Bible Synapse
Is wisdom good, or is it folly in God’s eyes?
Hard question · Psalms, wisdom and the prophets · raised by 2 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom”.
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Whoever lacks wisdom should ask God, who gives generously to all.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
In much wisdom is much grief, and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
God will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the world by its wisdom did not know God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Paul speaks God’s hidden wisdom among the mature, not the wisdom of this world.
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
Whoever seems wise in this world must become a fool to be wise, for this world’s wisdom is foolishness with God.
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Paul calls the apostles fools for Christ’s sake.
We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
The objection
Proverbs says “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7). Paul says God will “destroy the wisdom of the wise” and that whoever wants to be wise must “become a fool” (1 Corinthians 1:19; 3:18), and Ecclesiastes says that much wisdom brings grief (Ecclesiastes 1:18). So is wisdom good or not?
The answer
Paul is not against wisdom; he is against “the wisdom of this world”, which judges God by human standards and so rejects the cross. He says so in the same breath: “the world by wisdom knew not God” (1 Corinthians 1:21), and “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (3:19). He then claims true wisdom for the gospel: Christ is “the wisdom of God” (1:24), and “we speak wisdom among them that are perfect”, God’s hidden wisdom (2:6–7).
That is the wisdom Proverbs praises. It begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10), and James tells believers to ask God for it (James 1:5). To “become a fool” in Paul’s sense means giving up pride in one’s own cleverness in order to learn from God, as Proverbs itself warns: “Be not wise in thine own eyes” (Proverbs 3:7). The apostles were “fools for Christ’s sake” only in the world’s eyes (1 Corinthians 4:10). As for Ecclesiastes 1:18, the Preacher means that knowing more of a troubled world brings sorrow, yet he still holds that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness (Ecclesiastes 2:13).
Other answers Christians give
Psalm 5:5
One list sets Psalm 5:5, where the KJV says God will not let the fool stand in his sight, against Paul’s call to become a fool. The Hebrew word there means the boastful, and modern versions render it “The arrogant” (WEB) or “The boastful” (BSB). The psalm condemns the proud, which is the very thing Paul calls Christians to give up.
From the classic commentators
The way to true wisdom is to sink our opinion of our own to a due level, and be willing to be taught of God. He must become a fool who would be truly and thoroughly wise.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 1 Corinthians 3:18