The Foolishness of the Gospel
25th August 2005
One thing that I have thought about quite a bit is the “foolishness” of the Gospel and my perspective on it. This is not an exegetical study on the phrase, it is merely a personal perspective.
If I evaulaute my walk with Christ and my understanding of the Scripture (granted by God) , I find that the Gospel is the farthest thing from foolishness. In fact, if you study the Scripture (and all things surrounding/about the Scripture) you have to wonder why everyone isn’t a Christian. That is how clear and overwhelming the evidence for Christ is. Yet, many people think that following Christ and believing the Scripture is absurd.
So that leads me back to my very early days as a Christian and when I was born again.
Not to digress, but one might say that I have always been a Christian…but that is another post…suffice it to say, I “committed” my life to Christ when I was about 15 or 16.
So at 15 or 16 I didn’t know hardly anything about the Scripture. Sure, I had read the Bible a bit, I went to church, I had heard Bible “stories”, memorized verses and whatnot but my understanding of it was “different”(if it was understanding at all), nothing like it is today. The Gospel was foolishness to me. I mean foolish in terms of how “the world” thinks the Gospel is foolish.
Now I have to wonder if this is how all men come to Christ. Every Christian that I have talked to about it has come to Christ in a similar fashion (the whole concept was “foolish”). Yet, after time it becomes very unfoolish, that is, if you continue to grow in Christ.
I was a spiritual infant and it was all foolishness to me but after calling upon the name of the Lord I believed it without a doubt. No evidence, no logic, no reasoning, just faith.
That is one perspective on what is meant by the “foolishness” of the Gospel. In addition, it is a picture of regeneration (being born again). I did not come to Christ by logically (that is, human logic) weighing out the facts and determining the best course of action. I came to Christ because He called me. I came to Christ when everything about the Gospel was “foolish” to me.
1 Corinthians 2:13-15 NET. (13) And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. (14) The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 NET. (18) For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (19) For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.” (20) Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? (21) For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. (22) For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, (23) but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (24) But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. (25) For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Oh how true these verses ring in a Christian’s mind. How foolish the world’s wisdom/intelligence truly is and how wise the foolishness of the Gospel.
Since I like ending with questions…
Do these verses show a picture of Christians trying to “reason” with the world in an attempt to “convert” them? Do they show the body of Christ catering to the “wisdom” of the world? …or does the Scripture teach that Christian’s should preach the Gospel, regardless of the world’s perception of it being foolish.
AMDG
August 26th, 2005 at 02:23
Excellent article Brian! I believe, and argue (in my Master’s thesis) that the Corinthian church was in fact the ones Paul was chastizing. The church had embraced a man-centered wisdom (wisdoms) that had caused them to operate in weakness and foolishness evinced by the schisms–and in the various other issues Paul addresses throughout the rest of the epistle (sexual immorality 1 Cor 5; misuse/abuse of spiritual gifts 1 Cor 12-14; etc.). I think if Paul was alive today, he would write the same letter to the church today (but wait he has through God’s foresight to have this letter penned to Corinth
.
The message of the cross is instrumental, in other words it offers “real” exemplifies God’s wisdom, sin qua none, as it offers “real” power to live the Christian life aright. I wish the Western church would bow the knee, for real, to the cross of Christ.
Anyway, in response to your post here I posted the beginning part of my thesis–I think this passage has such pertinent value for where we are today.
August 27th, 2005 at 11:09
I think about this a lot. I love apologetics and logical arguments…but I’m not sure how useful they are in winning someone to Christ. No matter how much “evidence” you give - they can always come up with an argument for why not to believe. No one comes unless the Spirit draws him…
I also think that the desire not to appear foolish leads many Christians to rely on “logical argument” instead of the Scripture. well I can’t just use Scripture - they don’t believe Scripture and I’ll look silly.” But the Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of God. (and don’t forget Hebrews 4:12!)
August 28th, 2005 at 06:05
Forgot to close my html tag! Oops!