The Foolish Things Of The World

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NASB)
“The foolish things of the world” points out that God has chosen things foolish in the estimation of the world; that is, from the standpoint of man’s wisdom the things God chooses to use are foolishness. It has pleased the God of all grace to choose foolish things to put to shame the wise, and weak things in the eyes of the world to put to shame those who are mighty.
In James 1:5 we read, “But if any of lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” In 1 Corinthians 2:14 we are told, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
It is solemn Bible fact that it is impossible for man to know God apart from the gift of wisdom bestowed upon man by God, who loved sinners so much that He set forth Jesus, the wisdom of God in flesh. As believers we must recognize the fact that the wisdom through which we made Christ our Savior by exercising faith in His finished work, was bestowed upon us by God, in Jesus Christ. The natural man (unregenerate man) will not receive the things of the Spirit of God because to him they are foolish, empty, and vain; but God sent Jesus who, in a body, brought down to man the wisdom and righteousness of God, and presented God to man in an understandable form.
Witnessing to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24); and this is true. The mind of man cannot comprehend an eternal Spirit–a Spirit with no beginning, having always been. There was never a time when God was not. But we can comprehend the man Jesus, who was truly God in flesh, equal with God in every respect.
Before the unregenerate man can receive salvation, justification, righteousness, or sanctification, he must first accept the Word of God as God’s Word, the wisdom of God which has spoken in order that we might hear and have faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh.

Put First Things First

In Christ the true believer finds an abundance of “spiritual blessings” [“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3)]. Apart from Christ, we cannot expect God to bless us. Jesus promised, “But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Jesus was God manifested in the flesh [“Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19], and Jesus is the righteousness of God [“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30)]. In Christ all things are ours [“. . .all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God” (1 Cor. 3:22-23)], but if we refuse to put first things first, we cannot expect God to keep His promise to us.

Superficial Goodness

For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Romans 10:3 (NASB)
“God’s way is-first, new life, then better conduct. Men’s way is, ‘cultivate morality, seek after purity, try to be good.’ And surely conscience and experience alike tell us that that is a hopeless effort. To begin with what should be second is an anachronism in morals, and will be sure to result in failure in practice. He is not a wise man that tries to build a house from the chimneys downwards. And to talk about making a man’s doings good before you have secured a radical change in the doer, by the infusion into him of the very life of Jesus Christ Himself, is to begin at the top story, instead of at the foundation. Many of us are trying to put the cart before the horse in that fashion. Many of us have made the attempt over and over again, and the attempt always has failed and will always fail. You may not do much for the mending of your characters and for the incorporation in your lives of virtues and graces which do not grow there naturally and without effort. I do not want to cut the nerves of any man’s stragglings, I do not want to darken the brightness of any man’s aspirations, but I do say that the people who, apart from Jesus Christ, and the entrance into their souls by faith of His quickening power, are seeking, some of them nobly, some of then sadly, and all of the vainly, to cure their faults of character, will never attain anything but a superficial and fragmentary goodness, because they have begun at the wrong end.” – Alexander MacLaren