We see in these verses a killing blow to that which mankind holds dearest: His intellectual prowess. Where is he who is wise? Where is the man learned in his letters? Where is the man eloquent and full of argument? The answer is quite simple: He does not exist.

 

Before we continue, we must know what Paul is saying. He is not asserting that men cannot have knowledge, merely that knowledge absent of God is no knowledge at all! There is not one righteous man, and it may not be a stretch to say there is not one wise man. God makes man’s wisdom null and void. Man’s reasoning is nothing to God’s reasoning, and if there is a man who calls himself wise, it is because he truly knows nothing, This first verse is a rhetorical challenge to any who might presume they know God purely by intellect, because God is not known by the mind alone just as he is not known by the heart alone.

 

Reflection

September 2020