God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 1:20-21 The foolishness of the gospel
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, November 2, 2022
20 What about the wise man? What about the scribe? What about the great debater of this present world? Hasn’t God shown that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21 For since the world did not know God through its own wisdom, God in his wisdom decided to save those who believe, through the foolishness of the preached message.
“Wise man” is probably a reference to the Greek philosophers, who discussed intellectual and ethical matters, usually based on a root premise that the teacher was famous for. “Scribe” is the word used throughout the New Testament for the special Jewish Moses-experts or “teachers of the law” (Matthew 8:19). “The great debater” could be anybody, Jew or Greek, who was just very good at arguing a point, like Jethro the father-in-law of Moses (Exodus 18:17-23).
In verse 20, Paul uses two different Greek words for “world,” aion and kosmon. Both refer to this world and our existence here as a segment of time that is passing away. I have translated the first one, aion, with “present world,” which is the idea of the word in similar passages such as Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world (aion),” and Luke 16:8, “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind.”
Quite a few versions translate the Greek literally in verse 20, “Where is…? Where is…? Where is…?” The parallel questions are rhetorical, not asking for the location of these people, but what about them? Where does God’s wisdom leave such men? God’s wisdom destroys their words, their philosophy, and even (in the case of the scribes) their misguided opinions about the Law of Moses. Their idea of salvation is completely different from the message of the cross. The Christian message is nothing at all to them, nonsense. In one or two instances in mythology, the Greeks imagined that a grieving spouse might brave the terrors of hell if he could release his wife from death in some way. But it was completely outside the view of Jews or Greeks that anyone would even willingly endure the pain of hell in place of another person. And if a human wouldn’t do it, why should we accept that God himself would ever do it? Or again, the world lays claim to all sorts of fantastic things, and there are many who might even allow that the miracles described in the Bible are possible and true, but they cannot allow that the body and blood of Christ would be actually and really present in the sacrament. So many oppose that simple statement of Christ, that “This is my body” and “this is my blood” (Mark 14:22,24), that before the Reformation of Luther’s was even ten years old, more than half a dozen new sects had broken away from the church. “All of them,” Luther says, “under the delusion that Christ’s flesh and blood are not present (in the sacrament)” (LW 36:337).
When the world or any man turns from Christ and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures, he says by his actions that God’s Word is not enough, or too much, or doesn’t make sense, or can’t be trusted, or any number of other excuses for trying to extricate himself from the condemning eye of God. If anyone, once rescued by Christ, chooses to fling himself out of the boat and back into the sea where he was drowning, it is a tragedy, but it is not the fault of his Savior. “We must give up the foolishness of the crowd and their false teaching,” and cling to the “foolishness of God” (1 Corinthians 1:25), which is not foolishness at all, but the divine wisdom of salvation and everlasting life.
Consider the leadership of Moses, who did nothing but what the Lord commanded him to do. He led the people of Israel out of Egypt and straight for the Red Sea. The hills and mountains that run east-west along the west bank of the Gulf of Suez would have trapped them at Pi Hahiroth with mountains to each side, the sea ahead, and Pharaoh’s chariots behind (Exodus 14:9). But the Lord did the unthinkable, opening the sea for them to walk across on dry land, “as through a desert” (Psalm 106:9). The same Lord who saved his people from Pharaoh by a miracle has saved us by a miracle through his own body and blood. “You who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). This is the teaching of the Word of God. “Don’t let those who seem plausible but who teach false doctrine strike you down. Stand firm like a hammered anvil.”
The wise man, the scribe, the great debater? Where are they? They are left to their own babblings, always willing to step down for another philosopher’s opinion, but never for the Word of God. They would rather be wrong than be saved, and so that is the path they have taken. “Walk,” rather, “in the footsteps of faith” (Romans 4:12), and pray: “Direct my footsteps according to your word, and let no sin rule over me.” Be humble, and walk humbly in the way that Jesus leads you, because he leads you through the very gates of heaven.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.