1 ¹⁸ This doctrine of the cross is sheer folly to those on their way to ruin, but to us who are on the way to 1 ^{19 [ Is.29.14. ]} salvation it is the power of God. Scripture says, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the cleverness of the clever.' 1 ²⁰ Where is your wise man now, your man of learning, or your subtle debater-limited, all of them, to this passing age? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 1 ²¹ As God in his wisdom ordained, the world failed to find him by its wisdom, and he chose to save those who have faith by the folly of the Gospel. 1 ²² Jews call for miracles, Greeks look for wisdom; 1 ²³ but we proclaim Christ—yes, Christ nailed to the cross; and though this is a stumbling-block to Jews and folly to Greeks, 1 ²⁴ yet to those who have heard his call, Jews and Greeks alike, he is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 ²⁵ Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of man, and divine weakness stronger than man's strength.

1 ²⁶ My brothers, think what sort of people you are, whom God has called. Few of you are men of wisdom, by any human standard; few are powerful or highly born. 1 ²⁷ Yet, to shame the wise. God has chosen what the world counts folly, and to shame what is strong, God has chosen what the world counts weakness. 1 ²⁸ He has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order. 1 ²⁹ And so there is no place for human pride in the presence of God. 1 ³⁰ You are in Christ Jesus by God's act, for God has made him our wisdom; he is our righteousness; in him we are consecrated and set free. 1 ^{31 [ Jr.9.24. ]} And so (in the words of Scripture), 'must boast, let him boast of the Lord.'