When God Chooses the Unlikely

It’s an honest question. If God wants the gospel to spread to all nations, why not recruit the world’s most brilliant minds, most powerful leaders, most influential celebrities? Why not save the wealthiest innovators and the most compelling communicators and send them to proclaim Christ?

Wouldn’t that be faster? Louder? More effective?

The apostle Paul anticipates that very question in 1 Corinthians 1:27: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

Why?

The answer reaches to the very heart of Christianity.

The Cross Defines the Strategy

We cannot understand God’s choice of the weak unless we understand the cross.

Before there were missionaries, churches, or gospel movements, there was a decision in heaven. God determined that salvation would come not through spectacle, power, or philosophical brilliance, but through crucifixion.

The Son of God entered the world not as a conquering warrior or celebrated philosopher, but as a carpenter who would die a shameful death on a Roman cross.

Crucifixion was the lowest, most humiliating execution imaginable. It was public disgrace. It was weakness exposed. It was, in the eyes of the world, foolishness.

And that is how God chose to save.

Paul says plainly, “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).

If Christianity had been launched through dazzling rhetoric and undeniable intellectual dominance, it might have grown quickly but it would not have been Christianity. It would have been human achievement baptized in religious language.

The cross ends human boasting. That is the point.

The Problem with Human Wisdom

Corinth was obsessed with eloquence and intellect. The culture prized gifted speakers and philosophical depth. Even in the church, believers were dividing themselves by aligning with their favorite teachers: “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas” (1 Corinthians 1:12).

Paul’s response was piercing: “Was Paul crucified for you?” (1 Corinthians 1:13).

He refused to let Christianity become a personality-driven movement.

He writes, “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17).

That phrase is staggering “lest the cross be emptied of its power.”

How could eloquence empty the cross? By shifting trust.

If people are persuaded primarily by charisma, intellect, or social influence, their faith rests on human wisdom. And what human wisdom builds, human wisdom can dismantle.

Paul explains further: “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

In God’s wisdom, salvation would not come through human wisdom.

Faith in what looks like foolishness would be the way.

Two Reasons God Chooses the Weak

Paul gives two explicit reasons why God chooses the foolish, weak, and lowly.

1. So That No One May Boast

“God chose what is foolish… so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).

If the gospel advanced primarily through cultural elites and intellectual giants, the spotlight would subtly drift toward them. Applause would cling to human brilliance.

But when ordinary, unimpressive, even socially overlooked people are used to spread a message about a crucified Savior, something becomes unmistakably clear: this is not human achievement.

It is grace.

God’s strategy dismantles pride at its root.

From the beginning, pride has been humanity’s deepest disease. Genesis 3 reveals a desire to “be like God.” The cross crushes that impulse. It tells us we are so sinful and helpless that only the death of the Son of God could save us.

When weak people proclaim a crucified Christ and lives are transformed, there is only one explanation: God did it.

2. So That We Boast Only in the Lord

Paul continues, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).

God is not interested in creating movements that make human heroes famous. His aim in world evangelization is worship.

He wants Jesus exalted.

If missionaries, pastors, or evangelists were universally celebrated for their brilliance and power, our hearts would attach themselves to them. Instead, God often works through unlikely vessels so that the treasure is clearly not the jar.

Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

The weakness is intentional.

The fragility is strategic.

The glory belongs to Christ.

But Doesn’t God Use the Gifted?

Yes but never in a way that undermines the cross.

God has saved scholars, leaders, and influential figures. Yet when He does, their power is redefined. The apostle Paul himself was highly educated, yet he counted his credentials as loss compared to knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8).

Even when God uses intellect or influence, He empties it of self-exalting power.

The pattern remains: weakness first. Dependence first. Christ crucified at the center.

The Gospel Strategy Still Stands

Today, it may seem that influence spreads fastest through platforms, celebrity status, or technological reach. But the deepest and most enduring gospel advances still follow the same pattern established in the first century.

Ordinary believers sharing Christ faithfully.

Unknown servants praying persistently.

Small churches proclaiming a crucified and risen Savior.

History confirms this pattern. Christianity began not in imperial palaces but in obscure villages. The early disciples were fishermen, tax collectors, and common laborers. Yet within a few centuries, the Roman Empire itself was transformed not by military conquest, but by a message of weakness and resurrection.

God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8–9).

What looks inefficient to us may be the very design of divine wisdom.

Encouragement for the “Foolish”

If you feel unimpressive, underqualified, or small in the world’s eyes, take heart.

God’s choice of the foolish is not an insult. It is an invitation.

He delights to use those who know they need Him. He empowers those who depend on Him. He magnifies His strength through confessed weakness.

The cross defines everything.

And through that cross, the world is being turned upside down not by human brilliance, but by divine grace.

If this strengthened your faith, share it with someone who feels small in God’s mission or subscribe to our newsletter for more biblical encouragement rooted in the wisdom of the cross.