1:25 The foolishness (as perceived by the world) of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. The term translated “foolishness” refers to the foolish content of the message preached—the offensive message of Christ crucified.[1]
1:25. The Cross represents the foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of humankind. Also the Cross represents the weakness of God, which is stronger in all of its saving capacity than all of humanity’s most powerful efforts. What God accomplished through the death of Christ on the Cross contradicts the human concepts of wisdom and power. In fact it achieves what human wisdom and power failed to achieve—the salvation of mankind.
The Greek translation of Jer 9:23–24 lies behind the next section (vv 26–31).
In the Jeremiah passage, the Lord commands the wise man, mighty man, and the rich man not to boast in their wisdom, strength, or wealth, but in their knowledge of Him.[2]
1:25 Actually there is neither foolishness nor weakness with God. But the apostle is saying in verse 25 that what seems to be foolishness on God’s part, in the eyes of men, is actually wiser than men at their very best. Also, what seems to be weakness on God’s part, in the eyes of men, turns out to be stronger than anything that men can produce.[3]
1:25. Paul closed this paragraph by explaining how a person could accept the way of salvation in Christ as wise when most people considered it foolish. Believers have come to recognize something about the gospel of the crucified Christ: it is wiser than man’s wisdom. In other words, the message of Christ peers into reality in ways that far exceed any human wisdom.
Moreover, the gospel is stronger than man’s strength. People cannot rescue themselves from bondage to sin or its punishment by their own power. Human wisdom is unable to conquer “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23), that is, death. Even so, the good news of Christ rescues and delivers. It overcomes even death (2 Tim. 1:10). Those who believe the gospel know the reality of its wisdom and power. For this reason, they exalt nothing above Christ and his saving work.[4]
1:25 “the foolishness of God is wiser than man” This is an OT theme (cf. Isa. 55:8–9). It is repeated in 1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 23. This is the term mōros. It and its other forms are used often by Paul in his Corinthian letters.
1. mōros (foolish), 1 Cor. 1:25, 27; 3:18; 4:10
2. mōria (foolishnes), 1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 23; 2:14; 3:19
3. mopainō (made foolish), 1 Cor. 1:20
© “the weakness of God is stronger than men” This is basically asserting God’s incomparable greatness. He is even magnified through human weakness (cf. 1 Cor. 12:5, 7–10). It may refer to the apparent “failure” of Jesus’ death from a purely human point of view (cf. 2 Cor. 13:4), yet in reality it was a victory of eternal consequences!
The gospel, the victory, is all of God and not of mankind.[5]
25. So Paul rounds off this section with the conclusion that what in God proud man is wont to dub foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom. Paul does not use the word ‘foolishness’ (mōria) as in vv. 18, 21, 23, but says ‘the foolish thing’ (mōron), i.e. the cross. So with the weakness; the cross is ‘the weak thing’ of God that is stronger than anything man can produce.
The sign-seeking Jews were blind to the significance of the greatest sign of all when it was before them. The wisdom-loving Greeks could not discern the most profound wisdom of all when they were confronted with it.[6]
25. For the foolishness of God. While the Lord deals with us in such a way as to seem to act foolishly, because he does not exhibit his wisdom, what appears foolishness surpasses in wisdom all the ingenuity of men. Farther, while God appears to act with weakness, in consequence of his concealing his power, that weakness, as it is reckoned, is stronger than any power of men. We must, however, always keep it in view, that there is a concession, as I have noticed a little ago. For no one can but perceive, that in strict propriety neither foolishness nor weakness can be ascribed to God, but it was necessary, by such ironical expressions, to beat down the mad presumption of the flesh, which does not scruple to rob God of all his glory.[7]
Ver. 25.—The foolishness of God … the weakness of God; the method, that is, whereby God works, and which men take to be foolish and weak, because with arrogant presumption they look upon themselves as the measure of all things. But God achieves the mightiest ends by the humblest means, and the gospel of Christ allied itself from the first, not with the world’s strength and splendour, but with all which the world despised as mean and feeble—with fishermen and tax-gatherers, with slaves, and women, and artizans. The lesson was specially needful to the Corinthians, whom Cicero describes (‘De Leg. Age,’ ii. 32) as “famous, not only for their luxuriousness, but also for their wealth and philosophic culture.”[8]
1:25 the foolishness of God … the weakness of God. Paul’s argument has come full circle. Obviously, he is not suggesting that anything God does is foolish or weak; he is giving a climactic comparative statement on God and humans. The stage is now set for a direct application of his argument to the individual church members.[9]
1:25 / Finally, Paul summarizes his argument in this whole section by making a theological pronouncement in this verse. He declares that God’s wisdom or power expressed in the cross of Christ renders worldly wisdom into foolishness as a demonstration of the reality of the power of God. God shows himself to be both wiser and stronger than humans, who cannot predict or control God![10]
25 Christ crucified as God’s power, and therefore God’s wisdom, at work in the world is the ultimate contradiction. Paul now brings closure to his argument by grounding the historical outworking of that reality in a theological axiom: God is both wiser and more powerful than mere human beings. But he says that by keeping intact the paradoxical language of the paragraph. To the perishing the cross is folly; and so it is—God’s folly, which because it is God’s thing turns out to be “wiser than [human] wisdom.” In the cross God “outsmarted” his human creatures and thereby nullified their wisdom. In the same cross God also “overpowered” his enemies, with lavish grace and forgiveness, and thereby divested them of their strength.
Thus played out before human eyes is the scandalous and contradictory wisdom of God. Had God consulted us for wisdom we could have given him a more workable plan, something that would attract the sign-seeker and the lover of wisdom. As it is, in his own wisdom he left us out of the consultation. We are thus left with the awful risk: trust God and be saved by his wise folly, or keep up our pretensions and perish. Better the former, because this “weakness of God is stronger than [human] strength”; it accomplishes that which all human pretensions cannot do. It brings one into “fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (v. 9).
One can scarcely conceive of 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. Paul does not tell us how so here, but the whole story makes it plain. In the death of his Son, God has judged us who were responsible for it. Christ has thereby not only taken on himself our sins and guilt and “removed them.” He has disarmed us in the divine presence by forgiving us when we richly deserved death. Thus forgiven we are set free not only from our sins but to become his new people in the world. It thus achieves what the god of human expectations cannot achieve—it creates disciples who will trust in him for life. Such “weakness” in God is scandalous to those who think of themselves as righteous and thus in no need of forgiveness; but to those who recognize themselves as in need of mercy this is the good news that sets us free to follow him. Thus this weakness is also the ultimate power, and therefore the final wisdom of God.[11]
25 Paul summarizes and brings to a conclusion this stage of his argument, that God’s revealed way of salvation, while it may appear foolish and weak, is in fact the only way to be saved. Thus “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” The most insignificant thought of God is wiser than the most profound thought a human being can come up with. And when unleashed, the tiniest particle of earthly matter (the atom; cf. its power in the sun) created by God is more powerful than any human strength. Although Paul was not aware of the structure of the universe according to atomic theory, he certainly is expressing a profound truth here.[12]
[1] Tomlinson, F. A. (2017). 1 Corinthians. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1813). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Hunt, D. L. (2010). The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. In R. N. Wilkin (Ed.), The Grace New Testament Commentary (p. 716). Grace Evangelical Society.
[3] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 1750). Thomas Nelson.
[4] Pratt, R. L., Jr. (2000). I & II Corinthians (Vol. 7, pp. 22–23). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Utley, R. J. (2002). Paul’s Letters to a Troubled Church: I and II Corinthians: Vol. Volume 6 (p. 24). Bible Lessons International.
[6] Morris, L. (1985). 1 Corinthians: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 7, p. 52). InterVarsity Press.
[7] Calvin, J., & Pringle, J. (2010). Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (Vol. 1, p. 88). Logos Bible Software.
[8] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). 1 Corinthians (p. 8). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
[9] Vang, P. (2014). 1 Corinthians (M. L. Strauss, Ed.; p. 31). Baker Books.
[10] Soards, M. L. (2011). 1 Corinthians (p. 43). Baker Books.
[11] Fee, G. D. (1987). The First Epistle to the Corinthians (pp. 77–78). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[12] Verbrugge, V. D. (2008). 1 Corinthians. In T. Longman III &. Garland, David E. (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans–Galatians (Revised Edition) (Vol. 11, p. 270). Zondervan.
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