Human wisdom and God's foolishness

For 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. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Where 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? For 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. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:18-31a).

Are there times when you feel dumb? You look everywhere for your keys before finding them in your pocket. You meet a lady on the street that you’ve known for years, but you can’t think of her name. You put a T-shirt on backwards. You can’t remember where you parked the car.

How many times have you felt dumb after finishing a quiz? How often have you talked with a brainy friend and just nodded as if you understood everything he said? How confident are you with filling out your tax return on your own? At a job interview, have you ever been asked a question you didn’t know how to answer?

How often have you kicked yourself for doing something foolish? Breaking up with someone you cared deeply about over a stupid little argument? Driving your friends home from the bar, even though you were drunk yourself? Buying something ridiculously expensive when you were scraping to make ends meet? Ignoring the warning signs when you should have gone straight to the doctor?

We all do stupid things. We all have moments when brains and common sense are in short supply. We’ve all had someone tell us, "you should have known better."

We operate on the assumption that if someone is properly educated, he will do the right thing. Young people are taught about sexually transmitted diseases with the hope that if they know the facts, they won’t participate in risky behavior. Crimes are punished because it is believed that fines and prison time will stop a criminal from becoming a repeat offender. Reporters do exposés on corrupt politicians and business leaders, figuring that once the word gets out, those people will be stripped of their authority.

I hope you see the problem. Teaching people about the dangers of drinking and driving does save lives, but it comes nowhere close to solving the problem. In spite of all the efforts to teach birth control, teenage girls are still getting pregnant. A top executive might be revealed as a scumbag, but the board of directors may still be quite pleased with his leadership. Being well educated does not guarantee that good decisions will be made.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, even at the best of times, we are not nearly as wise or clever as we think we are. Secondly, we are more than willing to disregard everything we know when the impulse strikes us.

There is a lot of information out there—more than anyone can absorb in a lifetime. Think of all the books that have been written. Think of all the magazines and journals that have been published. Think of all the websites available on the Internet. Of course, much of it is dreck—especially on the World Wide Web. Web-based information can be posted by anyone, and with no editorial oversight. Consider the case of Wikipedia; it is an online encyclopedia where the users decide what is correct and what is not. As if the truth can be established by majority vote!

But even scholarly work can be worse than useless. How much ink has been committed to paper in support of evolution? There was a time when most scientists believed that the sun revolved around the earth and that human flight was impossible. Penicillin, x-rays and the microwave oven all came from happy accidents, not brilliant research. To this day, no one can accurately predict the weather or the stock market, despite claims to the contrary.

What do the thinkers of our age have to say? Ideas that would be laughable if they were not so hurtful and destructive. We are told that homosexuality is normal and natural; psychologists used to label it as a treatable condition, but not anymore. We are taught that truth is relative; what is true for you might not be true for me, and what was true years ago has to change with the times. Scientists want us to believe that humans are nothing special, just a higher form of animal, and that a fetus is only a potential human being, not a person who needs love and respect.

These ideas impact you every day. They are woven into movies. They are featured in the news. Educators teach them to our children. Policy makers construct new laws on them, laws that we must obey.

God calls such misguided thoughts foolish. As soon as we step away from God’s wisdom to start thinking up stuff on our own, sin gets in the way. Sin is with us constantly. It fogs up our minds, making it impossible to see things clearly. Sin hides God from us, leaving our thoughts to wander in any direction except the right one.

Sadly, people who can’t see their way through the mental fog assume that nobody can. When Christians try to share God’s wisdom with them, they push it away as unnecessary, laugh it off as superstition, or resent a viewpoint that conflicts with their own. Paul says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. This is because of sin; without God’s help, sin won’t let us comprehend the truth. Paul explains it this way: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).

As sinners, we take great pride in our human wisdom. We like to believe that when there is a conflict of opinion, we are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong. We don’t often consider that our knowledge might be incomplete, our wisdom faulty. There are times when it takes an act of God to reveal how dumb we’re being. It is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." God must strip away our sinful confusion so that we can finally see the truth. Truth can only be found through God’s perfect Son; Jesus said everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

Sadly, even when God reveals the truth to us, our sinful desires often lead us to ignore it. We know that God says to be patient with each other and forgive one another, yet when tempers flare we go for the jugular, spewing the nastiest words we can find. Jesus set us an example by worshipping every Lord’s Day, yet when the campground or lake is calling, Christians pack up and leave, not even taking a Bible along with them. The Savior says repent and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15), yet we keep on choosing sinful fun over God-pleasing behavior, and we worry about our problems instead of trusting the LORD to take care of us.

It’s a good thing that God loves us. If He did not, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus to the cross. If Jesus had not loved us despite our foolish ways, He would not have accepted the terrible punishment that should have been ours. If the Holy Spirit did not love us, He would just give up instead of constantly fighting to keep us from believing the devil’s attractive lies.

In Proverbs chapter nine we are told, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. We had better be afraid of making God angry, lest we walk blindly into hell. To avoid such a terrible end, we need to understand the Holy One of God—His Son Christ Jesus. Only Christ can reveal how to avoid God’s anger at foolishly making Him mad; only Jesus can forgive our sins and take away our guilt. True wisdom is found at the cross, where God did something that appears foolish to unbelievers—He sacrificed His own beloved Son, rather than give up on the sinful people who fill this world. Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18).

Praise the Almighty that He did something so foolish, something so unwise, that you might belong to him forever. Truly, the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom.