For the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Those who have no use for God in their lives don't even think they need a Savior, so they consider it foolish that Jesus even came to die.
But we who have been called of God in faith realize that it is His power and strength that defeated Satan at the Cross.
For it is written:
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside (Isaiah 29:14).People who think that they're so smart that they can accumulate much material goods, and are so sly to outwit others in the game of getting ahead will discover that all their stuff is worth nothing in the long run.
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the World?
All these "successful" people never take the time to consider their emotional or spiritual condition, because they don't want to admit that all these material things have not filled the "God-sized hole" He put into our souls, so that we would seek Him. Instead they write and argue the fine points of their smart ideas, and puff up themselves.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
Look at your own congregation of believers: there aren't very many intelligentsia or successful military or political higher-ups in your number, are there? Most of these have kept themselves too busy to consider their need for God.
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise
It's considered foolish for a wealthy person to not take advantage of his wealth to live a lavish lifestyle, but to give away most of it and live a modest lifestyle, instead.
and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
How many stories have you heard about some extremely old person or chronically ill person who has shown up other, younger and healthy people in their sterling character?
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen,
Ordinary simplicity of life, and what the World disdains, God uses to bless and benefit His children.
the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
Things that don't exist in physical form; like love, honor, compassion, faith and trust, generosity, patience, ideas, intrinsic beauty--God uses these kind of things to overpower the wicked and their things.
so that no man may boast before God,
No one will be able to vaunt himself over God's wisdom and ways.
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus,
It was God the Father who drew us into relationship with Himself through the sacrificial death of His Son, the Lamb of God, whose Blood has washed us white as snow.
who became to us wisdom from God,
Jesus is the Word, the Wisdom of God for us.
and righteousness
And the value of His perfect life was put on our account, when our sinfulness was put onto His account, so that God's books balance.
and sanctification,
God makes us holy, who were unholy, by His cleansing and placing His Holy Spirit into our human spirits, making them Alive.
and redemption,
We have been purchased by Jesus out of the slave-market of sin and given freedom by the Son, to have the ability to do what is right.
so that, just as it is written,
Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (Psalm 44:8.)Everything we can say that would be positive or congratulatory or complimentary should acknowledge that it is God who made it possible. He planned it out, and He is using us and all of our choices, to carry out His program for this World we have built on His Earth.
He is the Creator, and He made nothing without purpose. So His purposes are being carried out in every part of what He has made. His wisdom and cleverness and power and strength are doing everything He wants to do with His things.
We are all His imagination, and if He weren't thinking about us, we wouldn't exist!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
