1 Corinthians 3:19 Commentary and Bible Study

The word ‘foolishness’ refers to someone who is so insipid he has no brain and nothing to say. The wisdom of this world, the wisdom to which some of the Corinthians are attracted, is foolishness with God. It can never bring about the wonderful changes in human hearts that God wants to see. The gospel is the wisdom of God, designed to humble men and take away all credit from anything that man can boast about. The cross has wisdom built into it which we will only fully understand in heaven. God has told the preacher what instruments to use, and he is to use them without needing to know every detail of what takes place by the Spirit’s power in the hearer’s heart. But if he invents an alternative message or if he changes the emphasis of the true message, he has emptied it of power.The first of the quotations comes from Job 5:13. These are the words of Eliphaz, one of Job’s comforters. Eliphaz’s words, though intended to support his own defective theology, contain a truth about the way God works. The wise in this world are engaged in a campaign against God and against his word. They wish to disprove what it says about their sinful state, and about the only remedy for sin which comes through Christ’s atonement. All their labour is in defence of their own righteousness, their own solutions. It tends to elevate their own prestige and sing their own praises. It is crafty because it is subtle, and man puts all his energy and skill into it. But in making himself the opponent of God, and in employing craftiness to achieve his goal, he has exposed himself to the far greater skill that God has, which will easily overcome him. ‘With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward’ (Psalm 18:26). He seizes or arrests the wise in the mindset of their cunning. He will intervene to cause them to collapse and fall.The second comes from Psalm 94:11. This is the psalmist’s complaint at those who hurt the people of God and think that they can get away with evil without God being aware of it. He asks how God who gave man his ear and his eye is unable to hear or see their evil acts. This is an example of the vain conclusions that human so-called wisdom comes to. How can that sort of wisdom be pandered to, or made a partner of God in the spreading of his truth?