“My pride bristles when I sense I’m being considered weak or foolish because of my Christian faith. The immediate temptation is to prove the other person wrong by trying to impress them in worldly ways ….” (Vaughan Roberts, True Spirituality)

Some of my strongest memories are the moments I’ve felt really foolish. When I’ve said something dumb or misread a situation, and I play it over and over in my mind. Our natural instinct is to hide our weaknesses, look good, fit in with the crowd. And in most situations in life, it’s sensible to avoid being foolish.

But then we meet Paul … a man who deliberately chose to “come in weakness” (2:3). The apostle Paul was a man of extraordinary intellect and influence. Surely, he was tempted to impress other people. Surely his pride bristled when he was considered foolish. And yet, his preaching was not in “wise and persuasive words” (2:4). Why? Why did Paul deliberately choose to be seen as a fool?

It’s because Paul understood that you can’t ‘un-foolish’ the foolishness of the gospel. The message about Jesus is foolish to those who are perishing (1:18).

And whenever we remove the foolishness, we remove its power to save. Whenever we sanitise the message or try to impress others, we divert people’s attention to human wisdom, not God’s power.

And so, Paul foolishly taught the foolish gospel all over the 1st century world, all the way down to us! Praise God that Paul resolved to know nothing but “Jesus Christ and him crucified”. Praise God that Paul kept passing on the gospel as of first importance – the glorious gospel about Jesus’ death and resurrection which we’re about to explore in 1 Corinthians 15.

It’s not too late to join us for our premiere of EQUIP At Home tomorrow (June 20)!

Registrations will be open until July 27, the last day it will be available for watching on-demand.

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Dear Father, thank you for your foolish-looking servant Paul, who passed on your foolish-looking gospel, that we might be saved. When our pride bristles and we are tempted to ‘ un-foolish’ the gospel to impress others, strengthen us to be more like Paul, more like your Son, our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Isobel Lin, aka ‘The EQUIP lady’ has been the chair and MC of the EQUIP women’s conference for more than a decade. She’s married to Peter and they have 3 daughters. She also enjoys being a part-time chaplain at Moore Theological College.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Choosing to be a fool!