Folly or Power

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 329, Folly or Power.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18.

This verse opens Paul's first letter to the Corinthians with a bold claim. Corinth was a city that loved rhetoric, wisdom, polished speech, and visible power. And right out of the gate, Paul presents a message that looked like the opposite of all that: a God who dies hanging on a Roman cross, the most humiliating instrument of execution that existed. By the standards of that culture, that wasn't wisdom — it was shame. It was folly.

And Paul doesn't try to soften that. He says plainly: to those who are perishing, the message of the cross really is folly. It isn't that the message needs better marketing. It's that it will never make sense to anyone measuring everything by the human logic of strength, success, and visible victory. A God who chooses to die, rather than crush His enemies with power, simply doesn't fit any yardstick the world uses to measure greatness.

But notice the turn: "to us who are being saved it is the power of God." The same message, the exact same words — but a completely different reaction. And what changes isn't the message. It's the condition of the heart receiving it. Some hear it and laugh. Others hear it and fall to their knees, because something inside them recognizes that this is true, this is power, this is the one thing that actually solves the deepest problem of the human heart.

I want you to notice the verb tense too: "who are being saved." Not "who were saved, full stop," as if it were a closed chapter in the past. It's present continuous. Salvation keeps happening, keeps shaping you, keeps transforming your character, keeps healing your wounds, day after day. You didn't finish being saved — you are being saved, right now, in this daily process with Christ.

And there is a deep beauty in this: the apparent weakness of the cross is actually the very instrument of victory. Paul will say later in this same letter that the weakness of God is stronger than men. The cross didn't hide the weakness — it used it. And that's exactly why it has the power to transform what no human strength ever could: sin, death, shame, guilt.

So, my friend, here is today's invitation: do not be ashamed of the cross. Tell someone about it today — even briefly, even if it sounds strange to the ears listening. You don't need perfect arguments. You just need to let the power already working in you show up in plain, honest words.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.