Such are perishing; they are on the road to destruction and to them the gospel of God

is nothing but foolishness (1: 18). To the Greek with his culture and art the cross was

abhorrent. The idea that a dead Jew hanging on a cross, could meet all their needs was

utterly stupid to them as well. To the Jew with his idea of a conquering Messiah, a

powerful Being who could rid them of the Roman yoke, the cross with its outward

portrayal of weakness was equally repulsive; it was a "scandal", a "stumbling block".

The only wisdom that man knows is centred in himself and entirely leaves God out of

account. The only salvation that he can understand is what he imagines he can work out

for himself and for the world. The essential difference between the wisdom of God and

the wisdom of man is that the former is Christ-centred, whereas the latter is man-centred

and because of his sin and poverty of ability it is doomed to utter failure. The Greek

mode of thought still persists today and is behind all the man-made schemes for

`progress' so-called and the betterment of the world.

In the section of the epistle we are now considering, 1: 18 - 2:5, it is surely clear that

human wisdom is set in complete opposition to the wisdom of God. Sin and human

limitation have so adversely affected man's mind, that he cannot grasp the thoughts or

ways of God (Isa. 55: 8, 9). Yet in his pride and blindness he deceives himself into

thinking that his ideas are best, and does not hesitate to bring even the Creator to the

bar of his own puny judgment. No wonder the wisdom of man at its best is looked on

as foolishness by God, and the ways of God are looked on as foolishness by men

(I Cor. 1: 18, 20, 21). "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew

not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (21).

Note that it does not say "by foolish preaching". Alas, there is too much of that. More

accurately it is "by the folly of the Christian preaching". It is the message preached that

appears to be folly to the unsaved, natural man. Whether it was to the Jew, who in his

unbelief constantly demanded that God should back up His message by signs additional

to those He had already given (Matt. 16: 1-4), or the Gentile (Greek) who had an

inflated idea of his own intellectual capacity. Christ crucified was the only truth that

could meet both needs and this was the only proclamation that Paul determined he would

give (22-24).

The Apostle now points to the Corinthian church as being a practical illustration of this:

The Countess of Huntingdon, who did such a fine work with the Gospel in the times

of the Wesleys, was reputed to have said she thanked God for the letter `m'. The context

said "not many noble", rather than "not any noble", for she was a society woman who had