Bible Study

August 2004

'A Change From Within: The 'Foolishness' of the Gospel
By Rob Smith

“It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”
(1 Corinthians 1:21)

If any of you are avid readers, as I am, you have noticed the barrage of self-help books littering the isles of your local bookstore. Copies of ‘How To Be Happy’ and ‘How to Love Your Life’ are flying off shelves at a rapid pace. People are desperate for an immediate cure – a quick fix - and the world is always ready to provide a seemingly effortless solution. The world wants to transform people from the outside and place a secular bandage on the interior symptoms that will never fade. The inner wounds never heal with those remedies, though, and these poor consumers are back in that same bookstore next week, looking for another radical new cure.

As Christians, we must realize that lives are truly changed only from within by the power and work of the Holy Spirit. That message is found only in one Book – the living and active Word of God. Its pages contain the Lord’s prescription for life. Shouldn’t our time be spent sharing the Gospel with those who are desperately seeking answers instead of protesting worldly values?

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:21 that “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” We have much to learn from the challenge that the Lord gives to in this verse, the challenge of pleasing and giving glory to God even when our friends and family view us as foolish for following Him. Read chapter one in its entirety and carefully study what Paul is writing to the Corinthians. It should go without saying that this letter applies to us in our day, as well.

The verse begins with “It pleased God…” What pleased God? “Preaching [the Gospel] to save them that believe.” God is pleased when we preach the Gospel so that those who believe (trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation) will be saved. His strategy to save the lost from hell is through the preaching of the Gospel. We hear all the time how Christians – ourselves included – want to please God. The very essence of sin is anything we say, do, or think that does not please God. So, we should ‘say’ something that does please Him and share the Gospel with the world, whether that's the student that sits next to you in English class, your roommate, or the guy that made your sandwich at Subway yesterday. "Preaching" the gospel is simply saying something about Jesus - calling people to repentance and salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.

Allow me to illustrate. This past summer, one of the IMB missionary families was home from Paraguay. The children attending VBS at our church were able to hear about this family’s experiences in Paraguay and how the people of Paraguay have a different culture from our own here in the United States. The father of the missionary family described the activities of the people and how some of those activities were ungodly. The father said that the family has many opportunities to talk with people and to share the Word of God with them. As they talk to the people of Paraguay, they share the Gospel with them. As people transfer their trust in what they are doing to what Jesus Christ has already done for them, they begin to see from His Word how their activities and behaviors need to change and their minds be renewed by Scripture (Romans 12:2).

The missionary family allows the living and active Word of God transform lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. The VBS children anticipated the daily missionary presentation from this family. An offering was taken each day and the children were told that their offerings throughout the week would go toward the purchase of a truck for the family to use when they returned to Paraguay. At the end of the week, these children, in grades four to five, raised about $2,000! They were excited to see what the Lord was doing through this family to change lives from within. As one of our leaders mentioned to me, it is amazing to think that some of those children will be used of God in mighty ways both now and in the future, Lord willing.

Continuing with the analysis of this verse, we see that it is “by the foolishness of preaching” that God is pleased. So why, you may ask, is preaching ‘foolish’? Preaching the Gospel is foolish because the things of God are foolish to the world (1 Cor. 1:27). The world has created its own philosophies about life that Paul addresses throughout this chapter. When we present the Gospel, it is only by the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart that the Gospel is well received. Otherwise, they are blinded to Truth and stay resistant to the Gospel, thinking the vain philosophies of the world are far more reasonable and reliable.

Do you want to see lives changed by the Holy Spirit, producing lasting fruit for the Kingdom? Do you want to stop trying to change people’s worldly opinions and start sharing the Gospel, allowing the Holy Spirit to change the heart? Do you want to please God? Preach the Gospel! Preach the Word! Allow the Holy Spirit to changes lives. God bless you as you seek to serve Him – locally and globally (Acts 1:8) – by His grace and for His glory.