What does 1 Corinthians 1:25 Mean?

Verse Meaning

The "foolishness" of God, the gospel of the Cross, is wiser than human Wisdom of Solomon , and the "weakness" of God, in the eyes of unbelievers, is stronger than human strength. [source][source]

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At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success, how "vision" consists in clearly articulated "ministry goals," how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach. I am not for a moment suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from such studies. But after a while one may perhaps be excused for marveling how many churches were planted by Paul and Whitefield and Wesley and Stanway and Judson without enjoying these advantages. Of course all of us need to understand the people to whom we minister, and all of us can benefit from small doses of such literature. But massive doses sooner or later dilute the gospel. Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements-but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry." ^[1] [source]

In these verses (18-25) Paul sought to raise the Corinthians" regard for the gospel message by showing its superiority over anything humans can devise through reasoning and philosophizing. His purpose in doing so was to encourage them to value the content of the message more highly than the "wisdom" evident in the presentations of those who delivered it. [source][source]

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"One can scarcely conceive a more important-and more difficult-passage for the church today than this one. It is difficult, for the very reason it was in Corinth. We simply cannot abide the scandal of God"s doing things his way, without our help. And to do it by means of such weakness and folly! But we have often succeeded in blunting the scandal by symbol, or creed, or propositions. God will not be so easily tamed, and, freed from its shackles, the preaching of the cross alone has the power to set people free." ^[2] [source]

Context Summary

Apollos had gone straight from Ephesus to Corinth, Acts 19:1. A party gathered around him, especially attracted by his eloquence and intellectual brilliance. Cephas was Peter, and around his name the more conservative elements gathered. Christ, stood for the promised glory of the Messianic kingdom. Paul was filled with dismay on hearing that a fourth division of the Church called themselves by his name. He told the Corinthians that whatever any of their human teachers had done for them, they had contributed only different phases or viewpoints of truth, all of which service sank into absolute insignificance as contrasted with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The cross here implies not only the doctrine of the Atonement, but the humble bearing of the cross in daily life. There are many who wear a cross as an article of dress, but who evince nothing of its pitying, self-immolating, sacrificial spirit. Everyone needs a Calvary in the heart. Note from 1 Corinthians 1:18, r.v., margin, that being saved is a process, as well as an immediate experience. Oh to have grace to know the Cross, never to be ashamed of it, and to preach a crucified Savior in a humble, crucified spirit! [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Corinthians 1

¹  After his salutation and thanksgiving for the Corinthians,
¹⁰  Paul exhorts them to unity,
¹²  and reproves their dissensions
¹⁸  God destroys the wisdom of the wise,
²¹  by the foolishness of preaching;
²⁶  and calls not the wise, mighty, and noble,
²⁸  but the foolish, weak, and men of no account