John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 1:21

"For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God`s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe." — 1 Corinthians 1:21 (ASV)

For since the world knew not. The right order of things was assuredly this: that man, contemplating the wisdom of God in His works by the light of understanding given him by nature, might arrive at a knowledge of Him. However, since this order of things has been reversed through man’s depravity, God intends, in the first place, to make us see ourselves as fools before He makes us wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15), and secondly, as a sign of His wisdom, He presents to us what has some appearance of folly.

This inversion of the order of things mankind’s ingratitude deserved. By the wisdom of God, he means the workmanship of the whole world, which is a glorious sign and clear manifestation of His wisdom. God therefore presents before us in His creatures a bright mirror of His admirable wisdom, so that everyone who looks upon the world and the other works of God must, of necessity, burst into admiration of Him, if he has a single spark of sound judgment.

If people were guided to a right knowledge of God by contemplating His works, they would know God in the exercise of wisdom, or by a natural and proper method of acquiring wisdom. But since the whole world gained nothing in terms of instruction from the fact that God had exhibited His wisdom in His creatures, He then resorted to another method for instructing people. Thus, it must be considered our own fault that we do not attain a saving knowledge of God before we have been emptied of our own understanding.

He makes a concession when he calls the gospel the foolishness of preaching, as it appears so to those foolish sages (μωροσόφοις) who, intoxicated with false confidence, do not fear to subject God’s sacred truth to their senseless criticism. And indeed, from another perspective, nothing is more absurd to human reason than to hear that God has become mortal—that life has been subjected to death, that righteousness has been veiled under the appearance of sin, and that the source of blessing has been made subject to the curse—so that by this means people might be redeemed from death and become partakers of a blessed immortality, that they might obtain life, that, sin being destroyed, righteousness might reign, and that death and the curse might be swallowed up.

Nevertheless, we know in the meantime that the gospel is the hidden wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:7), which in its height transcends the heavens, and at which angels themselves stand amazed. Here we have a most beautiful passage, from which we may see how great is the blindness of the human mind, which in the midst of light perceives nothing.

For it is true that this world is like a theater in which the Lord presents to us a clear manifestation of His glory; and yet, although we have such a spectacle placed before our eyes, we are stone-blind—not because the manifestation is presented obscurely, but because we are alienated in mind (Colossians 1:21). And in this matter, we lack not only inclination but also ability. For although God shows Himself openly, it is only with the eye of faith that we can behold Him, except that we receive a slight perception of His divinity, sufficient to render us inexcusable.

Accordingly, when Paul here declares that God is not known by means of His creatures, you must understand him to mean that a pure knowledge of Him is not attained. For so that no one may have any pretext for ignorance, mankind makes progress in the universal school of nature, so far as to be affected with some perception of deity; but what God is, they do not know. Indeed, they immediately become vain in their imaginations (Romans 1:21). Thus the light shineth in darkness (John 1:5). It follows, then, that mankind do not err to this extent through mere ignorance, and are therefore chargeable with contempt, negligence, and ingratitude. Thus it is true that all

have known God, and yet have not glorified him,
(Romans 1:21).

and that, on the other hand, no one under the guidance of mere nature ever progressed so far as to know God. Should anyone bring forward the philosophers as exceptions, I answer that in them, more especially, there is presented a striking sign of this our weakness. For there will not be found one of them who has not, from that first principle of knowledge which I have mentioned, immediately turned aside into wandering and erroneous speculations; and for the most part, they betray a silliness worse than that of old wives. When he says that those are saved that believe, this corresponds with the previous statement—that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Furthermore, by contrasting believers, whose number is small, with a blind and senseless world, he teaches us that we err if we stumble at the smallness of their number, since they have been divinely set apart for salvation.