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Scott's Reference Library
1 Corinthians 1:18 through 1 Corinthians
1:25 (NIV)
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this
age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom
of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through
the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand
miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a
stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God
is stronger than man’s strength.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
VERSES 17-25
Paul had been bred up in Jewish learning; but the plain preaching of a crucified
Jesus, was more powerful than all the oratory and philosophy of the heathen
world. This is the sum and substance of the gospel. Christ crucified is the
foundation of all our hopes, the fountain of all our joys. And by his death we
live. The preaching of salvation for lost sinners by the sufferings and death of
the Son of God, if explained and faithfully applied, appears foolishness to
those in the way to destruction. The sensual, the covetous, the proud, and
ambitious, alike see that the gospel opposes their favourite pursuits. But those
who receive the gospel, and are enlightened by the Spirit of God, see more of
God’s wisdom and power in the doctrine of Christ crucified, than in all his
other works. God left a great part of the world to follow the dictates of man’s
boasted reason, and the event has shown that human wisdom is folly, and is
unable to find or retain the knowledge of God as the Creator. It pleased him, by
the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. By the foolishness of
preaching; not by what could justly be called foolish preaching. But the thing
preached was foolishness to wordly-wise men. The gospel ever was, and ever will
be, foolishness to all in the road to destruction. The message of Christ,
plainly delivered, ever has been a sure touchstone by which men may learn what
road they are travelling. But the despised doctrine of salvation by faith in a
crucified Saviour, God in human nature, purchasing the church with his own
blood, to save multitudes, even all that believe, from ignorance, delusion, and
vice, has been blessed in every age. And the weakest instruments God uses, are
stronger in their effects, than the strongest men can use. Not that there is
foolishness or weakness in God, but what men consider as such, overcomes all
their admired wisdom and strength.