The Purpose of Biblical Ministry

By Robb Brunansky

Published June 12, 2025

In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul has addressed disunity in the church at Corinth since verse 10 – a disunity that arose primarily because of pride. Each member sought to honor themselves and to demonstrate their prestige amongst the congregation.

Paul’s solution to this problem was to unfold how biblical ministry is to be done. Ministry is not a free-for-all, left up to whims of church leaders or members. Instead, God designed ministry to operate a certain way so the ministry and the message compliment rather than contradict one another.

Beginning in verse 18, Paul shows the Corinthians how to do ministry God’s way, and how to adopt and follow a biblical philosophy of ministry. This tutorial starts with the principles of godly ministry, which include the content of the preaching, the condition of the perishing, and the confidence of the persevering. These principles must guide every church and ministry seeking to be biblically faithful.

In verses 19 through 21, Paul reveals a second truth we need to do ministry God’s way: We must understand the purpose of God.

Why does God use a message the unbeliever deems foolish to bring about salvation? Why has God designed ministry so all our confidence must be in His Word and in nothing and no one else?

We find in verses 19-21 that God has a purpose in His design, not only of how salvation was accomplished at the cross, but how this message should be proclaimed. God is doing something far beyond our often-superficial comprehension of truth and salvation. God has an incredible purpose behind the how and why of ministry.

What is this purpose?

• First, Paul introduces the declaration of the purpose.

Paul quotes an Old Testament passage from Isaiah 29:14, which came from Hezekiah’s rule over Judah. The leaders of Israel, when faced with a perilous time for their nation, decided in their human wisdom to form an alliance with Egypt and to look to Pharoah for deliverance. However, God would show Hezekiah that trusting in other gods and earthly wisdom, while deceptively appealing in the eyes of the world, is never best for His people. Hezekiah realized the folly of trusting in Pharoah, and the Lord then saved. This result should have taught Judah that God’s people must trust in the Almighty’s power alone to deliver. Sadly, Judah did not learn its lesson and suffered catastrophic consequences.

Like Judah, people – even professing Christians – still replace God’s word with man’s wisdom. As with Judah, God’s express purpose is to destroy the wisdom of the wise and to nullify the understanding of those who are considered ‘discerning’ by the world’s standards. His purpose has not changed: He continues to act against and to show the foolishness of the world’s wisdom.

That truth is why it makes no sense when churches seek counsel from the world for success in ministries. The world should not be used to further God’s purpose when God’s purpose is to destroy human wisdom and nullify the understanding of the intelligent.

• Second, Paul unfolds the deconstruction of God’s purpose.

While it is quite popular today to engage in deconstructionism of the truth, Paul flips the tables in verse 20. He deconstructs the deconstructionists by asking a series of four, uniquely designed, rhetorical questions to expose the folly of the world’s wisdom so we can see its complete foolishness.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?

Paul’s first three questions all expect the answer, “Nowhere!” When we look at the world, now almost 2,000 years after these words were inspired, we should ask if we are truly better off. John MacArthur wrote, “Our advances in knowledge and technology and communication have not really advanced us. It is from among those who are intelligent and clever that the worst exploiters, deceivers, and oppressors come. We are more educated than our forefathers but we are not more moral. We have more means of helping each other, but we are not less selfish.”

Worldly wisdom has not changed man’s sinful heart, which is Paul’s point with the first three questions. For all the world’s supposed answers, there is just more loneliness, depression, alienation, isolation, and sinfulness.

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Paul’s fourth question expects an emphatic yes for an answer! The cross of Christ is the place where God made foolish the wisdom of this world. The world’s wisdom has accomplished nothing but death and destruction, but the word of the cross saves sinners from death and destruction. Those, who have seen the emptiness of the world and fled to Christ crucified for salvation, know firsthand that God has exposed the folly of the world’s wisdom through the cross and vindicated His own wisdom in the preaching of the gospel.

• Finally, Paul expounds on the delineation of God’s purpose.

In verse 21, Paul notes that the world does not come to know God through its wisdom, and this is God’s design. The world’s inability to know God through its wisdom was not outside of God’s purview and control. Rather, the world’s inability to have a relationship with God through its own wisdom was intentional on God’s part and based on His own wisdom.

Why did God design it this way? Because if human wisdom or intellect was the key to salvation, then certain people would have an advantage over others. This would lead to boasting, pride, self-exaltation, and self-promotion. In His wisdom, God designed salvation so there is nothing natural about us that gives any sinner an advantage in knowing Him.

Paul then says God was well-pleased, which means God delighted and purposed this design. Because it brought Him joy, God decided salvation would work a certain way, namely, through believing in Christ crucified after hearing the most foolish message given in the most foolish way imaginable – preaching.

Notice in verse 21, God joyfully saves through the foolishness of the message preached. Both the form of delivery and the content of the message are regarded as foolish. These terms were intentionally chosen because the apostles recognized they were not the source of wisdom or the creators of their message; they were simply heralds of God’s truth. Effective ministry, preaching, and proclamation of the gospel means clear preaching of the word of the cross.

God is well pleased to save those who hear His message delivered His way, in all its foolishness to the world, when they put their faith in Jesus Christ, who is the center of the message. God purposed to destroy the wisdom of the wise and to deconstruct the deconstructionist because God means for the gospel to humble us before Him. No one enters the kingdom of God with head held high, nor saved by their own strength, wisdom, or abilities. We are only saved when we recognize our spiritual bankruptcy, finding our only hope in the crucified Christ. We must abandon every pretension to pride and self-sufficiency, discovering our total sufficiency in Christ alone. Salvation comes through Christ’s achievement, not ours.

This truth about salvation is why any pride in ministry is a contradiction of the gospel, and any conflict that arises from rivalry is antithetical to the gospel. If we would do ministry God’s way, we must understand God’s purpose of humbling man’s pride and exalting His glorious Son by saving us who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.