For .. . This means that what Paul is about to say is relevant to what he has just been saying. The Corinthians were focusing on people. We too can have a habit of doing this. Now obviously people are important. Good evangelists, preachers, prophets, pastors etc are an essential part of the church, but we are called to love people, not worship them. The Corinthians were guilty of treating the whole gospel thing as if it was just another worldly cult. The gospel and the kingdom are different from anything that is found in the world.
The centre of the gospel is the cross, and the Corinthians needed to focus on this. We do not appreciate how foolish such a notion would have seemed to people in the first century. The cross was a place where losers and criminals ended up, not the saviour of the world. To die on a cross was a disgraceful thing. Yet this foolishness, this disgrace, is the power of God.
And God makes the world's wisdom seem foolish, He turns everything upside down. The Jews wanted a sign, and the Greeks wisdom, but God gave us the cross. Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolish to the Gentiles. So we should not be surprised that today many people think the gospel and the cross are a load of nonsense. Yet the cross is the power and wisdom of God, and it will demonstrate this in very practical ways.
The Corinthians are also urged to look at themselves. For few of them were noteworthy in worldly terms, yet God chose them. So it is the grace of God, the wisdom of God, and the power of God that has saved us and will empower our lives, not worldly wisdom or power.
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