Foolishness Of God

The words of Paul in First Corinthians 1:25 tell us, "... the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." What is this business about the "foolishness of God?" What does the apostle mean by it? We often hear, "well, if God had a foolish side it would still be wiser than men." Or, "if God had a weakness, he would still be stronger than men." I do not doubt either one of those for a mo­ment, but it seems to me that these are rather shallow explanations for what the apostle is getting at.

Let us look at verses 22-24. There are two classes here - Jew and Greek, or gentile. One of them (Jews) sought af­ter a sign. We see this often in the con­frontations that Jesus had with them from time to time. Then the other group (Greeks) sought after wisdom. Here was the nation of the great phi­losophers of the day, and human wis­dom was one of their gods. So we see what both groups wanted. But Paul says, in effect, "I am not going to give either one of you what you want. What you need is a crucified Savior - and that's what I'm going to preach to you." But when he preached Christ, the Jews stumbled over him; he did not fit their idea of a Savior and king. The whole thing was "foolishness" to the Greeks. Yet to those whose hearts were receptive and pliable, Christ was neither a stum­blingblock or foolishness - he was the power and wisdom of God. The real need of all men was not a series of signs; it was not the wisdom of men, but rather a crucified Savior.

Then in verse 25 Paul comes to the "foolishness" of God (KJV). The Greek word for "foolishness" here is moron, and we don't have to look far to see the connection with this and our common English word which describes one of a low intelligence! A form of the word is also used in verse 23. Now, what was it that seemed foolish to the unbelieving Jews and Greeks? It was the thing that Paul preached - a crucified Christ.

The thought of the Jews ran along these lines. They knew there was a promised king coming; their prophets predicted it. They expected that king to be one who ruled a physical kingdom, and who would fight their battles for them. He must be a king, to their way of thinking, who would deliver them from the Romans. But when Christ came, he did not fit their mold. He was meek and lowly, coming to conquer not men's bodies, but their hearts. He would do this with the gospel, and not with the sword. And so, surely this Christ who came riding into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey could not be the true Mes­siah! That was foolish to them.

Then we come to the Greeks. They cer­tainly had no regard for the promised Messiah. To them, he was just another man who caused a lot of trouble in soci­ety and got himself killed because of it. And so, they thought along lines such as, "this one that you people claim who came to be your Savior; this one that your God brought into the world in order to save it ­but now look at him. Once God got him into the world, he allowed him to be cru­cified. Doesn't make much sense to us!" And so to them, the crucifixion of Christ was foolishness.

Neither group could grasp the idea that the one that was crucified was the fulfill­ment of God's plan to save man. The  thing that they considered foolish was the very (and only) thing that could save them! And so - the idea behind the "fool­ishness of God" (v. 25) is not that "if God had a foolish side it would be wiser than man, " but rather, it was the "foolish act; the foolish thing," as some authorities have it, was the thing that saved. Paul is viewing it as men would - all they could see to what God did was foolishness; from human perspective it made no sense. But men need to understand that _ the of Jesus, shed on Calvary, is their only hope for remission of sin. And the act of God in giving his Son, and the willingness of that Son to die was at once the most powerful and wis­est act the world has ever known. - Bill Moseley

 

 

 

A couple months ago, Willene and I were on our way to Arkansas for a gos­pel meeting. Stopped on the way in western Tennessee where we often do while going in that direction, and found a motel clerk that was still upset from being caught in a group of people at a gathering he didn't particularly care for. Thought I would listen to his troubles for awhile, and asked him what the problem was. Seems all the folks that surrounded him were from PETA (Peo­ple for the Ethical Treatment of Ani­mals). If you haven't heard some of their claims, you haven't heard some of the most outrageous claims made by man ­like I heard one say once, "an ant has every bit as many rights as a man." I wondered how he'd like his bed full of them at night!

Finally, to get them off his back about joining their group he said, "I already belong to PETA!" "Oh, wonderful," they said. "Yeah," said the clerk - "my club is "People Eating Tasty Animals." Well, yes - they then let him alone.

I guess the point of all this is that there is always a way to get somebody off your back if you think hard enough. I guess, as they say, "patience is a virtue." But patience can sure be tested at times by a bunch of fringe kooks that won't let sensible people alone. For some reason or another, I just can't get hold of the idea that Jesus died for a frog or a bug. Shame some are not as interested in their fellow man as they are a frog. – Bill Moseley