The Understanding of the Prudent
3-30-08
by Michael Gilbert
“For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent”
(1 Cor. 1:19)
In our text, the apostle Paul uses the word “prudent”. He stated that God would “bring to nothing the understand of the prudent”. This word has reference to the intelligence of an individual. The ability of an individual to mentally “grasp things quickly”. At twelve years of age, our Savior displayed prudence in the temple. “And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers”(Luke 2:47). Jesus always displayed this virtue. His foes were forever trying to “trip him up”, but he always responded to their crafty questions quickly with a deeply profound answer. He was “sharp”, as we sometimes put it.
Paul’s teaching to the Corinthians was this: man, in his self-declared wisdom and prudence, thought they did not need God, so God decided to use something “simple” to confuse the “wise of the world” – namely, the preaching of the cross of Christ as the solution to man’s sin problem. The lesson is simple: don’t get so arrogant that you look upon the preaching of the cross as being for the ignorant and the unlearned. Many “educated” Americans look upon Bible believing, Bible practicing people as “backward” and “unfit” for any dignified position in this society. Therefore, they cannot be saved because they “stumble” at the “foolishness” of the cross(I Cor. 1:23).
