the only way. Therefore, let not the Corinthians imitate Greek philosophers in their preaching.But ‘the world by wisdom knew not God’ means something else as well. Here we are in what is clearly a created world. It is the handiwork of Almighty God. It is so complex and so wonderful and it enshrines and includes so many wonderful systems, so much microscopic detail in its function, and the more scientists study it, the further they have to go in exploring the particles and influences that all contribute to life. Yes, but the effect it is supposed to have on human beings, just to look at the stars and the landscape, is to make us marvel and to realise that Almighty God made these things, that he is our Creator. that he is there. But by thinking or by reflecting, man does not see it. What we see is ‘nature’. Watch the television programmes about origins: ‘Nature did this; nature did that.’ What is that? It isn’t God. Nature will one day be able to explain everything. What seems mysterious nevertheless has a rational explanation. ‘We don’t see God. We are not impressed. We don't see design. We don't see divine handiwork.’ By the wisdom of God, man – by his wisdom, by his observation, by his investigation – knew not God. Because of the fall, because of his sin, God in his wisdom imposed the curse and everything fell and man fell into darkness of intellect and understanding. His mind is disordered. He sees the obvious, and yet he cannot see it. And if he cannot see creation, even less will he understand that God came down from heaven, the second person of the Trinity, and became man, and went to the bitter cross, and took the eternal weight of punishment of those who would believe in him. For reasons considered in verse 18, the preaching of the cross is foolishness in the eyes of the world and its wise ones. Their wisdom takes them in the opposite direction. Is this a disadvantage to the kingdom of heaven? Will it reduce the number of those who seek the Lord? We could say that it will not only reduce the number, it will completely stop anyone from coming. No one will come to God in order to vaunt their wisdom, for the message of the cross stands there as something that repels man’s wisdom. But this is precisely what God intends. Those who are drawn to Calvary are drawn irresistibly by the Spirit of God, and only these will ever come. As they are drawn, they are taught to value what God has done above all human wisdom. God ‘hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away’ (Luke 1:51-53). There certainly is wisdom in the cross of Christ, but it is the wisdom of grace, the wisdom of humility, the wisdom of repentance and faith, which is hidden from the proud. The preaching of the cross is called foolishness because that is what it is in the estimation of ignorant and fallen human beings, but in truth it is divine genius which accomplishes all that God intends.

Application

Does the preacher of the gospel understand his calling? It is not to make up for the perceived deficiencies in the message of the cross, as if God needs some help and his message needs improving. Rather, it is to cooperate with this message as Paul did, and allow the foolishness of preaching to drive away the reprobate and to gather the elect. Of course the preacher needs to explain clearly what Christ accomplished there, and to exalt God’s wisdom, but he should not change anything. If preaching is foolishness in the estimation of the world, then the preacher should identify with that foolishness and not be ashamed of the cross. Those whom God calls will learn that it is anything but foolishness, but the preacher must wait for God to show them this and not try to remove the shame of the cross himself. As soon as you see some preacher so majoring in apologetics as to bring about admiration for the reasonableness of the gospel, and the intellectual superiority of the gospel, he is stealing from the work and the power of the cross of Christ. As soon as you say to yourself, ‘We need more than preaching. We need drama; we need evangelistic films that will stir the emotions, where you see people who are crushed by the burdens of life or some tragedy, and then the gospel comes and O how they change and everybody is happy forevermore. Let's just work like the soaps do and effect emotions.’ No, God will be offended. You are stealing from the message and the power of the cross of Christ.

Preaching is God’s primary method of advancing the gospel and bringing men and women to salvation. It is not only the contents of the message that Scripture advocates, but the method by which it is communicated. Preaching should certainly not be dull and lifeless, but it is God’s method and it has wonderful advantages built into it. The preacher is able to say many things to a congregation which it would be impossible to say to an individual for fear of causing offence. The humble hear the voice of God speaking to them with authority when the preacher is faithful to the message. A pastor may hesitate to preach on the primacy of preaching, because of worry about self-protection or self-promotion, but he must do so or else gimmicks will come into the churches.

A lot of Bible believers do not understand this. People say, ‘If only somebody famous, really famous, could be converted. What a difference that would make! That would knock people over; that would influence society, to have people who were household names converted.’ No it would not, because God will choose the ordinary and the humble to overturn the wisdom of the wise. It is not how he works.

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Introduction

1 Corinthians 1:21 Commentary and Bible Study