The Lie We Call Intelligence

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
1 Corinthians 1:25

Let’s slow this down and say it the way it actually lands.

The scripture is not suggesting God is foolish or weak. It is confronting the pride of human reasoning. It is saying that even if you could take what looks like the least impressive part of God’s plan, it would still outrank the greatest ideas humanity has ever produced.

That should more than rattle us. It should unsettle us to the core.

Because we are living in a time that worships intellect, platform, innovation, and influence. We are told constantly that progress is salvation. That if we just think harder, build better systems, develop better technology, create better policies, everything will stabilize.

And yet everything feels unstable.

That is not an accident.

The verse is exposing a collision. Human wisdom on one side. God’s wisdom on the other. And they do not operate on the same foundation.

The context behind this statement is the cross. And if we are honest, the cross did not look impressive. It did not look strategic. It did not look powerful. It looked like defeat. It looked like a man crushed by the machinery of politics and religion.

If you had been standing there without spiritual understanding, you would have said, this failed.

But the scripture is saying that what looked like failure was the deepest wisdom. What looked like weakness was the greatest display of strength. The cross did not lose. It accomplished exactly what human systems never could. It dealt with sin at its root. It defeated death at its core.

Now bring that into today.

We are surrounded by noise. Opinions stacked on opinions. Outrage layered on outrage. Entire industries built on keeping people emotionally charged. Every week there is a new crisis, a new scandal, a new moral shift. And people are exhausted.

Here is the uncomfortable part. Much of what is celebrated as intelligent in this age is simply disconnected from God. It may be clever. It may be articulate. It may be technologically advanced. But if it is detached from truth, it will eventually collapse under its own weight.

The scripture states elsewhere that when humanity claims to be wise while rejecting God, it becomes futile in its thinking. That is not an insult. It is a diagnosis. When the Creator is removed from the equation, the equation never balances.

So when the world feels sideways, it is not because we lack information. We have more information than any generation in history. It is because information without submission to God does not produce wisdom. It produces arrogance.

This is why the verse matters so much right now. If even what appears to be foolish in God’s plan is wiser than our best ideas, then our best ideas are not the foundation. They never were.

That changes how a Christian lives in chaos.

We are not called to pretend the chaos is not real. We are not called to stick our heads in the sand. But we are called to measure reality differently.

The world measures strength by control. God revealed strength through surrender.

The world measures success by visibility. God measures it by faithfulness.

The world measures intelligence by originality. God measures it by alignment with truth.

Those are two completely different value systems.

And here is where separation begins.

Separation does not start by deleting social media or moving off grid. It starts by refusing to let the world define what is impressive. If you are constantly feeding on the world’s definition of power, you will eventually crave it. If you constantly absorb its definition of freedom, you will start to question obedience.

The scripture tells believers not to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of the mind. That is not poetic language. It is practical instruction. Your mind will take the shape of what you repeatedly expose it to.

If you are drinking from a polluted stream every day, you cannot expect clarity.

This is why guarding your attention is not weakness. It is wisdom. The scripture says to guard your heart, because from it flow the issues of life. In other words, everything you do flows from what you allow to settle inside you.

In a culture that runs on outrage, you do not have to react to every headline.

In a culture that thrives on division, you do not have to absorb every argument.

In a culture that normalizes compromise, you do not have to negotiate what God has already spoken.

You make a conscious effort to step back not because you are afraid, but because you understand influence. What you repeatedly meditate on shapes you. What you constantly entertain will eventually train your thinking.

There is another reason we separate.

Chaos is contagious.

The scripture makes it clear that believers wrestle against more than flesh and blood. The confusion we see is not merely social or political. There is a spiritual dimension underneath it. That means matching chaos with more chaos will never solve it.

You do not bring light into a dark room by arguing with the darkness. You turn on the light.

And the light is truth.

Sometimes that truth will look unimpressive. It will not trend. It will not dominate headlines. It may even look outdated. But remember the cross. The moment that looked like the greatest loss in history was the moment that changed history forever.

So when obedience looks small, it is not small.

When humility looks weak, it is not weak.

When choosing silence over outrage looks passive, it is not passive.

If God’s so called weakness is stronger than men, then living in alignment with Him is not fragile. It is unshakeable.

This is why Christians must consciously filter what they consume. Not because the world is scary, but because the mind is moldable. If you allow the world to disciple you more than scripture does, you will slowly begin to think like the world, even while claiming to follow Christ.

The verse forces a choice.

Will you trust what appears impressive, or will you trust what God has revealed?

When markets crash, when cultures shift, when moral lines blur, you either anchor yourself in eternal truth or you drift with the current. There is no neutral position.

The reason we step back from the chaos is not to hide. It is to stay clear. It is to remember that the wisdom that saves is not trending wisdom. It is eternal wisdom. It does not change every election cycle. It does not adjust itself to fit cultural approval.

It stands.

And those who build their lives on it stand as well.

The world may continue to call certain convictions foolish. It may call restraint outdated. It may call obedience narrow. But if the scripture is true, then even what the world dismisses in God’s plan carries more substance than all the celebrated brilliance of the age.

That is not a poetic idea. It is a stabilizing one.

When you truly believe that, you stop being impressed so easily. You stop being shaken so quickly. You stop chasing every new solution as though it is ultimate.

You begin to live anchored.

And in a world that feels like it is spinning faster by the day, being anchored is not weakness.

It is strength that the world does not understand.