The dramatic division

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

Paul allows the Gospel to be the great dividing line. He does not repackage it to suit the cosmopolitan context of Corinth. Instead he boldly maintains that the message he heralds is foolishness to those on the outside, who are perishing. The way to bring them in among those who are being saved is not through eloquence, marketing or revision. It is by proclaiming the message that is foolishness.

This 'word of the cross' is the means of taking people from the plight of the perishing to the hope of those who are being saved "so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (v29). This is the glory of the Gospel - that God uses the very message that is folly to the perishing to rescue them from that sorry state. In so doing, the preacher cannot take the glory, nor the listener, but only God who uses it to save sinners.