1 Corinthians 1:25

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

The neuter adjectives, τὸ μωρόν, τὸ ἀσθενές, do not denote qualities belonging to the being of God Himself, but certain categories of Divine manifestations having the two characters mentioned. If one dared translate thus, the weak, foolish product of Divine action. And God's masterpiece in these two respects is the cross. The gen. τοῦ θεοῦ, of God, is at once that of origin and property. The second member of comparison is sometimes completed by paraphrasing, “wiser than the wisdom of men; stronger than the strength of men;” but this supposed ellipsis weakens the thought. The apostle means: wiser than men with all their wisdom; stronger than men with all their strength. When God has the appearance of acting irrationally or weakly, that is the time when He triumphs most certainly over human wisdom and power.

What God makes of human wisdom has been clearly manifested by the character of folly which He has stamped on the salvation offered by Christ; it is equally so in the choice God makes of those in whom this salvation is realized by faith in the preaching of it. Such is the idea of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, a passage in which the apostle shows us the most honoured classes of society remaining outside the Church, while God raises up from the very depths of Gentile society a new people of saved and glorified ones who hold everything from Him.