Devotional 29 October 2025

October 29, 2025 • Steve Torres

1 Corinthians 3:21-23.jpg

“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Corinthians 3:18-23, ESV)

Paul closes this section of his letter by turning the entire concept of wisdom upside down. “Let no one deceive himself,” he writes. “If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise” (v. 18). The path to true wisdom is not found in self-elevation but in surrender. As Jesus taught, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). To “become a fool” is to abandon the world’s standards of success and to receive the wisdom of God revealed in Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18–25).

Paul quotes Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 to remind us that the Lord “catches the wise in their craftiness” and that the very thoughts of the wise are futile. The cleverness of men may impress crowds, but before God it collapses. As Psalm 2:4 says, God is, “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” The Corinthians, divided over favorite teachers, needed to remember that worldly comparison and boasting have no place in the body of Christ.

Then Paul delivers a staggering truth: “So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours” (v. 21). Whether Paul, Apollos, or Cephas; the world or life or death; the present or the future — all belong to those who belong to Christ. This is not exaggeration but revelation. The believer’s inheritance is rooted in union with the Son of God: “If children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Because “you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (v. 23), the chain of belonging is complete: everything is God’s; God gives all to Christ; Christ shares all with His people.

Therefore, boasting in men is not merely prideful, it is unnecessary. What the world strives to earn, the Christian already possesses in grace. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31; Jeremiah 9:23–24). The cross exposes the futility of human wisdom and reveals the generosity of divine wisdom: “He who did not spare His own Son… will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). To rest in Christ is to discover that nothing in heaven or on earth can add to what is already ours in Him. All things are yours: because you are His.