Big Idea: God’s wisdom is understood only through the Spirit’s revelation. Spiritual maturity comes from applying God’s wisdom to all aspects of life.

Understanding the Text

Not only did the reality of the church members’ inclusion in the Christ community directly demonstrate how God’s wisdom was unusual (1:26–31), but Paul’s own life and preaching were living proof that God’s wisdom easily superseded any of the human wisdom being offered in Corinth. Although Paul avoids calling himself an idi?t?s, a term describing the common man who was not a philosopher (lover of wisdom),[1] he does describe his entry onto the Corinthian scene as an illustration of how God uses the ordinary. Like the Corinthians when they were called, Paul was nothing in the eyes of the world.2  Contrary to the Corint…