Study Desk

Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the skilled talker of this world? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish.

In the wisdom of God the world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe.

But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks.

Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God did this so that no one can brag in his presence.

Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God, and have been made holy, and have been set free from sin.

I speak God's secret wisdom, which he has kept hidden. Before the world began, God planned this wisdom for our glory.

But as it is written in the Scriptures: "No one has ever seen this, and no one has ever heard about it. No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." Isaiah 64:4

But God has shown us these things through the Spirit. The Spirit searches out all things, even the deep secrets of God.

Who knows the thoughts that another person has? Only a person's spirit that lives within him knows his thoughts. It is the same with God. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we did not receive the spirit of the world, but we received the Spirit that is from God so that we can know all that God has given us.

A person who does not have the Spirit does not accept the truths that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish and cannot understand them, because they can only be judged to be true by the Spirit.

Is Apollos important? No! Is Paul important? No! We are only servants of God who helped you believe. Each one of us did the work God gave us to do.

I planted the seed, and Apollos watered it. But God is the One who made it grow.

So the one who plants is not important, and the one who waters is not important. Only God, who makes things grow, is important.

Using the gift God gave me, I laid the foundation of that house like an expert builder. Others are building on that foundation, but all people should be careful how they build on it.

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person, because God's temple is holy and you are that temple.

because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It is written in the Scriptures, "He catches those who are wise in their own clever traps."