God is not…foolish

That may seem like an entirely obvious statement! Anybody who’s ever read the Bible will know that it presents God as unfailingly wise.

Not only that but we’re promised that we can go to him and learn from his wisdom to apply it to our own lives.

Who could possibly accuse God of being foolish?

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 1:25
…for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

That’s Paul writing. What was he trying to get at? How can God be weak or foolish?

He can’t.

Paul’s point is simply that even if God were to do something that was foolish or that demonstrated some type of weakness, he’d still be incalculably wiser and stronger than human beings.

Let’s look at the context in which Paul wrote those words (v17-25):
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness 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; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Paul wasn’t suggesting that God is foolish or weak. He was suggesting that, much of the time, we are. Even at our best, we’re still not capable of operating even close to God’s level.

In this letter he was writing to a church dominated by powerful, influential people who thought that they were extremely wise and knowledgeable – who thought that they didn’t need to listen to Paul’s teaching or advice, since they were quite capable of knowing God’s mind on their own.

That’s human nature in a nutshell.

It goes right back to the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve thought they knew best. God’s restriction on them eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil seemed foolish. Why not do it their own way?

We see it in Cain and Abel. Both offered a sacrifice but only Abel’s was the one God had asked for. Instead of being willing to learn a better way from his brother, Cain murdered him out of jealousy.

The same pattern repeats itself throughout the Old Testament. Even patriarchs of the faith like Abraham and Moses had moments when they thought they knew better and left God out of their decision-making. Joshua…Samson…David…Solomon…Hezekiah…Josiah…the list goes on. And those are some of the most faithful men who ever lived!

The New Testament churches were no different.

In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira thought they could do things their own way. They’d seen the adulation and respect given to Barnabas when he sold a piece of land and gave the money to the church to help the poor. They wanted the same praise and honour…but they weren’t willing to make the same sacrifice. They thought they could give only some of the money from selling their land, but claim the honour for giving all of it.

That’s the way the world works. You do a good deed, you get the credit. Maybe you exaggerate a little bit the size or significance of what you did. That’s normal, isn’t it? That’s how you get ahead in life.

Not if you’re a Christian.

That’s one of the challenges of following Jesus, both today and all throughout the history of the church. The world around us has a way of doing things that makes sense. It helps you stay out of trouble. Or make money. Or make friends. Or pursue your dreams, whatever those might be.

And the hardest thing is that it does make sense. It makes sense to exaggerate your skills and accomplishments if you want to get a job or a pay rise. It makes sense to hide the less attractive aspects of your personality or life history if you want to be popular and make friends. It helps to lie and cheat sometimes if you want be rich and successful. At least it does for as long as you can get away with it…

What God expects you to do doesn’t make sense.

Telling the truth about your failures and limitations will not help you get a job or make friends or succeed in life, except in the rare instance you’re dealing with someone who genuinely values honesty and integrity above all else.

That is, in a way, the foolishness of God. Rejecting what you instinctively know makes sense and will work in this human world, and instead doing what you know won’t work. At least in purely human terms. God may choose to intervene in your life to ensure that your faithfulness is rewarded with the things you seek. Or he may not.

Your priority as a Christian is, of course, not to seek success and comfort in this life, but to constantly seek ways to transform yourself to be more like Jesus, to be ready for the life to come after this one. God may choose to give you success and comfort now, or he may not. If he does, it’s a gift for you to enjoy and share with others. If he doesn’t, it’s for a good reason – he’s preparing you for something better.

Some people can have comfort and prosperity in this life and still be faithful Christians. Some people can’t. This doesn’t mean the former are better people than the latter (or vice versa) – we’re all sinners who need to repent.

We all have different temptations and weaknesses which, if we embraced them, would take us away from God. Money. Comfort. Popularity. Good health. Freedom. Success. It’ll be different for each one of us – but the point is this…

…the thing you want more than anything else, the thing you might even be capable of getting for yourself by using the world’s “wisdom”, might be the one thing that would take you away from God. And if you use God’s wisdom, you’ll never get it. And that’s a good thing.

God’s ways seem foolish to us, more so if you are well acquainted with how to get ahead in this life. But if you follow God’s way, you’ll get the things God wants you to have. You’ll be in the best possible position to see clearly what you need to do: repent, transform yourself and follow Jesus.

And you’ll be ready for him when he returns. Not hanging on to the things in this life that God never meant for you to have. But ready to throw away everything that isn’t necessary in order to live in God’s Kingdom for eternity.