Before his conversion, Paul didn’t suffer fools.
He surely didn’t count himself among them, either. His credentials gave him sway in the exclusive elite of the religious intelligentsia. He described his former life this way:
“…according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5).
“Educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God…” (Acts 22:3)
“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:4-6).
Paul and his fellow Pharisees had all the right answers. Their interpretation of the scriptures shaped Jewish culture, ethics, and worship. Heralded for his fierce intellect, unbending fervency, and willingness to purge dissenting factions, Paul wasn’t used to having his authority challenged.
Then he encountered Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.
His subsequent spiritual transformation also came with intellectual whiplash. The Pharisees and members of the Sanhedrin who once respected him now considered him persona non grata. The followers of Christ who flinched at the mere mention of his name now welcomed him (after initial suspicion and some reassurances from Barnabas).
The man whose mind was so celebrated had to come to grips that many now considered him a moron.
Most of his Jewish counterparts dismissed him out of hand.
Many Greeks, like the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, scoffed at him as a “babbler” (Acts 17:18).
Even the congregants from churches he planted—looking at you, Corinthians—labeled him an unimpressive speaker and belittled his physical presence.
That’s plenty of intellectual humble pie for someone who was well-educated, an adept debater, and whose epistles follow a carefully crafted logical and rhetorical structure.
Even today, Biblical scholars are divided on how to interpret his references to his supposedly substandard speaking skills.
Either way, Paul was considered a fool in many ways, the ultimate insult for a man who dedicated his life to studying the scriptures, first as a Pharisee, then as a believer in Christ.
So how did he deal with it?
On a personal level, he wrote, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8-9).
On a teaching and preaching level, he understood that humiliation is the price of admission. The Corinthians prized eloquence, and their church body conditioned themselves that any compelling argument for the Gospel must include the speechmaking abilities that rivaled the renowned Greek and Roman orators.
So Paul put his pride aside and gave them what they desperately needed but absolutely did not want.
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
– 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
The chief priests, Pharisees, and teachers of the law demanded more signs.
Th Greek philosophers craved wisdom.
Paul wrote in response, “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
If you’re a believer in Christ, you’ll likely face the same intellectual whiplash as Paul.
You want others to believe in the Gospel. But the fear of being seen as the village idiot can sometimes keep you quiet.
Few people want to be considered stupid. The self-conscious part of our prideful nature doesn’t want to carry that reputation, to feel lesser and dull-witted. Think of the feeling that crawls over your skin when you mess up at work, drop the ball out of ignorance in your private life, or witness to someone who rates your IQ below freezing.
Despite those pressures, we must become fools for Christ.
It takes courage from all of us to say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
It takes compassion, because the “natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
It takes humility, because “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise” (1 Corinthians 3:18).
We also cannot drift into becoming know-it-alls, for “no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29).
Emotional wholeness in Christ means, like Paul, we engage with life in the public square rather than retreat.
We become lifelong learners rather than scorn intellectual pursuits.
We put our reputations on the line and become fools so that those we love may experience the redeeming power of the cross of Christ and His empty tomb.
This is our “Fool’s Errand,” and it’s the only path worth taking.
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ”
– 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
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