1 Corinthians 1:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Yes the Jews required sign after sign after sign. Christ came and performed the greatest signs and wonders, and those chief priests and scribes and Pharisees were often in the front row, and they saw it happen from just a few yards distance, and it was undeniable that he was healing by his divine power. Astonishing and amazing things! But their hearts were so hard, and they would not have it, and they would not believe. Instead they said, ‘We want a better sign; we want the heavens to open, or something like that, and the planets to fall. We want something even more spectacular.’ Every sign they saw, they wanted something bigger, because their hearts were so hard. ‘The Jews require a sign and the Greeks’ – let’s say, the Gentiles, if you like, but in writing to Corinth it is literally the Greeks – ‘seek after wisdom.’ The Gentile world wanted something it could be proud of. Our leading philosophers and teachers have devised this, and we can debate it and talk about it, and we can look big because we can put our point of view. It must come from us. But the truth of the gospel has come from heaven. Man would never have thought of it. Christ has worked and secured salvation for us; there is nothing we could have done. But the Greeks seek after something wise of their own, which comes from their own heads, so they will not have it.