I had the opportunity to preach on the text of 1 Corinthians 1: 17-31 today, and was reminded myself (as is good for those who preach, lest we begin to think we are immune) that the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, though it seems foolish to the world, which exalts in its so-called wisdom,  is in reality the only ultimately message of salvation that has both the truth and the power to actually save souls.  Politics is “in the air” and since the nineteenth century many have elevated it to a godlike status (the state, the government as an idol in effect).  Culture in general has put forth its own versions of human autonomy, from philosophies to theologies to the “therapeutic solutions” to problems.  In the nineteenth century it was Idealism, or Positivism or statism, or nihilism, or some other philosophy.  In theology it was higher criticism as the solvent, theological liberalism as the replacement, but other heresies with new names too.  In the twentieth century, we moved on to existentialism, phenomenology, Logical Positivism (for a time), postmodernism, and others In philosophy, while in theology we saw process theology, openness of God theology, feminist theology, liberation theology, Bultmanian demythologizing, Neo-Orthodoxy in varying strengths, New Atheism, and on.

But what could any of these do?  They certainly vied to replace traditional orthodox Christianity, and in some cases nearly succeeded.  They attract adherents because they promise a better argument, a more “reasoned” approach than the traditional, the opportunity to free oneself from any authority, including a God who might spoil that autonomy.  The representatives of these philosophies and theologies believed they were wiser than God, and their followers get little more than the chance to themselves exercise the same arrogance.

But what does Paul say in this text?  I reproduce it below in the English Standard Version:

¹⁷ For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, andnot with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to uswho are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach^[a] to save those who believe. ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christthe power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,^[b] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being^[c] might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him^[d] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

God it says has chosen a different way, the message that comes in the Gospel.  In its simplest expression, it is simply that Christ dies for our sins, according to the Scripture, he was buried, and the third day he was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Cor 15).  The Jews wanted signs to “wow” them and we sometimes do today.  The non-Jews, particularly Greeks at this time, wanted “clever” arguments to “tickle their ears” and minds, as have for centuries.  God says this is the real foolishness.  The cross is a stumbling block and an offense to those not called by God to believe.  It seems so silly, primitive, even barbarous.  Wouldn’t God give some sort of esoteric knowledge for the initiated, the true and superior minds?  No He wouldn’t and He didn’t.  We need to heed the implicit warning here.  Reason is fine, rhetoric is also good, but if it is un-fastened from God and the Gospel, what is it all worth in the end?  If we do pursue more sophisticated ways of expressing the faith and responding to so-called but false knowledge, we should beware that we do not stray from the content of the Gospel in the end.

“Let God be true, though everyone were a liar.”