One thing we Christians see every day is that the world looks down on Christianity. A hostile culture sees faith in Jesus as unsophisticated and unintelligent.

Of course, we shouldn’t be shocked. Jesus told us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18, ESV).

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul expanded on this truth. He wrote:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 1:18-20 (ESV)

In a recent sermon on this chapter, Dr. Albert Mohler referenced Paul’s quote from Isaiah 29:14 and contrasted the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of God:

“It's folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God,” he said. “Paul, here, like Isaiah in a parallel way, is drawing a contrast between two forms of wisdom. One is a worldly wisdom that's not about how to fix a lamp. It's about the big questions of life. There is a worldly wisdom, and it runs contrary to the wisdom of God.”

He continued:

We are saved by a word of wisdom that comes from outside of ourselves. And it comes in the Old Testament most often through the prophetic word.

There's a wisdom that comes through the prophetic word, of course, that includes the Scripture in such a way that we who would not see these things can see them and would not know these things, may know them. And it runs contrary to the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the prophetic word given to Israel is in direct contradiction to the wisdom of the Egyptian philosophers, the Egyptian throne, two different kinds of wisdom.

This is a very important biblical theme, so helpful that Paul makes us see it in the Old Testament. There's the wisdom of God, and then there is a contrary wisdom that turns out to be human foolishness. It's not to say that it doesn't work in this age, that it doesn't lead to advantage in this age. It doesn't mean that it doesn't lead to advancement and success and status.

Paul continued in his letter:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:22-31 (ESV)

The message of the cross doesn’t comport with the wisdom of the world. It’s not for people who think they have it all together. It’s not for those who think that their wisdom is sufficient.

Instead, it’s for the humble people of all stations of life who realize that they need a Savior. That’s when the things that the world sees as foolish start to make sense. When God calls us to follow Him, that wisdom turns upside down.

Related: Sunday Thoughts: Calling

Mohler preached:

We can't orchestrate the work of the Spirit in terms of calling, which leads, of course, to our understanding that it's an effectual call. The one in whom this process begins, God sees it through all the way to completion. He who begins a good work in you will complete it on that day.

It's interesting that at this point Paul reminds them, in more ways than might first be recognized, of salvation by grace alone and the common privilege of being Christians. Because we didn't really volunteer for this. We were called to this. There's a common calling. We're all here as believers, not because we were all smart enough to get to the Gospel and then smart enough to get to this church.

“We have a wisdom,” he said later. “It's a superior wisdom. It's an infinitely superior wisdom, but it's the wisdom of Christ. And you don't get the wisdom of Christ without the wisdom of the cross. And then the others follow righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

There’s something mentally liberating about not having to square the world’s wisdom with the cross. Instead, we believers have the superior wisdom of Jesus, and that should lead us to gratitude and worship.