Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

After his greeting and thanksgiving (1 Corinthians 1:1–9), Paul addresses the divisions in the Corinthian congregation and reminds them he did not come to baptize but to preach the good news, focusing on the cross, not “eloquent wisdom” (verses 10–17). This message about the cross proves central for understanding God (verses 18–25) as well as God’s choice of the Corinthian believers (verses 26–31).

Understanding God (1 Corinthians 1:18–25)

The message about the cross divides humanity into two groups. On the one hand, those who regard the cross as moronic and absurd are perishing, headed for destruction. Those who are being saved, on the other hand, find the message “the power of God” (verse 18; see also Romans 1:16). 

God is the one who acts through the word of the cross, as Paul makes clear by quoting Isaiah 29:14. God upends the values of this present age, destroying “the wisdom of the wise” and paying no attention to their shrewdness, treating it with disdain (1 Corinthians 1:19). God will destroy the very thing that from the viewpoint of this present age is most valued—human wisdom and eloquence.

Paul next asks four rhetorical questions. The first three create a staccato repetition that calls out the wise, the scholar, and the “debater of this age”—terms that may either refer to different groups or provide three descriptions of one group. In either case, these people, shaped by the perspective of the present age, seek to know God through human wisdom and eloquent speech. But as Paul’s fourth question makes clear, God overturns such presumption, making “foolish the wisdom of the world” (verse 20).

Paul is adamant: Trying to understand God by means of human wisdom does not work. God chooses a different method to rescue humanity: the preaching of the message of the cross (verse 21). This proclamation appears foolish to all who seek other paths for knowing God. Many of Paul’s fellow Jews expect signs or miracles to reveal God acting to bring an end to the present age, while the Greeks (gentiles) want to know God through human wisdom.

For both groups, the message of “Christ crucified” (verse 22) proves offensive and nonsensical. Many Jews expect that the Messiah will be a conquering hero delivering God’s people from Roman oppression, not an accursed criminal who hung on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13). The situation is little better for the Greeks: A shamefully executed man does not fit their idea of the ideal hero or their vision of gods who epitomize strength and beauty. The message of the cross portrays weakness and folly to both groups. From their perspective, it is crazy talk.

But to those God has called, this crucified Messiah is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthian 1:24). This calling provides a new perspective from which to view the world, one that evaluates existence from the perspective of God’s new age. From this viewpoint, the display of miracles or the sophisticated talk of the educated matters not at all: Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. God turns upside down the systems of human value, for the foolish things of God are in fact wiser than any human wisdom, and the weak things of God overpower any human strength (verse 25).

Understanding the Corinthians’ call

Having argued that this message about the cross inverts the values of this present age, Paul provides support for his claim, both in the lives of the Corinthian Christians (1:26–31) and in his own practice of ministry among them (2:1–5). 

Paul’s first proof that God has turned things upside down is the choice of the Corinthians themselves. By human standards, a few of the Corinthian believers were wise or powerful or of noble birth, but most were not. Neither their natural abilities nor their social status marked them for distinction. Yet God, who chooses the weak, the lowly, and the despised in the world’s eyes, selected them. God chose the things that are nothing in the world’s eyes to render worthless the things the world values (1 Corinthians 1:26–28).

The result is that no one can boast or brag in God’s presence (verse 29). Rather than human presumption establishing worth or value, all depends upon God’s initiative. God brings these believers into union with Christ. God calls them to be saints (verse 2) in “the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ” (verse 9). God’s call is fundamental, more important than any societal recognition or human ability or strength they might have. Their worth and value depend on God. 

Because of God’s action, they are now in Christ, who has become God’s wisdom for them. In Christ, they find “righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30): Christ puts right their covenant relationship with God (Romans 3:21–22), makes them holy (1 Corinthians 1:2), and ransoms them from slavery (Romans 3:24; 8:23). Through Christ, God’s grace abounds for salvation, as these gifts come through their union with him.

As a result of these gifts, Paul concludes, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). This quotation echoes both Jeremiah 9:24 and an addition to the Song of Hannah at the end of 1 Samuel 2:10 in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. 

The Corinthians should only “boast in the Lord” because God’s gifts exclude the arrogance and pride in human accomplishment that lie at the base of the Corinthians’ problems. There is no room for an attitude of self-promotion or presumption because these believers have nothing that they have not received, and so nothing of which to boast (1 Corinthians 4:7) except the grace, steadfast love, and righteousness of the One who has called them and given them all things (verses 3:21–23). 

Paul’s message to the Corinthians remains central for our proclamation today. The allure of elite education, family connections, and cultural power persists. Those who possess those credentials may still become arrogant and proud. Those who do not may still feel worthless. But true value does not lie in the judgment of this present age but in the gracious gift of God, who in the cross overturns human wisdom with a foolishness wiser than our wisdom and a weakness stronger than our strength. To that end, week in and week out, we keep preaching Christ crucified, God’s wisdom and God’s power (verses 23–24).