God’s foolishness
1 Corinthians 1.18 - 2.5
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.
Prepare
What would you say if someone asked you to share your faith with them? How would you explain what you believe?
Read
Explore
It is a simple truth: through the death of Jesus we can have life. If you accept it, you realise its power to destroy sin and death; if you don’t, it looks as though Christians base their lives on failure (v 18). However, your perspective doesn’t change the truth: the cross saves, and without Jesus we perish.
Paul says: Jews expect miracles, Greeks clever arguments (v 22), but God’s answer is a man, dying on a cross (1.23; 2.2). This is God’s ‘weakness’, his ‘foolishness’ – except of course it is stronger and wiser than anything in this world; through the cross Jesus is our ‘righteousness, holiness and redemption’ (v 30).
How would you share or explain your faith? Would you shy away from talking about the cross? Are you afraid to do it because you aren’t a theologian or don’t know any clever arguments?
If that’s you, look again at what Paul says in verses 1 and 2. He spoke ‘fearfully’ and with ‘much trembling’, but he didn’t worry about clever arguments – he simply pointed people to Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be the world’s greatest orator to share, like Paul, the simple message of salvation: the cross saves, and without Jesus we perish.
Respond
Thank God for his salvation, and ask him for the courage to share Christ with those who are perishing.