Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 2:1
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
Ch. 2. The wisdom of the Gospel discernible by the spiritual faculties alone
1. And I, brethren, when I came to you ] The Apostle now begins to justify his preaching. It was not that of one skilled in the fashionable argumentation of the day, and that for the reasons already set forth.
the testimony of God ] St Paul’s testimony concerning God; the witness he gave to His combined love and justice, manifested to the world in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. See note on 1Co 1:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I, brethren – Keeping up the tender and affectionate style of address.
When I came unto you – When I came at first to preach the gospel at Corinth. Act 18:1 ff.
Came not with excellency of speech – Came not with graceful and attractive eloquence. The apostle here evidently alludes to that nice ant studied choice of language; to those gracefully formed sentences, and to that skill of arrangement in discourse and argument which was so much an object of regard with the Greek rhetoricians. It is probable that Paul was never much distinguished for these (compare 2Co 10:10), and it is certain he never made them an object of intense study and solicitude. Compare 1Co 2:4, 1Co 2:13.
Or of wisdom – Of the wisdom of this world; of that kind of wisdom which was sought and cultivated in Greece.
The testimony of God – The testimony or the witnessing which God has borne to the gospel of Christ by miracles, and by attending it everywhere with his presence and blessing. In 1Co 2:6, the gospel is called the testimony of Christ; and here it may either mean the witness which the gospel bears to the true character and plans of God; or the witnessing which God had borne to the gospel by miracles, etc. The gospel contains the testimony of God in regard to his own character and plans; especially in regard to the great plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. Several mss. instead of testimony of God, here read the mystery of God. This would accord well with the scope of the argument; but the present reading is probably the correct one. See Mill. The Syriac version has also mystery.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 2:1-5
And I, brethren, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.
The spirit or tone in which St. Paul preached
It was in–
I. A decisive tone of personal conviction. It was the testimony of God, not an opinion. He does not say, I think so, but God says so. So in Gal 1:11-12. St. Paul was no hired, official expounder of a system. He felt that his words were eternal truth: hence their power. Hence, too, arises the possibility of discarding rules of oratory. For it is half-way towards making us believe when a man believes himself. Faith produces faith.
II. A spirit of self-abnegation (verse 2). There were no side glances at his own prospects, reputation, success. And this sincerity and self-forgetfulness was a source of power. It was so with the Baptist, who declared of Christ: He must increase, but I must decrease. In any work which is to live, or be really beautiful, there must be the spirit of the Cross. That which is to be a temple to God must never have the marble polluted with the name of the architect or builder.
III. A spirit of personal lowliness (verse 3). Partly this refers to his infirmities and disadvantages; but partly, too, it means deep humility. Now, remember who it was who said this–the daring St. Paul, whose soul was all of flame, whose every word was a half-battle, who stood alone on Mars Hill, and preached to the scoffing Athenians Jesus and the Resurrection. How little they who heard his ponderous sentences could have conceived that weakness, and fear, and much trembling of the invisible spirit! But again: see how this tells on the tone of his ministry. St. Paul did not begin with asserting his prelatical dignity and apostolic authority. He began with declaring truth, and that in trembling. Then, when men disputed his right to teach, he vindicated his authority, but not till then. And this is a lesson for modern times. Each minister must prove his apostolical succession by apostolic truthfulness, sincerity, and courage–as St. Paul proved his–and by his charity, and by his Christ-like meekness. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Paul a model preacher
Look at–
I. His matter.
1. He excludes all that is foreign to his purpose.
2. Knows nothing but Christ.
II. His manner.
1. He is modest in the consciousness of his own weakness.
2. Plain in the conviction of the presence and power of the Spirit.
III. The effect.
1. Faith not in the man.
2. But in the power of God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
A faithful picture of a true gospel preacher
The grand subject, of his ministry–
I. Is the crucified Christ, because–
1. He is the highest, revelation of Gods love for men.
2. He is the most thrilling demonstration of the wickedness of humanity.
3. He is the grandest display of loyalty to moral rectitude.
II. Soul-absorbing (verse 3). The man who has some paramount sentiment looks at the universe, through it, and values it so far as it reflects and honours that sentiment. Hence to Paul Christ was all in all. All other subjects-political and philosophical–dwindled into insignificance in its presence; it swallowed up his great soul
III. Makes him indifferent to all rhetorical considerations (verse 1). The theme was infinitely too great for it. Does the splendid apple-tree in full blossom require to be decorated with gaudy ribbons? Christ crucified is mighty eloquence.
IV. Subdues in him all self-consciousness (verse 3).
V. Invests him with Divine power over man (verses 4, 5). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Christian preacher
I. His message.
1. The testimony of God.
2. Concerning Christ.
3. Divine, therefore true.
II. His method of delivering it.
1. Not artificial in style, matter, or manner.
2. But plain, simple, pointed. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Gospel preaching
Note–
1. That the proper method to convert men in any community, Christian or Pagan, is to preach or set forth the truth concerning the person and work of Christ.
2. The proper state of mind in which to preach the gospel is the opposite of self-confidence or carelessness. The gospel should be preached with a sense of weakness and with great anxiety and solicitude.
3. The success of the gospel does not depend on the skill of the preacher, but on the demonstration of the Spirit.
4. The foundation of saving faith is not reason, i.e., not arguments addressed to the understanding, but the power of God as exerted with and by the truth upon the heart. (C. Hodge.)
Preaching–fruit and flowers
At Hampton Court Palace every one regards with wonder the enormous vine loaded with so vast a multitude of huge clusters: just outside the vine-house is as fine a specimen of the wistaria, and when it is in full bloom, the cluster-like masses of bloom cause you to think it a flower-bearing vine, as the other is a fruit-bearing vine. Fit emblems these two famous trees of two ministries, both admired, but not equally to be prized–the ministry of oratory, luxuriant in metaphor and poetry, and the ministry of grace, abounding in sound teaching and soul-saving energy. Gay as are the flower-clusters of the wistaria, no one mistakes them for the luscious bunches of the grape; yet there are many simpletons in spiritual things who mistake sound for sense, and seem to satisfy their hunger not on solid meat, but on the jingle of a musical dinner-bell. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Conditions of successful preaching
If a preacher wishes to be successful he must–
1. Deny himself (verse 1) and exalt Christ (verse 2).
2. Feel himself weak (verse 3), yet strong (verse 4).
3. Ignore the human and magnify the Divine (verse 5). (J. Lyth.)
Brilliant, but not saving, sermons
Sir Astley Cooper, on visiting Paris, was asked by the surgeon en chef of the empire how many times he had performed a certain wonderful feat of surgery. He replied that he had performed the operation thirteen times. Ah, but, monsieur, I have done him one hundred and sixty times. How many times did you save his life? continued the curious Frenchmen, after he had looked into the blank amazement of Sir Astleys face. I, said the Englishman, saved eleven out of the thirteen. How many did you save out of one hundred and sixty? Ah, monsieur, I lose dem all; but de operation was very brilliant. Of how many popular ministries might: the same verdict be given! Souls are not saved, but the preaching is very brilliant. Thousands are attracted and operated on by the rhetoricians art, but what if he should have to say of his admirers, I lose them all, but the sermons were very brilliant!(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The messenger like the message
1. As the gospel is the foolish thing of God, so the apostle had no wisdom or utterance of his own (verses 1, 2).
2. As the gospel is the weak thing of God, so the apostle came to Corinth in weakness, fear, and trembling (verse 3). But as Christ is the power and wisdom of the gospel, so the Spirit is the power and wisdom of the ministry (verse 4).
3. As the gospel is the mystery of God, and therefore a Divine power, so the ministry is a Divine power, and therefore the manifestation of Divine wisdom. (Principal Edwards.)
The Divine testimony, and the apostles responsibility in relation to it
Consider–
I. The theme. The testimony of God, which has to do with Jesus Christ and Him crucified(verse 2). The declaration of this theme, in all its manifold relations and aspects, is the preaching of the gospel. The gospel is characterised by–
1. Wisdom (verse 6). Perfection of moral character is seen only in the character of Jesus Christ.
2. Hidden wisdom.
3. Ancient wisdom. Ordained before the world.
4. Glorifying wisdom. Ordained unto our glory.
II. The declaration (verse 1) was–
1. Simple in its character. Not with excellency of speech–not with enticing words of mans wisdom.
2. Convincing in its arguments. It was in demonstration of the Spirit.
3. Powerful in its effects (verse 5).
4. Of exclusive importance (verse 2). (The Study.)
Faith, not intellect
A friend said to Archbishop Whately on his death-bed: The Lord has heard your prayers and preserved your intellect unimpaired. He replied: It is not intellect which can avail me now, but faith in Christ Jesus.
Rhetorical preaching
In ascending the lofty peaks of the Jungfrau and Monte Rosa, the guides, I have read, not unfrequently resort to the innocent artifice of endeavouring to interest the traveller in the beauty of the flowers in order to distract his attention from the fearful abysses which the giddy path overhangs. What the Alpine guides thus innocently do, we preachers are often tempted to do not so innocently. We are prone so to occupy our hearers with the graces of composition and the flowers of rhetoric that they are in danger of altogether forgetting that there is a dread abyss beside them, and that there is but a step between them and death. (J. Halsey.)
The spirit of successful preaching
The Rev. Dr. McAll, founder and superintendent of the remarkable mission in Paris and other parts of France which bears his name, was the son of the celebrated Robert S. McAll, LL. D., of Manchester, some of whose sermons are justly ranked amongst the noblest productions of pulpit literature. His ministry was powerfully influenced by what he considered to be the failure of his fathers ministry. He tells how he had repeatedly seen his father weep because, while so much run after and admired on account of his eloquence, so little spiritual good seemed to be done, and there were scarcely any conversions. Warned by this example, he determined, he says, to throw overboard excellency of speech and of wisdom and to strike direct for the heart and conscience of the unconverted, in the hope of saving many.
The right kind of preaching
Mr. Spurgeon uttered words-in one of his prayer-meeting addresses which speak volumes as to the secret of his successful ministry: I think I can honestly say that when I have had something come to me rather fine–a nice, rare oratorical bit, and I think I could do it–I think if I tried I might say something very fine–I have pulled it out of my mouth and flung it away that I might not take away the attention of any hearer from Christ crucified. Here is a sword. But, says one, it has not a handsome scabbard. No; we pull that off. We throw that to some old rag and bone dealer. We use nothing but the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ. When that does not save men, men shall be lost. We know nothing equal to it for the keenness of its edge; for the force with which it slays. It is a strange sword. With its edge it kills, and with its back it heals.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER II.
The apostle makes an apology for his manner of preaching, 1.
And gives the reason why he adopted that manner, 2-5.
He shows that this preaching, notwithstanding it was not with
excellence of human speech or wisdom, yet was the mysterious
wisdom of God, which the princes of this world did not know,
and which the Spirit of God alone could reveal, 6-10.
It is the Spirit of God only that can reveal the things of God,
11.
The apostles of Christ know the things of God by the Spirit of
God, and teach them, not in the words of man’s wisdom, but in
the words of that Spirit, 12, 13.
The natural man cannot discern the things of the Spirit, 14.
But the spiritual man can discern and teach them, because he
has the mind of Christ, 15, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. II.
Verse 1. When I came to you] Acting suitably to my mission, which was to preach the Gospel, but not with human eloquence, 1Co 1:17. I declared to you the testimony, the Gospel, of God, not with excellency of speech, not with arts of rhetoric, used by your own philosophers, where the excellence of the speech recommends the matter, and compensates for the want of solidity and truth: on the contrary, the testimony concerning Christ and his salvation is so supremely excellent, as to dignify any kind of language by which it may be conveyed. See the Introduction, sect. ii.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It should seem by the apostles so often declaring against that vanity, that even that age much admired a style, and ministers in sacred things delivering their minds, not in a mere decent, but in a lofty, high-flown phrase; and that they vilified St. Paul, because his phrase did not so tickle their ears. The apostle had declared against this, 1Co 1:17; there he called it the wisdom of words; here he calls it an excellency of speech: 1Co 1:4, the enticing words of mans wisdom: 1Co 4:19, the speech of them which are puffed up; puffed up with conceits of their own parts and abilities. St. Paul declares, that this was not his way of preaching, he came to declare to them the gospel, which he calleth the testimony of God: this needed no fine words, and excellent phrase and language, to set it forth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. And I“So I”[CONYBEARE] as one of the”foolish, weak, and despised” instruments employed by God(1Co 1:27; 1Co 1:28);”glorying in the Lord,” not in man’s wisdom (1Co1:31). Compare 1Co 1:23,”We.”
when I came (Ac18:1, c.). Paul might, had he pleased, have used an ornate style,having studied secular learning at Tarsus of Cilicia, which STRABOpreferred as a school of learning to Athens or Alexandria here,doubtless, he read the Cilician Aratus’ poems (which hequotes, Ac 17:28), andEpimenides (Tit 1:12), andMenander (1Co 15:33). Grecianintellectual development was an important element in preparing theway for the Gospel, but it failed to regenerate the world, showingthat for this a superhuman power is needed. Hellenistic (Grecizing)Judaism at Tarsus and Alexandria was the connecting link between theschools of Athens and those of the Rabbis. No more fitting birthplacecould there have been for the apostle of the Gentiles than Tarsus,free as it was from the warping influences of Rome, Alexandria, andAthens. He had at the same time Roman citizenship, whichprotected him from sudden violence. Again, he was reared in theHebrew divine law at Jerusalem. Thus, as the three elements,Greek cultivation, Roman polity (Lu2:1), and the divine law given to the Jews, combined just atChrist’s time, to prepare the world for the Gospel, so the samethree, by God’s marvellous providence, met together in the apostle tothe Gentiles [CONYBEAREand HOWSON].
testimony of God“thetestimony of Christ” (1Co1:6); therefore Christ is God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I, brethren, when I came to you,…. This account the apostle gives of himself is occasioned, either by what he had said in the latter part of the preceding chapter, concerning the choice God has made of the foolish, weak, base, and despicable things of the world, and of his calling them by his grace both to fellowship with the saints in common, and therefore he accommodated his ministry unto them, and in particular to the ministry of the word, of which he himself was a like instance and an example; or else by what he had declared in 1Co 1:17 of the same chapter, that he was sent to preach the Gospel,
not with wisdom of words; which he here reassumes, and affirms agreeably, that when he first came to Corinth, he
came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom; for though he was not only versed in Jewish learning, being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; but had also a good share of Grecian literature, and was capable, upon proper occasions, to cite the Greek poets, as he does Aratus, Ac 17:28 and Menander, Tit 1:12 and so could, had he thought fit, have adorned his discourses with pompous language, with the flowers of rhetoric, and the eloquence of the Grecians; yet he chose not such a high and florid style, and which savoured so much of human wisdom and art; for the subject he treated of required no such dress, nor any great swelling words of vanity, or a bombast style to set it off, and gain the applause and assent of men: for what he delivered were plain matters of fact, attested by God himself,
declaring unto you the testimony of God; that is, the Gospel, which bears a testimony to the love, grace, and mercy of God, his kindness and good will to the sons of men, in giving and sending his only begotten Son to be the Saviour and Redeemer of them; and in which God bears a testimony of his Son, of his sonship, deity, mediation, incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death, of his resurrection, ascension to heaven, session at his right hand, intercession for his people, and his second coming to judgment, and of eternal life and salvation by him. All which being matter of fact, and depending upon the witness of God, which is greater than that of men, needed no art nor oratory of men to recommend it: it was enough in plain words, and easy language, to declare it, with the evidence by which it was supported. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read, “the mystery” of God: and so the Syriac version
, “the mystery of God” one of Stephens’s copies reads, “the mystery of Christ”; and the Vulgate Latin version, “the testimony of Christ”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Apostle’s Ministry. | A. D. 57. |
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
In this passage the apostle pursues his design, and reminds the Corinthians how he acted when he first preached the gospel among them.
I. As to the matter or subject he tell us (v. 2), He determined to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and him crucified–to make a show of no other knowledge than this, to preach nothing, to discover the knowledge of nothing, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Note, Christ, in his person and offices, is the sum and substance of the gospel, and ought to be the great subject of a gospel minister’s preaching. His business is to display the banner of the cross, and invite people under it. Anyone that heard Paul preach found him to harp so continually on this string that he would say he knew nothing but Christ and him crucified. Whatever other knowledge he had, this was the only knowledge he discovered, and showed himself concerned to propagate among his hearers.
II. The manner wherein he preached Christ is here also observable. 1. Negatively. He came not among them with excellency of speech or wisdom, v. 1. His speech and preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, v. 4. He did not affect to appear a fine orator or a deep philosopher; nor did he insinuate himself into their minds, by a flourish of words, or a pompous show of deep reason and extraordinary science and skill. He did not set himself to captivate the ear by fine turns and eloquent expressions, nor to please and entertain the fancy with lofty flights of sublime notions. Neither his speech, nor the wisdom he taught, savoured of human skill: he learnt both in another school. Divine wisdom needed not to be set off with such human ornaments. 2. Positively. He came among them declaring the testimony of God, v. 1. He published a divine revelation, and gave in sufficient vouchers for the authority of it, both by its consonancy to ancient predictions and by present miraculous operations; and there he left the matter. Ornaments of speech and philosophical skill and argument could add no weight to what came recommended by such authority. He was also among them in weakness and fear, and in much trembling; and yet his speech and preaching were in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,1Co 2:3; 1Co 2:4. His enemies in the church of Corinth spoke very contemptuously of him: His bodily presence, say they, is weak, and his speech contemptible, 2 Cor. x. 10. Possibly he had a little body, and a low voice; but, though he had not so good an elocution as some, it is plain that he was no mean speaker. The men of Lystra looked on him to be the heathen god Mercury, come down to them in the form of a man, because he was the chief speaker, Acts xiv. 12. Nor did he want courage nor resolution to go through his work; he was in nothing terrified by his adversaries. Yet he was no boaster. He did not proudly vaunt himself, like his opposers. He acted in his office with much modesty, concern, and care. He behaved with great humility among them; not as one grown vain with the honour and authority conferred on him, but as one concerned to approve himself faithful, and fearful of himself, lest he should mismanage in his trust. Observe, None know the fear and trembling of faithful ministers, who are zealous over souls with a godly jealousy; and a deep sense of their own weakness is the occasion of this fear and trembling. They know how insufficient they are, and are therefore fearful for themselves. But, though Paul managed with this modesty and concern, yet he spoke with authority: In the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. He preached the truths of Christ in their native dress, with plainness of speech. He laid down the doctrine as the Spirit delivered it; and left the Spirit, by his external operation in signs and miracles, and his internal influences on the hearts of men, to demonstrate the truth of it, and procure its reception.
III. Here is the end mentioned for which he preached Christ crucified in this manner: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but the power of God (v. 5)– that they might not be drawn by human motives, nor overcome by mere human arguments, lest it should be said that either rhetoric or logic had made them Christians. But, when nothing but Christ crucified was plainly preached, the success must be founded, not on human wisdom, but divine evidence and operation. The gospel was so preached that God might appear and be glorified in all.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Not with excellency of speech or of wisdom ( ‘ ). H is an old word from the verb (Php 4:7) and means preeminence, rising above. In N.T. only here and 1Ti 2:2 of magistrates. It occurs in inscriptions of Pergamum for persons of position (Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 255). Here it means excess or superfluity, “not in excellence of rhetorical display or of philosophical subtlety” (Lightfoot).
The mystery of God ( ). So Aleph A C Copt. like 2:7, but B D L P read like 1:6. Probably
mystery is correct. Christ crucified is the mystery of God (Col 2:2). Paul did not hesitate to appropriate this word in common use among the mystery religions, but he puts into it his ideas, not those in current use. It is an old word from , to close, to shut, to initiate (Php 4:12). This mystery was once hidden from the ages (Col 1:26), but is now made plain in Christ (1Cor 2:7; Rom 16:25). The papyri give many illustrations of the use of the word for secret doctrines known only to the initiated (Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
With excellency [ ] . Lit., according to elevation or superiority. The noun occurs only here and 1Ti 2:2, where it is rendered authority. The phrase expresses the mode of his preaching. For similar adverbial phrases, see kaq uJperbolhn exceedingly or according to excess, Rom 8:13; kata kratov mightily or according to might, Act 19:20. Construe with declaring.
Declaring [] . Rev., proclaiming. See on 1Jo 1:5; Act 17:23. Authoritative proclamation is implied. The word is found only in the Acts and in Paul.
Testimony [] . Some of the best texts read musthrion mystery. So Rev. See on Rom 11:25.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And I, brethren,” (Greek kago adelphoi) “and brethren” or “beloved ones” – This is a personal, intimate, direct address and approach to the Corinth church members and other churches to whom the circulatory letter was addressed.
2) “When I came to you.” (Greek elthon pros humos) “Coming to or approaching you all of my own accord,” (or when I came.)
3) “Came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.” (Greek elthon ou kath huperchen logou he sophias) I came not according to excellence of language or of wisdom,” (of this world order.)
4) “Declaring unto you the testimony of God.” (Greek katangelon humin) “announcing or declaring to you all” (Greek to marturion) “the testimony of God.” Note, while the Corinthian brethren had been contentious about the speech, wisdom, and personalities of Paul, Cephas, Apollos, and Christ, Paul would have them to understand the motives of true men of God were to declare the gospel of God in Christ, by Divine wisdom and help, not by human cunning, art, or wisdom apart from God.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And I, when I came Paul having begun to speak of his own method of teaching, had straightway fallen into a discussion as to the nature of gospel preaching generally. Now again he returns to speak of himself, to show that nothing in him was despised but what belonged to the nature of the gospel itself, and did in a manner adhere to it. He allows therefore that he had not had any of the aids of human eloquence or wisdom to qualify him for producing any effect, but while he acknowledges himself to be destitute of such resources, he hints at the inference to be drawn from this — that the power of God shone the more illustriously in his ministry, from its standing in no need of such helps. This latter idea, however, he will be found bringing forward shortly afterwards. For the present he simply grants that he has nothing of human wisdom, and in the meantime reserves to himself this much — that he published the testimony of God Some interpreters, indeed, explain the testimony of God in a passive sense; but as for myself, I have no doubt that another interpretation is more in accordance with the Apostle’s design, so that the testimony of God is that which has come forth from God — the doctrine of the gospel, of which he is the author and witness. He now distinguishes between speech and wisdom ( λόγον ἀπὸ τὢς σοφίας.) Hence what I noticed before (103) is here confirmed — that hitherto he has not been speaking of mere empty prattling, but has included the entire training of human learning.
(103) Calvin refers to what he had said when commenting on an expression which occurs in 1Co 1:17 — not with wisdom of words.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
(For many points, see Homiletic Analysis.)
1Co. 2:1. I.Slightly emphatic; q.d. I was myself also in complete harmony of spirit and method with the lines of Gods procedure (as set out in 1Co. 1:17-31). This verse takes up the personal thread from 1Co. 1:17. Speech.Lit. word. Compare with 1Co. 1:18, 1Co. 4:20, inter alia. Proclaiming.No more; that is his function, simple and restricted. Testimony.Notice the striking and influentially supported reading mystery, which, if accepted, is a thoroughly Pauline thought. Retaining testimony, then preaching is not theorising, speculation, imagination; not what we fancy, or our heart says must be; but the testimony of God. Not even our systematised deductions from the Word, unless these can be shown to be the testimony of God. To this the heart responds; cf. 1Th. 1:5.
1Co. 2:2. And that Jesus Christ as crucified; an additional restriction imposed upon himself, knowing well all the while that it would be an additional difficulty to the reason and heart of man. (In strict grammar the not belongs to determined, and not to know.)
1Co. 2:3.Not to be illustrated by the A.V. of Act. 18:5, which, with the true reading, means was under a sacred pressure that made him give himself more earnestly than ever to the preaching of the Word. The weakness was ethical, not physical (Evans). So Ellicott. But Beet, Any kind of inability, including bodily weakness caused by sickness. He adds, however, This sense is suggested in Gal. 4:13. But there is no hint of it here. This is too strong. Stanley sees allusion to 2Co. 10:10; 2Co. 11:30; 2Co. 12:5; 2Co. 12:9-10. Should we not add 2Co. 12:7-9? Also, does it do honour to the promise of Mat. 10:19which surely extends beyond any mere case of forensic apologyto speak as if the address at Athens were a mistake in topic and form, and had sent Paul to Corinth burdened with a sense of failure? The Apostle preached Jesus at Athens, as well as at Corinth, Act. 17:18 (Ellicott). Certainly in preaching there the Resurrection he had not sought to conciliate human reason. It is not suggesting anything unworthy of Paul to notice that the special vision vouchsafed to him by Christ (Act. 18:9-10) was the Lords assistance of His servant in the face of such blasphemy and opposition, as might well fill him with fear and trembling whether he should be adequate to the demand of the work in Corinth, in the face of all its difficulties. Cf. 2Co. 7:5.
1Co. 2:4. Preaching.The matter, not the act, of preaching, as in 1Co. 1:21, which means not the method, preaching, but the matter, the thing preached. Enticing.Persuasive, seeking by argument to gain the assent of the intellect, and by rhetoric the suffrages of the heart. Demonstration of the Spirit.See Separate Homily. The Holy Spirit. Choose between, (a) The miracles wrought by the power of God through the agency of the Holy Spirit (e.g. Beet, with Origen); and (b) The conviction of the truth, wrought through my plain preaching of the Cross in the hearts of my hearers, whose spirit was touched by the Holy Spirit (e.g. Evans or Ellicott). Choose (b), and compare the words of Longinus, that paul of Tarsus was the first who maintained positive assertion without elaborate proof. See how the method of mere positive assertion, accompanied by the power of the Spirit, carried conviction at Pentecost [well expounding Joh. 16:8-11]. (a) narrows down to the special method for a few Churches in one century, a Divine method applicable, and exemplified, and vindicated, universally.
1Co. 2:5.Gods wisdom and power are together in 1Co. 1:24.
1Co. 2:6. Perfect.In (the customary Pauline) opposition to babes (1Co. 3:1). Evans says: No contrast here at all between Reason and Revelation, as some think, but between the philosophy of God and the philosophy of the world. [But this runs up into that between Reason and Revelation.] It is not true that Christianity, in setting forth the bare argument of the Cross unto the salvation of believers, has no interior philosophy of its own for the few receptive of it. But observe that a contrast is [also] indicated between the deeper truths or higher wisdom of Christianity and the rudimentary lessons of it. This second contrast brings to view two corresponding classes of believers, the full-grown and the infants; and, in addition to this, two corresponding modes of instruction. In fact, the Apostle had hitherto preached to his hearers in Corinth such broad facts of the scheme of Redemption as were level to their low apprehension; he had not dared to spread before them the treasures of the higher wisdom meet only for the perfect; to such pearls they in their crude state would have been swine. [But this latter part is rather exegetical of 1Co. 3:1 than of our verse.] Princes of this world.Evans: The leading men of the Jews and of the Greeks, the Gentile potentates, including Hellenic philosophers and Hebrew doctors. Such come to nought; these luminaries with their vain lamps pale and go out before the day-star of Truth when it dawns from on high. That gradual nullification of all real and enduring potency on their part which was brought about by the Gospel (Ellicott). Any reference to Eph. 6:12 can only be remote; these rulers did not, in any sense germane to Pauls argument, crucify Christ (1Co. 2:8).
1Co. 2:7.Connect, not we speak in a mystery, but Gods wisdom in (couched in [Evans]) a mystery. Our glory.All have come short of (Rom. 3:23), but in Christ we now rejoice again in hope of, the glory of God (Rom. 5:2). Christ is the Lord of the glory in 1Co. 2:7. It is His to give to all for whom it is prepared (Mat. 20:23). Christ in us is the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). See His prayer (Joh. 17:22; Joh. 17:24). Our glory, then, is our whole recovered estate, as redeemed and saved through Christ; seen in a life of grace, and of holy fellowship with God here as His children (1Jn. 3:1); broadening into the life of glory in heaven. The recovered image of God is the glory of human nature, as God meant manhood to be.
1Co. 2:9.Note the more exact rendering in Quoted, somewhat ad sensum, from LXX. of Isa. 64:4, with perhaps some influence of Isa. 52:15 and Isa. 65:17. What God does for His people in such national and temporal deliverances as were in the view of the prophet, is done on the same lines as all His dealings of every kind with and for them. They are always beyond their expectation and hope. He shames their faith as often as their fears. The waiting is the waiting of love; full, therefore, of faith and patient trust. Also the unloving heart waits in vain, if it wait at all. It can see and know and receive nothing of all these prepared things. Note prepared (R.V.), carrying back thought to the original plan of God.
1Co. 2:10. (Hath) revealed them to us by His Spirit.Makes it quite certain that, however true in such a connection the mere words may be, Paul is not thinking in 1Co. 2:9 of heaven. Heaven, moreover, is not one of those things internal, so to speak, to the being of God which the Spirit searches.
1Co. 2:11.The analogy is not a perfect one; but notice how like God man is: made in the image of Gods self-conscious personality.
1Co. 2:12. World.Here ; in 1Co. 2:6-8, . Liddon, Bampton Lectures, v., note, as to , quotes from Bishop Martensen: If we consider the effect of the Fall upon the course of historical development, not only in the case of individuals but of the race collectively, the term world bears a special meaning different from that which it would have were the development of humanity normal. The cosmical principle having been emancipated by the Fall from its due subjection to the Spirit, and invested with a false independence, and the universe of creation having obtained with man a higher importance than really attaches to it, the historical development of the world has become one in which the advance of the kingdom of God is retarded and hindered. The created universe has, in a relative sense, life in itself, including, as it does, a system of powers, ideas, and aims which possess a relative power. This relative independence, which ought to be subservient to the kingdom of God, has become a fallen world-autonomy. Hence arises the Scriptural expression this world. By this expression the Bible conveys the idea that it regards the world not only ontologically, but in its definite and actual state, the state in which it has been since the Fall. This world means the world content with itself, in its own independence, its own glory; the world which disowns its dependence on God as its Creator. This world regards itself not as the creature (), but only as the , as a system of glory and beauty which has life in itself, and can give life. The historical embodiment of this world is heathendom, which honoureth not God as God. [For the distinction between world and age, see chap. 5, D, of Homiletic Analysis, Appended Note.] In the prevalent reading two words are used for knoweth here, perhaps slightly distinguished (Stanley), as in Joh. 21:16-17. See 2Co. 5:16. Freely given.One word; germ of the thought afterward expanded so largely in Rom. 5:15 sqq. Note in 1Co. 2:10-13 the order: The Spirit searches in God, what then He brings and imparts, along with Himself, to us; and then next speaks out to others through us; again finding acceptance for them in their case by His own demonstration and power. First and last, and at each intermediate, point it is all the Spirit! Gods thoughts, as the Spirit discloses them, spoken in the Spirits words!
1Co. 2:13. Spiritual with spiritual.Exposition, not Grammar, must decide here between, (a) Comparing [combining (R.V: margin), matching (Evans)] spiritual things with spiritual things, and (b) Interpreting spiritual things by spiritual things, or (c) Interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men. (a) and (b) approximate. Stanley supports interpreting by the usage of the LXX. in Gen. 40:8; Gen. 40:16; Gen. 41:15; Dan. 5:12; Dan. 5:15; Dan. 5:26. Evans supports matching by 2Co. 10:12; and also prefers matching spiritual truths with spiritual minds, which suits well 1Co. 2:6; 1Co. 2:14. In reality the sentence is almost gnomic in form and fulness of application. (a) is only a special case of (a); the comparing of (a) may be for the purpose of the interpreting in (b). [We are reminded of the loud exclamation of the minister in the early Church, just previous to the consecration of the bread and wine at the Lords Supper, . Holy (things) to holy (persons)! In like manner there are spiritual things which can only congruously go with spiritual words, or things, or persons.]
1Co. 2:14. Discerned.Lit. examined; same word as in 1Co. 9:3; as if the natural man questioned the spiritual thing; but it would not yield up to him its secret (Gen. 32:29; Jdg. 13:18; Isa. 9:6). So in 1Co. 2:15; 1Co. 4:3-4. Cognate word also with that for comparing, 1Co. 2:13.
1Co. 2:15.Ellicott gives, as examples of these spiritual judgments, the wise, clear, far-reaching decisions in 1Co. 6:1-4, 1Co. 7:1 sqq., 1Co. 7:20 sq., 1Co. 9:3 sq., 1Co. 14:34 sq., 1Co. 14:6 sq.
1Co. 2:16.LXX. in Isa. 40:13, here quoted, uses mind () for Spirit (ruach in Heb.). Paul follows what serves his purpose, with perfect fidelity to the truth of the matter discussed. Mind.Not at all in the vague, loose sense of character, or temper, or disposition. We know, the knowledge is in our possession, what God in Christ designs and desires for His people; we are taken by the Spirit into the deeps of His redeeming thought toward our race. [In the same way spirit is never in New Testament used for characteristic temper, or style, or prevailing idea. 1Co. 2:12, e.g., means almost certainly a personal spirit.]
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.Whole Chapter
A contrast runs throughout. I. There are two types of men.Natural, spiritual. And so
II. There are two worlds of facts; one being the things of God. Correspondent to these there are
III. Two ways of getting to know; one being by the demonstration of the Spirit. And further there are in close parallel
IV. Two ways of preaching the Gospel.
I. Natural men and spiritual men.
1. The former word is suitably, truly, descriptive. In any extreme development of the type, they are men as men are by nature; they are what men might have been, what men do again become, apart from the free gift of the grace of the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). The unregenerate life, and the backsliders life after regeneration, tend to revert to type. In fallen human nature, per se, dwelled no good thing (Rom. 7:18). There is not actually found the unrelieved blackness and darkness of mere human nature, but all modifying goodness and light are grace, not nature. Perhaps noble men, but natural.
2. But natural is not the equivalent of Pauls word. Nor is carnal in, e.g., 1Co. 3:1, though it is with equal truth descriptive, and is set in equally strong contrast with spiritual men.
3. His word is Judes word, where we have sensual (Jud. 1:19), expounded as equivalent to, or at least consequent upon, their not having the Spirit. James, too, designates by it the wisdom of the natural man (Jas. 3:15; sensual).
4. The word, like that for spiritual, is one of a pair of correlates of soul and spirit. [1Th. 5:23; but also consistently distinguished by Paul throughout his terminology of human nature; and, whatever be the nature and value of the distinctiona very difficult questionit is one preserved and observed in Old Testament Hebrew as consistently as in New Testament Greek.] As Paul observed men, a deep cleavage separates them into two sharply definite classes. The cleavage begins with the opposition between soul and spirit, but runs through all the life of men. [It is coincident with the line which parts them that are perishing from them that are being saved (e.g. 2Co. 2:15). The line lies between those out of Christ and those in Christ; between those who are the world in John, and in his Masters terminology, and those born again. Soulish has been proposed as an equivalent for Pauls description; or animal, but this is in many cases misleading; animal-souled is a compromise, fairly acceptable and useful.] It should be noted that the underlying opposition is not between the Spirit of God and the soul in man, but between the human spirit and the soul in man. [Though the spirit of man is so constantly dealt with as under the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, and the two are so nearly allied, that in fact, and in the exegesis of particular passages, it is often hard to keep them apart.]
5. Some natural men live a really animal life. To satisfy the bodys need of food and sleep, to gratify its passions, seems all their life. What they know naturally as brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves (Jud. 1:10). There are many of a higher type, in whom is much that is loving and lovable; they are tender, affectionate parents, firm friends, faithful servants, good masters; in business diligent, honest, honourable. In many the powers of mind are cultured to a high degree, [though it is the witness of fact, in ancient and modern culture, how the highest cultivation of the intellect and the tastes may coexist with utter selfishness, and even with the crudest sensuality]; the mind is well furnished, and the tastes are refined to an extreme of delicacy. Yet there might almost be no God and no Godward side to their own nature, for anything that appears in life, or motive, or principle. At their best they are highly developed types of the uttermost of which body plus soul is capable, save that personality still remains, a trait of Gods image not altogether lost.
6. The spiritual man may be of very humble origin and station, he may be only scantily educated, but in Him the spirit is awakened and dominant. [Language cannot be very exact on this topic, but] it is as though there were a something in him akin to God who is a Spirit, a something capable of looking God in the face, and knowing and being known; susceptible of, responsive to, the activities of the personal Spirit of God; and this no longer, as it were, dormant, overlaid, buried, or only awake to struggle in vain against the dominance of the soul. The quickened spirit and its powers are now the potent factor in a life which is thus made new. Take all of which man is capable apart from the distinctive work of the Spirit of God, and develop it to the highest degree, the man remains a natural man. Awaken the spirit, ennoble it, enthrone it as supreme, by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, andculture or no culture in the ordinary senseyou have the life, higher or lower, of the spiritual man, often with a very real culture due to the supremacy of his Godward life. [Cf. pp. 49, 51, antea.]
7. On one side of his line of cleavage Paul ranges princes of this world, on the other perfect men in the Church. Princes; for an early current understanding of Psalms 2 saw it fulfilled when Herod and Pontius Pilate, and their helpers, gathered themselves together against the Anointed One of God, the Lord of glory (Act. 4:24-27). Yet these are only representatives of other princes, intellectual, social, financial, literary, the leaders of fashions of thought and speech and opinions and morals; often more really than the titular and hereditary ones the rulers of the life of this world of natural men; the men who make their age, just because they are of the age, neither behind it, nor too violently and extremely in advance of it to make it march with their step and dance while they pipe. Great men; and yet less than the men whose measure and whose outlook is adjusted to the scale of a larger on, the eternal, already ever around and with us, and yet to come. They are of the age, and according to its pattern, and measure, and mind, only. They, and it, and their wisdom, all vanish and come to nought together.
8. The perfect men are the large men; the menno longer babes, but arrived at, or fast approaching, the prime of moral manhood, in its stature and its trained and experienced capacities. The very princes have but a maimed humanity; the dormant, dead, forgotten spirit is an integral part of human nature. Human nature is an incomplete, lop-sided thing if the spirit be undeveloped. These princes may, Saul-like, overtop by a head or more, the average of their world, but their feet stand on its level.
9. The perfect are only comparatively so. There is no absolute perfection save in God, and to it He does not make progress; He has never had less than perfection in its absolute measure. The perfection of the creature, and even of the new creation (2Co. 5:17), is relative, always becoming, never reaching finality. To a creaturely perfection which could not grow into a higher perfection the next stage would be Death. Still, the contrast is so great and so definite, between the childhood of the spiritual man and his adult manhood, that this latter is regarded as a distinct perfection, already reached by the men of whom Paul thinks. The man who has reached his physical majority does not, in many senses, cease to grow still, to the last. In the spiritual life there is no last; the growth of the perfect goes on in glory. The princes are all natural men, some of them being the best specimens of these. The perfect are all spiritual men, with a new life and its equipment of new faculties, and with the knowledge of a new world correlative to these.
II. Two worlds of facts corresponding to the two types of men.Spirituals match with spirituals, as Evans renders 1Co. 2:13. (See Critical Notes.) Natural men in like manner match with, and are themselves examples of, the things of a natural world. The cleavage extends here also. The one world is that of the things of the Spirit of God (1Co. 2:14). [Note how these are not exactly the same as the things of God, the deep things of God. These are mainly the purposes and designs and the facts of the very Being of God. They are paralleled with the things of a man. If the thing may be said, they are the world within the Self of God; in some degree analogous to the world within the self of a man, which unless the man please to disclose it, no other man can know. As a man can, so God can keep Himself a Secret, unknown, unknowable, except to His own Spirit, which searcheth all things, even the deep things of God (1Co. 2:10-11); His inscrutable Being, the counsels and purposes of the Divine mind and heart.] These things of the Spirit of God are a world revealable and knowable. They are, in part, knowledge and blessedness prepared for those that love God. [So Paul gives the sense, gladly availing himself of the words of the LXX. in Isa. 64:4.] They have beeneven Gospel privileges and a hope for Gentilesa mystery (1Co. 2:7). They had been the secrets of Gods mind and heart towards mankind; long concealed, or only revealed gradually, as God had spoken in many portions and many manners to the fathers (Heb. 1:1): but now the time has come for the veil fully to be drawn back. The secret may at last be told, the mystery be a mystery no longer; the blessings may be given and may be enjoyed. God designs that they shall; they have been all along, before the world, ordained unto the glory of the initiated ones, the illuminati (? Heb. 6:4), the perfect, that love God. They now cry, O how great is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee! (Psa. 31:19). And it is not only goodness but wisdom which moves their adoring, grateful wonder to a praise that becomes more and more fervent, with the growing disclosures and the larger impartations and enjoyments of this new world of the things of the Spirit of God. And when at last the correspondence between the spiritual man and his spiritual environment is complete; when his body is a spiritual body (1Co. 15:44), lending itself as a perfect organ and vehicle to a life ruled by the spirit in him; when his world is wholly that of God and spiritual thingsHeaven; then his word will be, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God! [Rom. 11:33; where note, too, the quotation of Isa. 40:13, which also appears, in the same connection, in our chapter (1Co. 2:16). We are on one of the familiar heart-tracks of Pauls meditations, and pass the same landmarks of Scripture quotation and of inspired speculation.] There is a wisdom of this world, but it is of no avail here. These things are reserved for those that love God. It is not, either here or in Rom. 8:28, any favouritism towards His children, which reserves exclusively to them the knowledge and enjoyment of the world of things spiritual. If all things work together for those only who love God, and if the things unseen by natural eye, unheard by natural organ, unthought of and undesired by the natural heart, are also the heritage of these alone, it is no arbitrary narrowing of the range of availableness and privilege. Just as in the closely connected declaration of John (1Jn. 3:2), It doth not yet appear what we shall be, there is no arbitrary concealment. In that case it is simple impossibility which bars the way to disclosure and knowledge; the earthly life presents so few analogies to the heavenly, that it gives no terms into which to translate the heavenly into earthly language or thought, or intelligibly to express to us any but the barest information about that life. [The Father, like the Son, had rather tell than conceal all that may help His children (Joh. 14:2).] In this case it is because only love is capable of knowing; such love in the Spirit (Col. 1:8) as binds God and His spiritual ones together. Even the little children know the Father (1Jn. 2:13). But the fulness of the wisdom is only for the ears, or the knowledge and experience, of the up-grown childrenthe perfect. Two great facts of this spiritual world, thus sealed to the natural man and his best-trained faculties, are the Lord of glory and the spiritual man. In Johns words again, The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not (1Jn. 3:1). The inability to know us is not only parallel to the inability to know Him; it is the consequence of that inability. God reveals His Son in the soul (Gal. 1:16); He is the central Fact of the new world, and, He once known, all else becomes clear. In an ignorance that was condemning, but still in ignorance, they slew, as Paul had himself once persecuted, the Lord of glory (Act. 3:17; 1Ti. 1:13). How shall any man call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit? (1Co. 12:3). He is unknown even to those natural men who write, some of them, Lives of Jesus, and very confidently estimate His position in the history of mankind, and amongst the religious teachers of the race; or His personal character; or the originality of His teaching; and the like; pronouncing the most confident verdicts, to which nobody listens with more amusement than does the man who really knows the Lord of glory as his Saviour and Friend and Life. [The friend, the brother, who has lived with a man for years, smiles at the biography and portrait done by a stranger.] The spiritual man himself also is a fact outside the knowledge of the natural man. They may live together in every-day, close, intercourse, but impervious spirit to spirit, the spiritual man quite an inexplicable person to the natural; they may have many topics and interests in common, yet they are in different worlds. The spiritual man knows all things,the natural man amongst the rest; but no man naturally knows him. The analogies of the natural world are true in their suggestions here,the higher always understands the lower, but the lower cannot know the higher. The poet understands what it must be to have no poetry, but the man devoid of a sense for poetry does not understand the poet. The educated man can understand the uneducated, but the uneducated cannot understand him. Breadth understands narrowness, but narrowness cannot comprehend what it is to be broad. [In the railway-cars there is passage from first-class to third-class, but not from third into first.] The father understands the child; the child does not understand the man. The man understands how many limitations narrow the life of the brutes; they do not even know how many possibilities the man has. The spiritual man understands the world he has quitted, the natural life he has left behindhe was natural himself once; the natural man cannot read him in return. The sources of his life; his enjoyments; his motives, even when doing what is outwardly what they themselves do,all these are a life hid, as Christ is hidden, hidden in God (Col. 3:3), from the natural man. Different worlds! Hence
III. Two kinds of knowledge.
1. He who is of the world may know its wisdom. If he be one of its princes, then his cultivated talents, his advantages of position, his friendships, his library, his industry, his money, may enable him to master it all fully. There are practical limitations to encyclopdic knowledge; but there is no necessary and inevitable barrier between a prince of this world and all the wisdom of this world. Indeed, are we to go further? To do so is not in the direction or temper of our time and its thought; even the religious thought of our age tends to minimise the amount of the supernatural which it postulates, or admits and reckons with. Yet men may receive the spirit of the world, and so arrive at knowledge.
2. Are we to connect this with the fragments of knowledge given to us by pure revelation on this theme, which speaks of one who is the prince of this world (Joh. 12:31; Joh. 14:30; Joh. 16:11), who is indeed its god (2Co. 4:4), a spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience (Eph. 2:2)? Must we carry out the principle, which everywhere holds throughout Scripture, of a parallel, a counterfeit, a parody, of the facts of the kingdom of light by the kingdom of darkness, and so see suggested a personal spirit of the world set over against the personal Spirit which is of God? The strongly definite opposition is at any rate here in Pauls inspired language, and strongly suggests that behind the worlds maxims and principles and habits of thinking and life, the spirit of the world in the modern, vague, but not Scriptural sense, there is a personal source of its activity and predominant character.
3. The spiritual man certainly receives the Spirit which is of God. Natural powers and their use, the eye, ear, heart, may make a man know the natural world; it is his appropriate and natural setting and environment; there he is at home. He is part of it. The spiritual man is part of the spiritual world, and gets to know of it as one detail of the consequences of the grace of the Spirit in awakening his spirit, and quickening its faculties into ability and activity. In the new world of Divine things Life brings in its train Knowledge. Born into it, the spiritual man is at home there.
4. That Spirit of God is at home amongst the deep things of God. The whole meaning of that mystery of Godthat secret purpose of the Divine mind and heart which, in summary, in aim, in goal, is Christ [Col. 2:2, in most critical editions of the New Testament]has now become, so to speak, His property,the things of the Spirit of God. He only could know; He only can reveal and impart. He mediates between the mind of God and the mind of man. What He searches out and knows there, He discloses and imparts here. He has these truths and blessings that they may be freely given to us as if by God Himself. He knows, and by His intermediary office and teaching we have, the whole mind of the Lord. The Lord? Why not go further and say the mind of Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead (Col. 1:9; Col. 1:19)? [
5. Very profound and far-reaching are the suggestions of this interchangeableness of language: the deep things of God passes over into the mind of the Lord, and this again becomes next the mind of Christ. Father and Son have no counsels or desires for man which are not shared by both; never do They work or think for man on any independent, or possibly divergent, plan. And then, again, when these deep things of the mind of the Lord pass, as it were, through the hands of the Spirit as gracious gifts to our spirit, they become His own things.]
6. The man of the world peremptorily, or even superciliously, dismisses all we profess that we have and know, as foolishness (1Co. 2:14). To him it is; to us it is wisdom, hidden (wisdom) (1Co. 2:7), wisdom that shall abide when all his comes to nought. No wonder! He knocks in vain at the door of the shrine into which we are led, that we may be initiated into these Divine secrets. When he finds entrance impossible, he turns away and declares that within, from all he can hear, or see, or make out from these spiritual men, there is nothing but foolishness.
7. We do not come at our knowledge in virtue of any conquest of the spiritual world. We had no eyes, nor ears, nor heart for it, any more than the natural man has. But we received the Spirit, we received the things of the Spirit; we know just as much as was freely given, and as we took (1Co. 2:12; 1Co. 2:14) He gave us eyes, ears, hearts, new powers for the new world of our new life.
IV. Hence two ways of teaching may be conceived of and attempted.
1. How will you approach and convert these natural men? Speak spiritual things to natural men? Try it, and fail. They do not comprehend you. Speak natural knowledge to them. Certainly they will understand that. But that is not the office of a Christian teacher. No doubt, if he speak of the things of their world in terms of their thought, and with human artifice of language, he may win himself audience and reputation.
2. But Paul is a model, who determined that he would know nothing of the worlds wisdom, when he came to Corinth. Let the natural men teach natural men natural thoughts! Paul will begin, and will endbut that there is no end to the Themewith Jesus Christ! Of all the deep things of God, of all the now revealed secrets, the mysteries of God, He is the chief and the Sum. Inexhaustible as a subject, inexhaustible as a possession of the soul! Paul did not on Mars Hill, a few weeks before, begin with Himperhaps prudently and rightly, remembering his audience. But, at any rate, when he came to speak of Jesus Christ and judgment some mocked. Now, in beginning work at Corinth, he had settled beforehand upon this plan of operations, and Jesus Christ was both to be central to it and to fill up all the circle to its uttermost circumference. He would be deaf, blind, dumb, in every direction but Christ! Would see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing else. The Jew would be staggered, offended, perhaps turned aside. What if the fish would not look at his bait at all? These would-be philosophic Greeks of Corinth; these busy, wealthy, mercantile men; these artisans and sailors and slaves,what of them, if he preached the Godhead and Resurrection of a man hanged on a Roman gallows, outside the walls of Jerusalem? Suppose these, too, should refuse even to listen to the foolishness of such a preaching (1Co. 1:23)? If the people will not listen, the preacher is a failure at the outset. So human wisdom would suggest to him, as it does to the teacher now. And had he not better be prudent, and catch the attention and tickle the fancy with words of mans wisdom? Plenty of teachers of rhetoric in a Greek city (Act. 19:9), if he needed teaching. No! But at least would it not be the right and sensible thing to cast his testimony [according to the old reading in 1Co. 2:2] into some quasi-philosophic shape, or to use persuasive words (1Co. 2:4, R.V.)? No! He would not decorate his speech; he would not adapt his preaching. He dares not. His function is only to proclaim (1Co. 2:1). He has nothing to do with the matter of the message, but to speak it out, as he is first told it. Whether it seem wisdom or folly, that is not his responsibility. He is only the messenger; let the Sender and Author of the message see to the rest. You have it as I get it, unmixed, uncorrupted. The thing preached (margin) should be in its plainest form; the speech should be a dress as simple for the simple thought. To do otherwiseto wreathe the cross with flowers of thought and rhetoric, till men could find no Cross, no Sacrifice, and no Blood; to take an atoning sufferer from off it, and nail to it an amiable, noble, pure, wise, unselfishly loving suffererwould not be faithful to his Master, or do honour to the Spirit. Who was Paul that he should even leave the way open, supposing such methods to have succeeded, for any man to say, Pauls preaching attracted me; Pauls way of putting his Gospel convinced me. I am of Paul? No man should think, or say, if he arrived at belief, that his faith stood in the wisdom of man. God forbid!
3. It would be unfaithful to Christ, dishonouring to the Spirit, and, moreover, it would be useless. Corinth is not to be taken by that method of attack! No way into the human heart by that road! The simplest form of the message, in the simplest language,Jesus Christ, and He a crucified Jesus in addition; this, if only it were full of the power of God, should come with the demonstration of the Spirit. The Spirit should make even the natural man see and know and accept this Jesus. He should furnish an evidence peculiarly His own, which should carry with it a force of proof and of conviction that should sweep away before it ignorance, pride, prepossessions, prejudice, and carry the things of the Spirit of God into the world of the natural mans understanding and heart and life. The Higher should, with a holy violence, make for itself an entrance into the Lower. Let other teachers try persuasive words, arguments of the most cogent, if they will, and endeavour to win from the proud intellect and the prouder heart, the patronage of an acceptance of their Gospel, such as it is! The Spirit of God will Himself use the foolish matter, put in no persuasive way, but in blunt, repellant nakedness of speech, and will demonstrate the truth and the method as the wisdom of God. Even a preacher who is hampered with physical weakness of poor health or fatigue, to say nothing of a thorn in the flesh; who, moreover, is burdened and anxious about his work and his companions; who is full of fear as he thinks of what is before him; if only he be content to speak in words which the Spirit teacheth (1Co. 2:13), can succeed, even in Corinth! By such methods of teaching even the natural man may come to saving knowledge of spiritual things.
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.1Co. 2:1-5
A Model Preacher.
I. The man.
II. The message.
III. The method.
I. We naturally and rightly conceive of Paul as one of the greatest moral forces of his day, a man more important to the life of his age and to that of all future ages, than any man then living. But he did not so stand out to his contemporaries. The leading Jews in Rome (Act. 28:21), though intercourse between the capital and every part of the empire was frequent and fairly easy, knew, they seem to say, a good deal about the stir which the Nazarene faith was everywhere making, but very little about Paul himself, even as a ringleader of the sect. At all events, from even Juda there had not come letters such as would have indicated that the authorities there attached preeminent importance to the prisoner remitted by Festus to Nero. Out of their sight, out of their way, out of their mind. Plainly at Corinth, and probably elsewhere, the very Christian Church did not, as we do, see Paul overtoppinga Saul amongst themthe rest of the Apostolic band. He came and went, one of these Jews, somehow not much in favour with his fellow-Israelites; and except for an occasional tumult, the work he was doing went quietly on, unknown to the cultured, fashionable, busy world. The world knew not (1Jn. 3:1) Paul or his Churches. Gallio cared for none of these things; the exalted Roman gentleman attached very little importance to such canaille and their squabbles! We must not read back our present knowledge into the look of things then; and, above all, must not unduly magnify the man by looking at him through the spectacles of the results of his labours. What the Corinthians saw was a man of no striking appearance, perhaps in physical weakness, perhaps betraying his fear and much trembling. He was not deficient in moral courage, as many an incident shows, and repeatedly met danger with calmness. But he was not a fighting character, and may even have been constitutionally timid. [So Howson thinks, Hulsean Lectures, Character of St. Paul, lect. ii. He refers to Monods sermon on the Tears of St. Paul (Act. 20:18-19, etc.). 2Co. 2:4; Php. 3:18. He points out the three reassuring visions, Act. 18:19; Act. 23:11; Act. 27:24, and compares 2Co. 7:5. See further the depression of spirits in anticipation of the issue of his third missionary journey, at Miletus and Tyre and Csarea. We see a strong craving for personal sympathy, almost to the point of dependence. Alone, 1Th. 3:1; 1Th. 3:10-11; 2Co. 2:13; Phm. 1:11; Phm. 1:14; 2Ti. 1:15; 2Ti. 4:9-10. See also in Critical Notes.] No preacher or worker should feel Paul far away from him, knowing nothing of his feelings, exempt from his anxieties about his work and his qualifications for it, and his little likelihood of success. Very human, often very much down, commanding no world-wide reputation or respect; little known, and less loved, except by his converts, and not always by them; but made able as a minister, etc. (2Co. 3:6). The earthen vessel very earthen, to the eyes of his contemporaries (2Co. 4:7) The meek man has inherited the earth.
II. The message.One topic, only oneJesus Christ, and Him crucified.
1. Let a modern instance illustrate this. Ned Wright, a well-known South London evangelist, said [coram me, H. J. F.] that when he was once preaching on or near London Bridge a half-tipsy man thrust himself into the crowd gathered round, and cried out, Look here, Ned! I am Jesus Christ! Come here, then; and the crowd made way. Let me look at your hands. Hold them up! Ned made a show of examining one, and then flung it away from him with a contemptuous gesture: You are not Jesus Christ. You are not my Jesus Christ. My Jesus Christ has nail-holes in His hands. Be off with you! And the poor fellow slunk away ashamed, amidst the laughter of the crowd, who did not the less intelligently listen whilst Wright took advantage of the incident to drive home the lesson that the sinful and guilty heart wants a Jesus Christ that is crucified.
2. It is a true instinct which has made preaching popular in the best sense to centre in the cross of Christ. Or, better, the Spirit of God has thus rightly guided the successful popular preacher. Christian speculation, the philosophical study of the Christian system, may rightly bring the Incarnation into greater prominence than has often been given to it. But in every time of Evangelical revival in the Church, in every time of personal concern because of conviction of sin, it is seen that the centre of gravity of an effective Gospel for a guilty, unholy soul is at the Cross, not first at the Manger. Bunyan was sketching his allegory on the lines of often-repeated and self-justifying experiment, when he made the pilgrims burden fall from his shoulders at the Cross. The old experience of the early missionaries of the Moravian Church in Greenland is repeated in every successful mission-field: the best place to begin at in teaching Christian doctrine is the Cross. When the heart has found rest at the Cross, it can then return to the Manger, and the Babe, and the Incarnation, and the perfect Manhood and the perfect Example of an ideal human life. But the Cross meets the first and most urgent need of an awakened soul.
2. Nor is it sufficient to make the Cross merely an incident in the Example, even though perhaps the crowning, culminating point of its self-sacrifice, and of its appeal to the human heart. It is all this; but to make it, and offer it as, no more than this, fails to give due weight to the teaching of experience, or to acknowledge the perpetually recurring demand of the awakened conscience and the troubled heart for some such satisfaction as has always been, as a matter of fact, given when the Cross has been an Altar bearing a Sacrifice for Sin. The evangelist finds the Cross, with a vicarious, expiatory, reconciling Offering, his best lever for lifting the lowest, whilst it meets the universal heart as found in the highest. It is his true cure-all for all cases of spiritual distress. It has been a despised sling and stone only; but it has brought down the giant! The pathetic crucifixion of Josef Meyer at Ober-ammergau does not, with all its dramatic vividness, so prove a revolutionary moral force. Nor did the real crucifixion of Peter, or of thousands of Jews by Titus, so move mankind. Was Paul crucified for you? For that is the very centre and heart of what Christ is to you.
3. In giving this narrower prominence to Jesus Christ crucified, Paul is following the lead of even the Gospel history. [Cf. Dale, Atonement, lect. ii., who says:] All the four Evangelists are agreed about the exceptional importance of our Lords last sufferings. Only two of them relate the circumstances of His Birth, which we might have supposed none of them would have omitted. Only two tell the story of the Temptation. The Sermon on the Mount appears neither in the second Gospel nor the fourth. St. John says nothing about the Transfiguration, the agony in the Garden, or the institution of the Lords Supper. The story of the Resurrection and of the appearance of the Risen Christ to His Disciples occupies only twenty verses in St. Matthews narrative; only twentyperhaps only ninein St. Marks; and St. John appears to have said in thirty verses all he intended to say, and to have added another five-and-twenty at the request of his friends. St. Matthew tells us nothing of our Lords Ascension into heaven, nor does St. John; and even if the closing verses of St. Marks Gospel came from his own hand, he tells us nothing more than the bare fact. Time and place are left indefinite, and our Lords parting words to His Disciples and the vision of angels are passed over in silence. But the Betrayal, the Arrest, the appearance before Caiaphas, Peters denial, the cry of the people for the release of Barabbas, and the Crucifixion of our Lord, Pilates judgment, the inscription on the cross, are in all the four Gospels; and they all bring the story to a close with words which indicate that at the very moment of our Lords Death there was no loss of consciousness or exhaustion of strength. He proceeds to show that in the deaths of the Old Testament there is no precedent for this elaborate detail, and in those of the New Testament no true parallel. He discusses the suggestion that all this was only the lingering of love over the particulars of last hours, or to give the clearest demonstration of the evil heart of the Jewish rulers, and concludes: A careful examination of the Gospels will lead us to (decide that) in the importance which they attach to the Death of our Lord, they are but following the line of His own thought. To Him His Death was distinctly present from the very commencement of His ministry. After Pentecost, indeed, Peter and his fellow-apostles gave witness, with great power, of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Act. 4:33). But the Resurrection is an integral part of the Doctrine of the Cross. The actual crucifying needed no emphasising in Jerusalem; the complementary fact, which gave the death any meaning and value and power, needed clear and vigorous proclamation. Without the resurrection and intercession, the Cross is no Gospel of an atonement; it is a mere death upon a gibbet. When Peter declared the resurrection, he was preaching Christ crucified in the full significance of the Messiahs name and work.
III. His method.Proclaiming the testimony, the mystery, of God. Assertion, not argument. Announcing a fact, not propounding any theory, the result of his own study or excogitation. He had been taken behind the veil and shown one of Gods secrets; now he came forth commissioned to impart it to others. But only to tell it out; not to add to it, or mutilate it, or refine upon it. Put in trust with the Gospel (1Th. 2:4), he had simply to pass it on, to offer it, in its entirety. He had only to stand up as a witness, bearing a testimony. A method widely different from that of the discussions of the Porch, the Grove, the Academy, where everything might be challenged by the learner, and the teacher must support with reasons. A very narrow function, a very restricted office and work. But it is the preachers right place, and the limit of his sphere. He should first go in and learn the secret of the Lord, and then come forth simply to tell and testify of what he has seen and heard. [Joh. 3:11, We = Christ and all His representatives pursue the same method. 1Jn. 1:3.] [It is a principle which may be illustrated by a modern case, closely analogous. When Dr. Duff first sailed for India in 1830, the Lady Holland was wrecked on Dassen Island, a sandbank off Capetown. All eventually found safe landing on a higher point, a penguin haunt. A sailor, walking along the shore looking for eggs, found Duffs Bagsters Bible and Scottish Psalm Book, given him at his ordination, both safe because of the chamois-leather case. He had taken out eight hundred volumes in every branch of human knowledgejournals, notes, memoranda, essays, as dear to a student as his own flesh; all were lost. In the first flush of his student success, he had only half parted with them, when he became a missionary. He could never lose the culture they gave him. But the loss seemed to him didactic, a speaking incident, that all save these two perished, or were reduced to pulp. The memory of Dassen Island was never absent from what he regarded as temptations to literary self-indulgence (Dr. Smiths Duff, i. 258). Gods Word was the only book for the missionary, and for the minister of the Gospel. More exactly parallel to Pauls determination is this:] Dr. McAll, of Paris, recently deceased, said that many a time, when his father, the still more famous Dr. McAll, one of the brilliant galaxy of pulpit orators of the early half of the century, was at the zenith of his fame, and was being followed everywhere by admiring and deeply affected crowds of hearers, he has seen him come home and sit down, bursting into a flood of tears, distressed that all the popular favour and all the effect of his preaching seemed to mean so little of real conversions to God. His son read the fact in the light of this text, and feared that the excellency of speech had really been an obstacle to the success of his fathers ministry, and therefore deliberately adopted a simpler style for his own. Paul bore his witness in the plainest and in entirely inartificial language, lest he should so wreathe and overlay the Cross with the flowers of human thinking or rhetoric that the Cross itself could not, as it were, be seen. Is there, then, no place in preaching Christ crucified for the faculty of moving speech, of wit, of clear reasoning, or of any other gift of Gods bestowal? (See on 1Co. 9:16) Yes. Apollos might quite lawfully employ his special talents. There is no cast of mind, no one mould of man, from which God has not raised up successful witnesses of His truth; no faculty, no knowledge, on which contribution cannot be levied for the service of Christ. There is an excellency of popular address which is the very equipment of an out-of-doors evangelist. There is an eloquence born, and inevitable as certainly as the man opens his lips. But there is an eloquence which is taught and acquired and laboured after, the mere artificial rhetoric of the schools and their fashions of oratory, which, in Pauls view, is no thing for the minister of Christ to seek after or employ. In any case the faculty of attractive, persuasive speech must be kept a means to an end, never a thing desirable, an end in itself. Where it is a native, necessary, inborn, unconscious eloquence and excellence, it must rigidly be kept consecrated to the service and glory of Christ alone. But the speaker will find it hard not to create a difficulty for his own heart, and not to arrest the attention and heart of his hearers at himself. Any art associated with the delivery of the message may assume undue importance. If it succeed, it may get the credit due only to the power of God. Probably Paul would not censure his friend Apollos, who, eloquent and philosophical as he perhaps was, might nevertheless [or therefore?] do good, and who certainly would, if his aim and heart were kept right. Yet he plainly believed that his own mere testimony, in simpler language, would do greater good, and that it ran less risk of obscuring in any degree the glory of the power of God. The anxiety to justify the Gospel to the intellect of the unrenewed man, or to cast it in some such mould as would be less likely to be repellent at its first hearing, would to him be a putting on of the hampering armour of Saul, instead of relying upon the sling, and stoneand God! It might even issue in so modifying some essential feature of the Gospel that it should no longer be simply Gods testimony. The intellect of the world had, in Greece above all, been fed upon the noblest philosophies, and was sick of them all, and unsatisfied. Teacher after teacher was more critical of his predecessors, than constructive of anything satisfying. Should Paul attempt to give the weary world another philosophy? No! He would tell them a history, and the heart of the history should be a PersonJesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ crucified. The princes of this world knew everything but this. Paul knew nothing but this; but such a man, with such a message, working on such a method, succeeded.
SEPARATE HOMILIES
1Co. 2:2. Pauls One Topic.[Cf. this resolution of Paul the preacher, with the resolution and life-habit of Paul the sinner, This one thing (I do). I counted all loss. Yea, I count all loss (Php. 3:13; Php. 3:7-8).] [The man of one book is a proverb of narrowness of knowledge and of view. Fiddling ever upon one string is usually a reproach to any public speaker. But a Paul could outmatch a Paganini in educing from his one string an endless variety of soul-winning music. Rather, Pauls one string will give endless variety to the preaching of a man of far less ability than Paul. The theme, not the player, is inexhaustible.]
I. Christ Jesus, not Paul (cf. 2Co. 4:5). In the analogous case of Galatia, the rival teachers really at bottom only cared to boast how many converts they could make to their Judaising form of the Gospel (Gal. 6:13). Really a subtle glorification of themselves and their ministry; before even the Circumcision, for which they professed such anxiety.
II. A Person, not a philosophy or a set of doctrines.Mens hearts cannot rest in a system. There is rest only in a person. A well-known characteristic of Christianity that Christ identifies His religion with Himself. Faith does not only, or chiefly, lay hold of a series of propositions about Him, whether historical or theological, but of Himself. If I say Christianity, I thereby say Jesus Christ. Christianity appeared in the world, not as a system of philosophy, not as a code of morality, but as an actual fact, the fact of the person Christ Jesus. All depends on Him. With Him, Christianity stands or falls. It cannot be separated from Him. It was not His precepts, but His person and His testimony concerning Himself, which brought about the crisis in Israel. He Himself made His whole cause depend upon His person. We cannot separate it from Him. Rationalism has attempted to separate Christianity from Christ, and to reduce it to a mere morality. But experience has proved the attempt impossible. Jesus Christ does not bear the same relation to Christianity as Mahomet does to Mahometanism, or as any other founder of a religion to the religion he has founded; but He is Himself Christianity. To speak of Christianity, is to speak, not of doctrines and precepts, but of Jesus Christ. Christianity is indeed a summary of truths, a new doctrine, a philosophy if you will, a new view of the world, a new explanation of history, a new mode of worship, a new morality, a new rule of life, etc. It is all these, because it is a fact universal in its nature. But all these depend upon the person of Jesus Christ, are given with Him, and included in Himstand and fall with Him (Luthardt, Fundamental Truths, lect. viii. 256). Part of its universal adaptation, this. The child, the ignorant, the heathen, at once are led to the very heart of Christianity when they are taught to know Him. They believe in Him, they learn to love Him, life is summarised and simplified into living for Him. They can die for Him. They say as Paul did, To me to live is Christ. So the little child can be a Christian. The heathen, whether in lands nominally Christian or really heathen, simply, readily learn the secret of becoming saints.
III. Not to know anything save, etc. What was the alternative in Pauls mind? What was the alternative in the practice of the rival teachers at Corinth?If we are to find any suggestion in the use of the name Cephas, and with that may couple what we gather from the Galatian Epistle about Peters connection with the Judaising controversy which just at this period evidently occupied so much of Pauls life and thoughts, our answer may be Circumcision. In contrast with some other teachers at Corinth, Paul made his topic Jesus Christ, not circumcision. In Act. 15:1 is summarised the thesis, so to speak, which the side of the Christian community whose associations and affinities were with the Judaism from which they had been recruited, nailed up on the door of the Antiochian Church, and which became for many years the centre of fierce strife within the new brotherhood: Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. Paul saw from the first that this proposition struck direct at the honour of his Divine Master. What was to save a man? Was not Jesus Christ a sufficient Saviour? What did they proposeChrist and Circumcision? Or was it Circumcision before, or even instead of, Christ? Either way he would know nothing of the kind. Should he preach some necessary supplement to the work of his crucified Master, without which what He did was not complete and sure foundation for a sinners hope? God forbid (Gal. 6:14). Could it be that they even meant Christ to be the supplement to the efficacy of the now mere dead ceremonial? God forbid! Could it be that, not Christ at all, but the ceremonial was to save? Yet the ceremonial was now effete, evacuated of all meaning or virtue; it had, indeed, become a mere concision (Php. 3:2), a mere piece of surgery, a mere cutting of the flesh. Whatever these later comers might do, or teach, when he entered Corinth his own resolve was clear and definite, and to it he had rigorously confined himself: Jesus Christ crucified.
IV. Moreover, he had from the first been at the uttermost pole removed from the motives of such teachers, as well as from their teaching [to borrow light again from the Galatian Epistle, as above: 1Co. 6:14]. Their motives were of the world, not of Christ. The religion of circumcision was becoming almost fashionable in some quarters. The weary heart of many in the upper classes were seeking, some of them a new sensation, some of them real rest, in becoming Jewish proselytes. A few years later a proselyte Jewess, Poppa, sat by Neros side on the throne of the empire. But the man who made any profession of Christ, the crucified Jew of Nazareth, had to lay his account with social exclusion, and to have for his friends for the most part the artisan, the slave, certainly not many noble, mighty, etc. It was human nature; therefore it was the spirit of the world getting a footing in Christian hearts again, when some of these were putting to the front the side of Christianity on which it had relations with the Old Religion, with its prestige of a sort, and were keeping in the background the Cross, with all its associations of shame and suffering and social inferiority. The crucifying of Christ had so entered into Pauls life that he himself was crucified with Him, and a crucifixion was between him and such worldly motives in teaching and thought. He was crucified to the world, and was quite content that it should care no more about him than it did for a poor fellow hanging dead upon a cross. The world was crucified to him; he cared no more for its good opinion or its bad opinion, for its favour or its frown, than did the dying man for the passing show beneath him, on which his glazing eyes looked down from the elevation of his cross. I am nothing to the world; the world is nothing to me. In any personal life I know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Weakness and folly be it! A weak fool I was prepared to be reckoned, when I came to you wise and mighty people in Corinth. All which has its present-day analogies for the man who is determined, in the worldnot to say also in the Churchto know, to have but the one theme, sovereign in all his theology, his ethics, his teaching, his serviceJesus Christ crucified.
1Co. 2:4. The Demonstration of the Spirit.A pivot-word of the chapter; a pivot-fact in the story of the Gospel.
I. The secret of Pauls success at Corinth.
1. Consider the conditions under which Paul sought to win Corinth for Christ. Morally, a city of the vilest. A seaport, with all the difficulties of a shifting population, of medley composition, given eagerly to the pursuit of wealth. Sufficiently a Greek city for the Corinthian to pique himself upon his intellectual acuteness. And a large Jewish communityas everywhere, proud, narrow, intolerant. See Paul enter Corinth, an unnoticed man amongst the throng; of no striking appearance, in poor health; one Jew more, where there were too many already; a working tentmaker, taking lodgings with a Pontian Jew and his wife, fugitives from Rome. He is alone; his host and hostess are not Christians yet. He begins his attack on Corinth singlehanded. Moreover, he has handicapped himself by a resolution that he will concede nothing to the intellectualism of the city or the fashion of rhetorical address. He has a ridiculous topica crucified Jew, who, forsooth, has risen from the grave, and gone to heaven; and he will conciliate no opposition, he will bid for no success, by any economy or reserve as to the matter of his teaching, or by any artifice of human school rhetoric in its presentation. Succeed or failhe will not! He succeeded! After a stay of a year and a half, he left behind him a Church in Corinth. Poor specimens of Christians; but remember their training, their surroundings, and that the most elementary Christianity was a whole heaven removed from much of the most ordinary heathen, not to say Jewish, life. Jews had bowed before a Crucified Messiah. Gentiles had trusted in a Son of God who was a man, and unlearned. What did it?
2. What did it at Thessalonica two years before? (1Th. 2:1; 1Th. 1:4). The Holy Ghost did it. Greek intellectualism and sensuality and Jewish pride, bowed before the Demonstration of the Spirit. His peculiar, proper proof wrought Conviction.
3. So anywhere, amongst all classes; amongst nominal Christians or real heathens. Remember that Paul often tried his form of the Gospel upon simple, virgin, adult heathenism. The problems of our mission-fields were his problems. The mission-fields of the Churches have a high value in the very fact that they repeatedly afford new examples and verifications of the method: The demonstration of the Spirit. A consecrated cobbler tried it in India, as a consecrated tentmaker tried it in Corinth. It seems irrational, and even impertinent, that a stranger should make his appearance amongst a heathen people, bringing with him a book, and that much of his method should be a number of bold, bare assertions. Their gods falseno gods at all; his the only True. Their religionswhether childish in their barbarous simplicity, or hoary with antiquity, the fruit of ages of subtle thoughtall fraud or delusion; the True is an elaborate and mysterious system of teachings, gathering around a Person mentioned in his Book. It is with very real peril, he says, that they reject this Person. Some of the commonest practices of themselves and their ancestorssins, which make his God angry. And so on; a series of startling assertions. The world laughs or grows angry at the man and the method, but the man succeeds. Something awakens within his hearers; Some One works with him within their hearts. They accept his teaching; many become really saints. Nothing more illogical, coolly, irritatingly presumptuous, than his procedure; yet heart, will, understanding bow, and the men are new creatures. The demonstration of the Spirit makes it successful. Because
II. The Spirit
(1) reveals a new world,
(2) gives a new sense,
(3) affords a new kind of evidence.
(1) Five senses are our outfit for living in the natural world; five gateways of knowledge. Take these away, and all knowledge of the world round us is gone. We can also awaken and train another eyesight, another hearing, for a world of facts for the intellect, growing wider as we train. Taste opens up the world of sthetics. The heart again has its world, that of the affections. Are these all? Yes, says the natural man; there is nothing else. We have explored; our world grows larger every day; but we find no new world. Every new inquirer brings in his new gathering of facts into the common stock. Our methods grow more perfect; the observing faculty more highly trained. But we find only this natural world. The Bible agrees with them exactly (1Co. 2:9). The very meaning of Agnostic, Agnosticism. Huxley coined the word thirty years ago. Spectator popularised it; made it the chosen name of many of the most famous and most influential men and women of our time. Metaphysicians, theologians, affirm and deny confidently; the Agnostic will neither affirm nor deny, has no scientific ground for professing to know. As a natural man, he is right; wiser than the infidel of the last century. Did he call himself a Deist? Then Christian controversialists pressed him that he must logically believe much more. The Christian was plainly right. Or was he an Atheist, and denied a God? Christian apologists said: You cannot demonstrate, do not know, that. To demonstrate that, you must be omniscient and omnipresent. He is now seen to have been right again. Eye hath not seen, etc. (A. V., R.V. not materially different). But finish the quotation: God hath revealed, etc. The spiritual man says another world has opened around him. He can look back to the day when it first broke in upon his eyesight, when his ears were first opened to its voices and harmonies, when his dead heart started into life, sympathy, receptivity, enjoyment. How was it done?
(2) The Spirit gave new senses.For a deaf man, open an ear! For a blind, an eye! Yet not that only. Put many a man before a beautiful landscape or painting. He sees it, but sees nothing in it. You must open an inner eye. Many men hear sound, but not music. You must give or awaken a faculty. A corpse lies blind, dumb, deaf, without sensation, responsiveness; life all around, but cut off from all. Give life, and you give not one sense, but all, and a new world. [The Life is the Light of men.] So for the spiritual world, the things of the Spirit of God (1Co. 2:14) want a new faculty, corresponding. The natural man must be agnostic to these; spiritually discerned. E.g. Sin. Spiritual men understand failure because of weakness; the fall of a tottering child learning to walk; the defect of a finite creature. The natural man sees no more. But the spiritual man sees more. Guilt; he is himself guilty; feels guilty fear; discovers that he was not only blind, but blinded; helpless, not with weakness, but with disease. A discovery all this, a revelation, when it comes. Think of the burst of a new world on the blind man (John 9) when he had washed away the clay, and for the first time saw, and understood what sight meant, and what blindness meant. A natural man is agnostic in regard to himself until that moment; Christ, and spiritual men, have understood him all the while. That blind man said, You know not He hath opened my eyes! To every man thus made to understand the factSin, Christ has Divine credentials. Proofs of His Divinity have their place; the natural man may discuss them, but the spiritual man knows. The Spirit brings the sinner, Thomas-like, into the presence of Christ. Doubts melt away. Questions to be asked, tests to be proposed, difficulties often raisedall are forgotten. He looks, falls, adores: My Lord, and my God. Only the new sense will do this. Without that men will go on crucifying the Lord of glory. Sin and a Divine Saviour are two facts by which to mark out a spiritual world; twin stars in the firmament of truthtests of sight for spiritual things.
(3) This brings thus a new kind of evidence.He who says, One thing I know, etc. (Joh. 9:25), knows much besides. One man with opened eyes is secure against the arguments of a thousand blind. A spiritual man is safe, walking in light, and knows it. The natural man is in darkness and danger, but only the spiritual man knows it. He understands the natural man; the natural does not know, nor can criticise, the spiritual (1Co. 2:15). [Pure in heart see God.] Value of all this to-day, amidst revolutionary changes in knowledge and the very foundation principles of knowledge and inquiry. Very few capable of mastering the evidence for or against all these changes; most must believe, or disbelieve, upon authority. Children, heathen, cannot by discussion or investigation arrive at knowledge on such matters. Yet there is a world which they know, where they are at home; they tread confidently; they give a lifetime to the study of such of its facts as sin, pardon, providence, prayer, an inspired Bible, a Divine Christ. These things they know by the demonstration of the Spirit. Natural systems of things must find room for these spiritual facts, or they give no true, complete account of man, life, the world. (Cf. 1Jn. 5:18-20.)
[He knows nothing, they say, when they have heard the new minister. He is a poor, narrow fellow! He is no preacher! But sometimes the narrowness gives force. In that may be his power. Narrowness may be to shut up the force of your powder in a gun-barrel, rather than to let it simply burn away uselessly in space and freedom; to load with a bullet instead of with a pellet of lead-foil.]
1Co. 2:6. Wisdom justified amongst the Perfect.
I. Facts, such as the perfect appreciate, set up a presumption that it is wisdom.The world says: A poor thing, this Gospel of yours! Your preachers boast that they have only One Topic, only one theme, only one tune, in their repertory. Fit for the maid-servants, for children, and for fools! [Voltaires well-known sneer, Philosophy was never meant for the people. The canaille of to-day resembles in everything the canaille of the last four thousand years. We have never cared to enlighten cobblers and maid-servants. That is the work of apostles.] Certainly the poor have the Gospel preached to them! That is its glory. It is the climax of the series of Messiah-tokens which Christ offered in reply to John Baptists question (Mat. 11:4). It can hardly be an entirely foolish system of truth which has repeatedly approved itself as a very effectual Culture for the Million. Culture as ordinarily understood is to the vast majority not available at all. They have no preparation for it; their average powers, the engrossing, enslaving, nature of their necessary engagements in providing for the wants of the physical life, the surroundings in the midst of which the majority of mankind must always live, forbid that it should have any message and help for them. Is that the wiser instrument for developing the best in mankind, which avowedly, and in the nature of the case, must miss the bulk of mankind altogether; or that which, true or false, has given a very real enlargement of life and outlook and ideas and character to the labouring class in all lands and ages, to the young, to the heathen, to the sunken and degraded and hopeless, to even the profligate and debased? In English agricultural districts, for example, how frequently is there found an old labourer, hard-handed, of heavy gait, bowed in knee and shoulder, of scanty education, with no literature but a Bible, and a devout book or two beside, living in narrow circumstances, and yet refined in thought by long years of habitual pondering over such large conceptions as the love of God and of His Son toward him; his mind really enlarged by the habitual extension of the horizon of Life until it takes in the Eternal and the Unseen; the man perpetually dwelling in the presence of Him who is invisible [Heb. 11:27. No mans life can be narrow, or mean, or animal, who does that! If we only knew that one fact about Moses, we should be sure that he had learned the secret of living a life, large and elevated and noble. We see how the Invisible was an anchor which held him to the right, when otherwise the storm of fear might have swept him away before it into a return to Egypt and an abandonment of his mission.] Indeed, the spirit of Christ Crucified has so far moulded many such a labourers spirit into conformity with the Pattern that, in unselfish readiness to serve others, in fine sensibility to the feelings of others, in a real tact and consideration for others, the clod-hopper, as some would call him, has become, in all the essentials of the character, a gentleman. He has learned it from the Bible, whose heart and raison dtre is ChristPauls Christ crucified. The system which can do this, in those very ranks of social life, of which philosophers or Jewish Rabbis (Joh. 7:49, Ham-ha-aretz) despaired, or took no practical account, is not to be dismissed as folly. Perfect men justify the wisdom.
II. Paul found, and the perfect find, how perfectly this system meets the need of actual human nature.Wisdom or folly is often a question of suiting means to ends. The means may be ludicrously inadequate or the end entirely unworthy. Here the end is noble, and the means are of proved sufficiency. For the many-sided need of human nature the manifoldmany-sided, many-colouredwisdom of God (Eph. 3:10) has provided the manifold (cognate word, 1Pe. 4:10) grace of God. Like the flaming sword of the gate of Eden, it turns every way; but offering a very different reception to the approach of needy human nature, drawing it near, not keeping it off. No matter from what side human need approaches it, the grace of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified has an aspect exactly, squarely, meeting it. It reveals first of all that Sin is the root trouble of humanity, and it then offers its remedy for Sin in its threefold curse of Guilty Fear, of Innate Impurity, and of Fear of Death. [Thus, especially in the last particular, does it destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations (Isa. 25:7; which proceeds:) He will swallow up death in victory.] Coming as a Jew into a city where much of his work would be concerned with a numerous Jewish element in the population, Paul appreciated the wisdom and the power of God in the message of the Cross. He knewnone betterthe utmost of moral help which could come from the system whose seal and symbol was Circumcision. It could never make the comers thereunto perfect (Heb. 10:1); it could not bring them to spiritual and moral manhood. [It was only a school-slave, a pedagogue, for children under age (Gal. 3:24).] It could not, even with its culminating sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, give a lasting, perfect peace to a guilty conscience (Heb. 10:2). It spoke sternly of duty, but of itself law offers no help to obedience; that is not its office. And, indeed, the provision for pardon through the elaborate system of sacrifice scarcely reached beyond transgressions of the ritual system. For graver moral delinquencies and offences it had hardly a word of help or hope. Pauls Epistles are full of a larger, satisfying help, all centering in the work of the Cross. He had himself found sanctuary there. The very writ of Gods own righteous law does not run within the precincts of the Cross. The sinner taking refuge there says, No condemnation! [A passing analogy may be found in the trial of Marcus Manlius, the hero of old Roman history, whose glory it was to have saved the Capitol from the Gauls. Becoming the friend of the distressed plebeian classes, the patricians accused him of aiming at the tyranny, and put him on trial before the Comitia in the Campus Martius. But there in full view was the Capitol, and he pointed to it as his only defence. After such an appeal his condemnation was impossible, and his prosecutors broke up the assembly. He was again tried, and in the end put to death; but the second trial took place in the Peteline Grove, where the Capitol could not be seen. No condemnation where the Capitolor the Crosscan be seen and appealed to.] Nor does the work of the Crucified Saviour end with the relief to a guilty conscience, from all fear of past sin and its penalty. The divided heart, the consequent moral weakness, which are the shame and the despair of all noble natureshating themselves that they do not, and cannot, attain to even their own ideal of Goodness or Holinessthese find their remedy in the salvation to the uttermost which is made available in the work of Christ crucified. Romans 6 or Gal. 2:15-21 are samples of the message Paul could take to Corinth, the good news of Gods wise remedy for heart-sin. The crucifixion of his Lord was to Paul no mere fact of the past, however significant in its objective relief to a guilty soul. It was a transaction re-enactedor which had its counterpartwithin the soul of every believer in Christ. Christ died to sin once; death from that moment had no more dominion over Him; He there spoiled principalities and powers;all these significances in the fact of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Paul knew were to be realised over again in the man whom a living and life-bringing faith united to Christ. As a matter of fact, ten thousands of all ranks, ages, countries, churches, crucified with Christ, have found in the Cross and its power, effectuated by the Spirit of God, the solution of the problem of a Holy Life. And the death of Christ has transformed all the habitual thought and feeling of the Christian world in regard to death. [Illustrate by the triumph with which the main body of an attacking force sees the advance party raise the flag upon the captured battery. So when the centurion and his quaternion of men, told off for duty at the execution upon Calvary, raised up and dropped into the hole they had dug for it, the cross of rough carpentry with its precious Burden, they knew not indeed what they did, but they were really raising the banner of a worlds victory over that Death in which the curse of sin had entrenched itself in its most terrifying form.] Death has never been the same thing since He died, at least to His people. They who else were all their lifetime subject to bondage through the fear of death (Heb. 2:15), now welcome it as advancing their hopes, and their best purposes, and their spiritual growth, a stage onward toward realisation. Many of His people, even tender women and young children, have met death with far less of dread and distress than He Himself seemed to manifest. He met it in its full strength; to them it comes as a conquered thing, a foe whose sting is drawn. The Gospel which thusas is proved by multiplied experimentprovides a practically operative remedy for the torturing of guilt, for the hopeless moral division and weakness within the nature, and for deliverance from the fear of death, is certainly a wisdom which approves itself to the perfect who are experiencing its advantages.
III. The simplicity of the methods of the Gospel is a mark of its wisdom.All adaptations of means to ends, e.g. mechanical inventions, gain by simplicity. The inventor who can at the outset, or by subsequent improvements, reduce the number of the parts of the mechanism, or who can simplify their arrangement and working, shows wisdom. In the plan of moral recovery and renewal, Gods wisdom appears in the fewness and simplicity of the essential parts of His scheme. For example, He has utilised what Chalmers called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection to work a moral revolution in the nature of every Christian man. The principle is one of common and obvious effectiveness; its working is on the lines of the ordinary laws of human nature. It is most strictly analogous to many often verified facts of every-day life. The one supernatural element in the case is the Holy Spirits assurance to the penitent sinner that he has found acceptance with God for Christs sake, and he now stands in the favour of God. Because he is now a son, accepted, accounted, welcomed, as such, God sends forth the Spirit of [His] Son into His heart, crying Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6). The love of GodGods forgiving, adopting love to him the sinneris shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him (Rom. 5:5). All these are varied forms of statement of one fact, that the Spirit of God, by a particular instance of His demonstration (1Co. 2:4), that special, direct, supernatural evidence and conviction, which He alone can give, bears in upon the soul, with full clearness and with overwhelming force of assured knowledge, the new idea, the new fact: God in Christ loves, forgives, accepts, adopts, me, the sinner! How this is communicated, where the Holy Spirit meets mans mind and heart, is past our analysis. [How does mans mind meet and act upon mans mind?] But the fact is sure to the man who receives it upon the Spirits testimony (Rom. 8:16). And after that first, supernatural step, all proceeds in accordance with the ordinary laws of human thought and life. We love Him because He first loved us (1Jn. 4:19) is a simple sequence which finds as many illustrations as we find hearts capable of knowing and returning love. And the elevating, transforming force of a new love thus awakened is a fact of every-day observation and knowledge. [The indolent, selfish, and withal weak, nature finds in the loving interest of some friend, a new motive and a new power to arouse itself and to go out of self, and to struggle after and up to a nobler, larger life and character. Poor drunkards, men or women, are thus lifted out of the slough in which they sink helpless and hopeless, by the persistent love of some pitying heart that will not be shaken off, and will not give them up, spite of repeated and ungrateful failures. The young fellow turns away from evil companionship, gives up some evil resort or indulgence, sets himself resolutely to struggle against long-established habits of evil, all because, She will not like it; she loves me, if nobody else does, and wants me better and purer. Every mother knows how she can direct and mould her childs life, if only she have her childs love.] I live, exclaims Paul, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me. That fact, The Son of God loves me, me, me, Paul, grasped by faith, and made knowledge by the demonstration of the Spirit, explains, summarises, Pauls new, altered life and career. A new ruling passion has taken possession of him, and the transforming, revolutionary, power of a new passion for good or for evil is an ordinary fact of human nature. So a new idea taking possession of a life may transform it in character and direction. [The story once told of Correggio may not be true in fact, but it is true to human nature, how that he was a dull, heavy youth, developing no special ability, until one day he found himself before a painting by an earlier artist, which awoke the painter in him, and he turned away saying, And I too am a painter.] In all Gods works there is a law of parsimonyparsimony of the miraculous, of contrivance, of effort. It was an old argument for the Copernican as against the Ptolemaic arrangement of the solar system, that it was more agreeable to the analogy of Gods whole procedure that the earth should go round the sun rather than that the sun should go round the earth; it meant a less expenditure of force. The argument is worth little to-day, and is not needed; but it rightly appreciated a point of Gods wise ordering of Nature. And so the simplicity of the means used under the Gospel is a mark of the wisdom of that Gospel which seems folly to those outside the number of those who believe its truths and experience its blessings. A new affection, a new idea, a new ruling passion, is implantedGod loves me; and from this, with its sequel, I love Him because, etc., grow all the new direction, the new aspirations, the new sympathy with Gods love of holiness, all the new activities of the Christian life; a new character, a new man. Love to God is the simple seed from which may spring all holiness. It is the single force which secures such complex and far-reaching results. The whole of Religion is implicitly in the sentence, We love Him because He first loved us. So again, remembering the constituency to which it is to be applicable, the perfect see the wisdom of the form given to the Ethical Standard of the Gospel; not an elaborated Code, but a Person, conformity to Whom in character and act and motive is a law, a rule, applicable to every conceivable case, and apprehensible, as experiment shows, by the simplest mind, and yet a perfect directory for life and practice and character, for the wisest.
1Co. 2:12-14. The Causes of Ignorance; the Way to Knowledge.
I. The causes of ignorance.
1. There is, amongst all the fields of human inquiry and their contents, one special fieldthe things of the Spirit of God. It stands apart from the rest; the knowledge of it, and the way to that knowledge, stand apart from all other knowledge. Not that there are no analogies with the processes and conditions of knowledge in other fields. It would be unlike Gods method in everything else, if this particular group of facts, and this particular path into the knowledge of them, were without their natural analogieswere abnormal in that universal order which includes the spiritual as well as the natural. There are laws which hold good in the natural and the spiritual world, both. The respective classes of facts are analogous; the laws observed to hold good amongst them are identical, can be stated in identical terms. Life, for example, in the natural world is so far analogous to life in the spiritual, that of both it can be said, No life originates except from life precedent. Similarly the broad principle is found to be as true of spiritual things as of natural: No knowledge in either world is possible to a man who does not belong to that world. The old illustrations, always valid, are the blind mans necessary ignorance of the world of light and its facts; the necessary incapacity of the man born deaf for the very idea of sound or music; the utter ignorance of art, the entire incapacity for appreciation or criticism of everything sthetic, inevitable in the case of the man with no sympathy with, no love for, Art.
2. The natural man is, in close analogy with all this, a mere outsider in regard to the world of the things of the Spirit of God. And there is no true knowledge except to those within. Significantly enough, the phrase of Christ to Nicodemus changes from see the kingdom of God to enter into the kingdom of God (Joh. 3:3; Joh. 3:5). The barrier wall engirdling the world of things spiritual is too high and too utterly impenetrable for one who does not enter to see anything. The Great Revealer who came down from heaven Joh. 3:13), who came from within the wall to tell of glorious things within, and that company of His people whom He joins to Himself as He says, We speak that we do know, and ye receive not our witness,these may tell of what is within, but it conveys little or no knowledge, little or no idea, to those without. Ye receive not our witness. Every religious teacher, every Christian man or woman who has tried to win to religion those who are outside the wall, has been baffled with the initial difficulty of conveying any conception of (say) the joys and experiences and knowledge of the life of those who have entered into the kingdom. They speak of an unknown world in an unknown tongue. What they want to tell does not need explaining to those who experience it, and cannot be explained to those who do not. Conversion at once puts a man into possession of the key to knowledge. How frequent the experience of the new convert: I seemed never to have understood the Bible until now. Sermons seemed suddenly plain to me and interesting now. I was blind; now I see! In Bishop Hanningtons Life his biographer tells how he called with Hannington at Datley House, Derby, and found with Miss Evans, whose residence it was, several friends seated round the fire, engaged in a conversation which soon turned on some point of religious experience. As Hannington and his friend left the house, the former said, Do you know, old fellow, that I think I must really be a Christian! I hope so; but what makes you think so just now especially? Well, what an unutterable bore I should have thought these people and their talk on such a subject a short time ago. But, do you know, I positively enjoyed it (Life, p. 102).
3. It is merely reversing the illustration, without affecting the essential fact, to say that the barrier is not around the spiritual world so much as in the man himself. [As in 2Co. 3:12; 2Co. 3:15, the veil is first upon the Law, and next upon the heart of the reader.] The kingdom of God is to be entered by the man, but also the kingdom of God enters into the man. He receives the kingdom of God (Mar. 10:15), which is in close conformity to the phrase here (1Co. 2:14), receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. His five senses and his intelligence are avenues through which the world of things natural enters into the man; through them he receives it. He has a spirit which has its adits of knowledge, but they are sealed upsealed up in death. Life only can understand life. It is life eternal to know, etc. (Joh. 17:3). The knowledge presupposes life, it evidences it, it alone makes living life indeed (1Ti. 6:19). The spiritual man knows spiritual things, not only because he has found access into the world of things spiritual, and habitually lives and moves amongst them, the constant environment of his life; but they have entered into him, they have translated themselves into facts which are part of his very self; he knows them simply and directly, as he knows himself. The natural mans incapacity lies in the fact that he does not open the avenues of his heart to the entrance of this spiritual world.
4. Does not open, for, after all, the practically operative incapacity and ignorance are in large part of his own creating. Two things must be carefully kept apart in our thought about human nature. It is fallen; it is redeemed. The fall must never be, in point of fact and experience can never be, dealt with apart from the redemption. The natural, native incapacity for spiritual things, the absolute incapacity of death, is true only of a Manhood which is a necessarily theological conception, but no more. No man is actually found who, to begin with, has an utter and absolute ignorance or incapacity for knowledge. The grace of the redemption of the race by its Second Adam has so far modified the actual condition that there is very much of light in many, some in all. But this may be quenched, the knowledge may be lost. The eyes which were at least in part opened may be closed again. By plain sin, indulged in any form, by even utter worldliness, many a man has been led back to, has reverted to, what must have been, and ideally is, the utter darkness and death of the natural heart, with its insusceptibility and its sealed adits of knowledge. [The prodigal has spent all.] He has flung away the beginnings of light and knowledge and capacity. Natural conditions would account for the innate and necessary incapacity; but when that has been in some degree removed, then moral causes lie at the basis of much of the actual ignorance. [In so far, a man can help not believing.] There may in some be a moral levity which refuses to give any serious attention to themes which demand it, or will not else yield up their secret. There may be more of conceit, pride, in the position of some doubters or ignorant ones, of the man who knows nothing of spiritual things, than they are themselves aware of. It seems nobler to be somewhat independent, and not quite content to follow in the old line, or to accept anything on trust. There is a pride that will not allow a man to recede from a position he has once openly taken up, and, above all, that will not allow him to do or say anything which confesses or implies that he has been all along a sinner, and morally wrong. This may be cherished until it becomes resolute not to be satisfied and to believe; no evidence will ever satisfy me. And subtle in the extreme is the temper which makes the man turn away, half unconsciously, from fully and fairly looking at truths which he knows, if accepted, must revolutionise his life. He does not want to go in their direction, and he averts his gaze; he will not look that way. The spirit of the world has been received, and allowed to enter into occupation and control. So long as this is in any degree his attitude, the natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God. He will not receive them. The little children have little or none of this pride or subtlety of heart; they readily enter into the kingdom. To receive the kingdom as a little child is the only way of knowledge for the man.
II. The way to knowledge.
1. Before, however, the man can receive the things of the Spirit, there must be an earlier step taken. He must receive the Spirit which is of God, and then he can receive the things of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the first gift; then He enables the man to receive and know all else so freely given to us of God. The gifts will only be received by a receiver brought into sympathy and receptiveness. Spirituals to spiritual. All faculty for knowing and receiving is grace; it is a gift. The Spirit gives Himself; men who get to know have first received Him. He, too, stands at the door and knocks, May I come in? He breathes around, His light shines upon us. Men must open the shutters and throw wide doors and windows to the rushing mighty Wind, that He may fill the house of the heart. But I cannot open! Yes, you can open! He is Himself with you to help you to open, and to receive Him. [Or at least you are not weaker than the bed-ridden invalid, who cannot rise to open in answer to the knock of the Visitor, but can at least lie and say Come in. He is in that word Come in; this Visitant will, if the man will, open the door for Himself and enter. The receiving is in the will; and the very will itself is not without something of His grace.] It is helpful to realise that men are dealing with no mere vague Abstraction, or a half-poetical, idealised Energy or Force, but with a Personal Friend and Teacher. It is a Comforter who leads into all truth. He is One who can be a Revealer because He has an original knowledge of the things of God ab intra, so to speak; He knows them, because He knows God as it were from within the very self of God. To give Him welcome is then the first step to knowledge. The native incapacity is gone if He is come in. The susceptibility is restored if He dwell within. The eyes, the ears, all the senses of the human spirit, are awakened from their death into receptiveness and activity.
2. He will communicate much knowledge directly. Man must make his mind touch the mind of another man through a chain of physical organs and their operations, but the Spirit can go direct to the spirit in man, in immediate communication. But He will also use meanswords spoken, words written, by men who are taught them, not by mans wisdom, but by Himself. Paul and his brethren stand apart in their gift. The Spirit used them to make known to the Church the things which are freely given, the heritage of those who fear Gods name, as first-hand authorities to convey new truth. Things such as these had never entered into the heart of men To these very apostles these were novelties. He conveys no new truth to-day in the sense of adding anything absolutely new to the completed body of revealed disclosures; he expounds the old truth already given. But this with a wonderful novelty. The inheritance has long ago in its completeness been made over in its entirety; He leads the heir over his estate, and continually discovers in it for him new beauties, new wealth, new views, the length, and breadth, and depth, and height. The Word is His great instrument of disclosure. Let a man use it, read it, explore it, with the Spirit of God received to be His Guide, and it is marvellous how some simple souls grow fast in the knowledge and in the experience of the things given to us of God. Many simple hearts make good theologians; no man can be an expert in Divine things who is not spiritual, Spirit-taught. Bishop Andrews said that he learnt far more upon his knees than from his books.
3. He is the one and only Teacher of the first and fundamental truth of all religion, Sin and the need of a Saviour, of help from outside a mans self. Until that is learned the very A B C of Divine things is unknown, and all after-teaching is simply incomprehensible. But He comes; reaching hearts inaccessible to human appeal, and that will even tolerate no human approach; hearts fenced round with conventionalisms and pride, hard as if in the grip of a hard, frost-bound winter of worldly life. He comes and overleaps all barriers and gets at the inmost citadel direct; He throws down all the defences of pride, all lifelong sophistries with which the soul has deluded itself; tears away all the veils so long and diligently and densely woven which have hidden the real man from even himself. The proud, reserved, self-satisfied soul carries about with it a new conviction, driven home, burnt in, I am a sinner!; carries it until it can keep silence no longer, the bones wax old through the inward roaring all the day long; and at last shame, fear, pride, are all overborne by the masterful might of the new truth, I am a sinner! So too He bears in, burns in, with happy force of conviction the truth, I am a child of God, and not a servant any longer (Rom. 8:15-16). In the fulness of the new discovery he utters, by a new instinct, and for the first time, a childs name for God, Abba, Abba! God Himself is given to him as he never knew or expected was possible before. In like manner point after point of the experiences of the Christian life, its possibilities, its privileges, reveal themselves to the spiritual man, and all of them freely given, to be received, therefore, into the embrace of the quickened understanding, but above all into the inmost life of the heart. Strictly speaking there is to the spiritual man no merely doctrinal truth, as distinguished from experimental. The theology of his creed is merely the formal, scientific statement of truths that are his life. But if the conventional and convenient distinction is to be maintained, then again is the Spirit the Guide into all truth. There is discovered an orderly, harmonious scheme of doctrine, every point of which has its relations with every other. As between Church and Church, man and man, the parts, the points, may receive different degrees of appreciation, and so may be taught with varying prominence and emphasis. But spiritual men understand each other, and understand the wisdom of God, which is to the natural mind a hidden thing, a mystery, a secret which they have no ear to receive, even if it were spoke to them. The man whose Teacher is the Spirit of God understands. As the solar system was a problem of growing perplexity to the astronomers of the past, who adopted earth as their centre, but resolved itself and its motions and laws into perfect harmony and order when a heliocentric standpoint was adopted; so the Spirit of God puts even the least cultured or trained spiritual men at the theocentric, Christocentric, view point; and if all perplexity and difficulty do not pass away, at least he occupies the only standpoint from which knowledge is possible, and the beauty and order and harmony of Christian Truth can be in any degree understood and received.
HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS
1Co. 2:16. The Mind of Christ.
1. As explained in the Critical Notes, nothing said here of the character or distinguishing spirit of Christ. It is true that in that sense we have, as the natural man has not, the mind of Christ, in varying degree of apprehension of it, in varying clearness of exhibition of it. The Christian is normally a reproduction, a repetition, of Christ, in tempers, conduct, judgments, holiness But obviously what is meant is the mind which can be made a matter of information and instruction, the thought of God, and of His Christ, about and towards His people.
2. Very noteworthy the interchange between Lord and Christ. [True there are variant readings, but not so strongly attested in any case as to disturb the Received Text.] Comparably with the position ascribed to the Spirit in 1Co. 2:10-11, as it were, internal to God, with a relation which may be paralleled with that of the human spirit to the man; so here Christ occupies such a position in Pauls theology [the Holy Ghosts theology, they say who believe in Pauls inspiration] as that His name may be quietly substituted for the Jehovah of the Old Testament prophet. The particular case is but a sample of others in which an Old Testament text is so transfigured, that, whilst the verbal body remains the same, another soul, another personality has entered into it, and we see not Jehovah, but Jesus the Christ, looking through its eyes, speaking through its lips, informing with Himself its whole countenance and aspect. Who must He be whom the vesture of Old Testament Jehovah-phraseology thus fits so perfectly that it was plainly made for His use? The new wine of N.T. doctrine can be put into the old bottles of O.T. language.
3. Note that Revealed Truth, both in its doctrinal and its experimental aspects (to use the convenient distinction), is the disclosure of the thought, the will, the mind of Christ. He is the Fountain of our knowledge on such topics. If He be not, in the economy of the Redemptional Trinity, exactly and accurately the great Fountain-head of it, at least He is the only and only-accessible Fountain to whom the Father has been pleased that men [and perhaps all creaturely life] should come to draw, and at whom alone they may obtain any knowledge. [For knowledge, as well as for the good offices which a sinful creature needs One to do for him with a holy God, no man cometh to the Fatheror gets at the Father, even to know Himbut by Christ.] Accordingly it is the word of Christ which is to dwell richly in the Colossians. [Col. 3:16, again with its variants, God and Lord; which have this incidental significance for historical theology that they show the belief in the Godhead of Jesus to have been so thoroughly the conviction of the early transcribers (and of the early Church) that they could designedly substituteif they did so designedlyone phrase for the other with no sense of impropriety, or could inadvertently do so with a perfect and unconscious facility only to be explained by the customary equipollence of the expressions.] The Spirit of Christ was in the ancient prophets (1Pe. 1:11); the Old Testament was but the earlier stage of the utterance of the one abiding word of the Lord which is the Gospel (1Pe. 1:25).
4. We have is more than we know the mind of Christ. We is only spoken of the Apostolic company as the culminating embodiment of the general idea of Christians. [These say, moreover, as they read these Epistles, We have the mind, not only of Paul, but of Christ. The more vividly realised natural, literary, historical, personal side of these Epistles is nowaday making it difficult to be just to the old view that, whoever was the writer, the real Author was the Spirit of God; that though the thoughts passed through the mind of men and took a personal, individual stamp from each, yet they were thoughts for which the Spirit of God held Himself responsible.] We have; they have become part, not only of our habitual beliefs, our stock of credenda, but part of our life, of ourselves. We carry within us the law of Christ, we carry within us the Gospel.
5. How this settles many a question, sufficiently at any rate, for practical life, such as the objective efficacy of prayer, providence, and the like.
6. And these topics may, if we will, be studied by us with the Authors own help. We may ask Him what He meant by this or that. The Spirit who searches the deep things of God also knows the mind of Christ, even its deep things of teaching and saving grace.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Butlers Comments
SECTION 1
Unsophisticated but Dynamic (1Co. 2:1-5)
2 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or Wis. 2:1-24 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1Co. 2:1-2 Plain Words: The Greek love for sophisticated philippic and techniques of argumentation colored their concept of the worth of the apostolic gospel. The heroes of the Greek culture were the philosophers who spent all their time debating philosophies (see Act. 17:16-21) and displaying their expertise in eloquent use of language. The speaking was the thing with themnot the reality of what was being said. William Barclay says:
The Greek sought wisdom. Originally the Greek word sophist meant a wise man in the good sense; but it came to mean a man with a clever mind and cunning tongue, a mental acrobat, a man who with glittering and persuasive rhetoric could make the worse appear the better reason. It meant a man who would spend endless hours discussing hair-splitting trifles, a man who had no real interest in solutions but who simply gloried in the stimulus of the mental Hike. . . . It is impossible to exaggerate the almost fantastic mastery that the silver-tongued rhetorician held in Greece. Plutarch says, They made their voices sweet with musical cadences and modulations of tone and echoed resonances. They thought not of what they were saying, but of how they were saying it. Their thought might be poisonous so long as it was enveloped in honeyed words. Philostratus tells us that Adrian, the sophist, had such a reputation in Rome, that when his messenger appeared with a notice that he was to lecture, the senate emptied and even the people at the games abandoned them to flock to hear him.
The Greeks were intoxicated with rhetoric and eloquence. They would look on Pauls preaching of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ in simple, direct words testifying to plain historical facts as crude and uncultured. Paul says literally, And I coming to you brethren, came not according to over-hanging (high, superior) word or sophistry. Paul might have had the background to have attempted competition with the Greek sophists. He had studied for years from the most famous rabbis of Israel. He knew Greek poetry (cf. Act. 17:28). But he was not interested in eloquence.
Paul determined to speak nothing among the Greeks but Jesus Christ and this One having been crucified. He could do nothing else and be true to the gospel. That is what the gospel isthe redemptive work of Christ. The gospel is not what man must dothe gospel is what God, in Christ, has done. We know Paul included the resurrection of Christ in his preaching to the Greeks for we have a record of his having done so (cf. Act. 17:30-31; 1Co. 15:1-11). Paul preached that the fulfillment of the Old Testament was the death and resurrection of Jesus accomplishing atonement and reconciliation of man to God, available through faith and baptism into Christ. Paul had no time for irrelevancies; not even for the peripheral things of life. There was only one issue for him and he determined everywhere he went, to everyone who would give him attention, he would preach the facts of the good newsChrist crucified and risen again commanding all men everywhere to repent. Without this everything else in life is irrelevant (see 1Co. 15:12-19). Without this all of life is bad news. Without this all mankind is guilty before the Absolute God and sentenced to eternal damnation. No wonder Paul had no time to talk about inane and trivial matters. Not Christianity, but Christ; not a system, but the Savior; every Christian who would be faithful to God must live by the same determination (cf. Col. 1:27-29).
Unlike many modern theologians who want to present Christ as a great teacher, the founder of a great religion, or a great example of humanity at its apex of goodness, Paul preached Christ crucified. The Greek word Paul uses, estauromenon, is a perfect participle, meaning a thing completed with a continuing result. Christs death on the cross is unlike all other deaths in this worldit continues to be efficacious for all who will make it theirs by faith.
1Co. 2:3-5 Powerful Witness: When Paul went to Corinth, he was vividly aware of his weaknesses as a human being, (see Act. 18:9). His weaknesses would include his thorn in the flesh (2Co. 12:7), his poor personal appearance (2Co. 10:10) whatever that was, and what the Corinthians thought was an inadequate speaking ability (2Co. 10:10). The power of Pauls address before the philosophers in Athens would seem to refute the accusation of the Corinthians about his inability to speak. That sermon on Mars Hill is irrefutable in its logic, clear in its simplicity, and persuasive in its appeal. If Paul had any inability in speaking it must have been some physical impairment in his voice.
What were the fears and tremblings Paul had? He certainly did not fear for his life. Neither did he fear that the gospel was inadequate. Paul was apparently overwhelmed, at his first glimpse of Corinth, and the enormity of the task before him, (Act. 18:9). He was afraid people, with their prejudices and superficialities, would focus on his human inadequacies and not give ear to his message in which the power resided to transform them.
Realizing this, says Paul, my word (Gr. logos) and my message (Gr. kerugma) were not in enticing (Gr. peithos, sometimes translated plausible or persuasive) words of human sophistry (Gr. sophias). Paul did not seek to entice, trick, seduce, or psych people into faith in Christ. He would not be a peddler of Gods Word (2Co. 2:17). He would not use disgraceful and underhanded ways, practice cunning, or tamper with Gods Word (2Co. 4:2). He openly stated the truth. And that truth was Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. There were no public relations advance-men, paid exorbitant salaries to create an image for Paul. There were no huge musical ensembles, with their amplifiers, microphones, spotlighting, and staging accompanying Paul (desensitizing mens minds so they could not think about what Paul was preaching).
His message was fact, not sophistry. Paul uses a number of Greek words in this text which emphasizes the legal and scientific nature of his message. Pauls message is historical and demonstrable as opposed to the specious theories and equivocations of the philosophers and sophists. For example, the Greek word apodeixe (translated demonstration 1Co. 2:4) is a word used to describe the examining of witnesses in trials testifying to eyewitnessed evidence, or to describe the testing of ore in a crucible to provide evidence of its identity. Not only was Pauls message based on eyewitnessed proofs of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (see 1Co. 15:1 ff.), it was also confirmed by the powerful demonstration of the Holy Spirit in the miracles done by Paul himself (see 2Co. 12:12).
God never intended that mans faith should be based on speculations and feelings. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is not speculationit is history. What we believe about God and his promises, we believe on the basis of these supernatural deeds done in time and space, in this historical frame in which we exist. The Christians faith rests on the power of Godand that is not a power about which we theorize, but a power demonstrated in history!
All Gods word needs is to be preached. It will produce faith in the mind and heart of anyone who will allow it (cf. Rom. 10:1 ff.). The word of God does not need the sophistries of psychology, theology, philosophy or politics to make it relevant and powerful. It has power in itself, It is a living seed and will produce of itself (see Mar. 4:26-29; Isa. 55:10-11). It simply needs to be sown.
Appleburys Comments
Pauls Preaching at Corinth (15)
Text
1Co. 2:1-5. And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Commentary
And I.This expression requires the reader to think of what Paul had just said about the wisdom of the world. See 1Co. 1:18; 1Co. 1:21; 1Co. 1:24; 1Co. 1:30. In the closing paragraph of chapter one he calls on the Corinthians to think of their own situation as an illustration of his point about worldly wisdom in contrast to the word of the cross. As he begins chapter two, he refers to his ministry at Corinth to confirm his position that the word of the cross is the power of God to save the believer. It is most important to keep this in mind throughout the study of this chapter.
brethren.This term should have helped the Corinthians recall the happy relation they had with the apostle and, indeed, among themselves when he first preached the gospel to them. It suggested the relationship between members of the family of the heavenly Father.
when I came.As Paul was writing, he was looking back upon his whole ministry at Corinth with its problems, its successes, its discouragements, and its hopes. The history of his first ministry at Corinth is found in Act. 18:1-17. He had just concluded his work at Athens where some had believed his message about Jesus and the resurrection. Among those who believed were Dionysius the Areopagite and woman named Damaris, and others (Act. 17:34). The expression and others is significant. How many were included in it is not known. Some have suggested that Paul failed at Athens. In the light of Lukes statement about the two people of great importance whose names he gives and the others who are not named, it would seem that there is no real ground for the supposed failure.
not with excellency of speech.Paul did not depend on the devices of oratory to win support for his message. In 2Co. 11:16, he says, But though I be rude in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. He may have been looked upon by the professional orator as lacking in skill, but this would not justify the supposition that he was without adequate training for his task. In Act. 22:3, he mentions his training under Gamaliel. In Gal. 1:14, he tells of his education in the Jews religion. Besides all this, he always depended upon the message that came to him through revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12).
the testimony of God.This may mean either Gods testimony or the testimony about God. Both views make good sense in the context. The message Paul preached was Gods testimony; it was the word of the cross revealed by the Holy Spirit. Only Gods revealed message can cope with the problem of saving the sinner.
But it could be the testimony about God, for Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. The inspired apostles were equipped to speak this message. See Mat. 10:19-20; Luk. 21:14-15; Joh. 16:13-14. Paul, of course, had all the rights and powers of an apostle (1Co. 9:1-2).
I determined not to know.The supposed failure at Athens and the statement that Paul was constrained by the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (Act. 18:5) have led some to believe that Paul changed his usual approach when he came to Corinth. But according to Act. 17:8 he did not deviate from his usual approach at Athens for there he preached Jesus and the resurrection. The sermon about the Unknown God led to the conclusion that God will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead (Act. 17:31). The fact that he quoted some of their own poets does not mean that he was assuming the role of a Greek teacher by presenting his own system or way of life. As an educated man being used by the Holy Spirit, he made use of this opportunity to gain a favorable hearing for his message. But to mention their poets was enough. He proceeded to proclaim his message about the man God had ordained to judge the world. The message he preached at Corinth was exactly the same as the message he preached everywhere.
Jesus Christ and him crucified.Despite the fact as stated in 1Co. 1:23-24 that Greeks looked at the cross as foolishness and Jews found it to be a stumbling block, Paul determined to preach nothing but the message of the cross. His determination was based on the conviction that this message was the power of God to save the lost sinner; he was convinced that it had divine approval; he knew he had been called to proclaim that message. Immediately upon his conversion in Damascus, he began to proclaim Jesus that he is the Son of God (Act. 9:20). There is no evidence that he ever deviated from this course. Paul was content to present the Way (Act. 24:14).
Let Greeks strive for excellence and skill in presenting their schemes to succeed in life, but Paul persisted in the proclamation of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. He did not need to enter into endless discussions with a view to discovering the truth as the Greeks did, for he spoke the wisdom which God revealed to him through the Holy Spirit. This message of the cross is adequate to equip man for life here and hereafter. Paul was determined to remain true to the trust that had been committed to him. See 1Ti. 1:12-17; 2Ti. 1:12-14. As an inspired apostle, he was a steward of the mysteries of God, and that required him to be faithful (1Co. 4:1-2).
I was with you in weakness.Paul often admitted his weakness and his dependence on God (2Co. 12:9-10). His whole ministry was in accord with his remark in 1Co. 1:31, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
fear and trembling.He was not afraid for his own safety. See 2Co. 11:24-32 which tells of the things he had suffered. For the Lords assurance to him in the face of danger, see Act. 18:9-10. In 2Ti. 1:12, he tells of his own confidence in face of suffering. It is quite possible that he uses the term fear and trembling in the sense in which it is used in Eph. 6:5 which speaks of the proper attitude of respect and obedience a servant should have toward his master. Paul certainly held this attitude toward his Lord, for, as he preached the word of the cross, his concern was not for the approval of men, but for the approval of the Lord (1Th. 2:4).
faith stand in the power of God.The faith of those who were being saved rested on the solid foundation of Gods revealed wisdom. It could not rest on the sandy foundation of the wisdom of men, no the miracles wrought through the apostle, demonstrated the mesmatter how cleverly they might present it. Gods power, exhibited in sage to be true. For the miracles wrought through Paul, see 2Co. 12:12; Act. 19:11-12.
By no stretch of the imagination could man have devised the scheme of redemption presented in the Bible. By the time the gospel was being preached in the first century, the world had been given ample time to try all of its schemes to save itself: pagan religion; animal and even human sacrifice; philosophies of some of the greatest thinkers the world had produced; and military force. All had failed. Surely the world was ready for the message of divine wisdom. Only Gods power channeled into the lives of men through the gospel could save a world dead in trespasses and sin. (Eph. 2:1).
By this careful approach in verses 15, Paul has prepared his readers for the next thought of the chapter: Wisdom spoken through the inspired apostles.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
II.
(1) And I.The Apostle now proceeds to show how he personally, in both the matter and manner of his teaching at Corinth, had acted in accordance with those great principles which he has already explained as Gods method. The testimony of God is St. Pauls testimony concerning God in Christ (1Co. 1:6; 2Ti. 1:8).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 2
THE PROCLAMATION AND THE POWER ( 1Co 2:1-5 ) 2:1-5 So, brothers, when I came to you, I did not come announcing God’s secret to you with any outstanding gifts of rhetoric or wisdom, for it was my deliberate decision to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him upon his Cross. So I was with you in weakness and in diffidence and in much nervousness. My story and my proclamation were not made with persuasive words of wisdom; it was by the Spirit and by power that they were unanswerably demonstrated to be true, so that your faith should not depend on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Paul remembers back to the time when first he came to Corinth, and three things stand out.
(i) He came speaking in simplicity. It is worth noting that Paul had come to Corinth from Athens. It was at Athens that, for the only time in his life, as far as we know, he had attempted to reduce Christianity to philosophic terms. There, on Mars’ Hill, he had met the philosophers and had tried to speak in their own language ( Act 17:22-31); and it was there that he had one of his very few failures. His sermon in terms of philosophy had had very little effect ( Act 17:32-34). It would almost seem that he had said to himself, “Never again! From henceforth I will tell the story of Jesus in utter simplicity. I will never again try to wrap it up in human categories. I will know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him upon his Cross.”
It is true that the sheer unadorned story of the life of Jesus has in it a unique power to move the hearts of men. Dr. James Stewart quotes an example. The Christian missionaries had come to the court of Clovis, the king of the Franks. They told the story of the Cross, and, as they did, the hand of the old king stole to his sword hilt. “If I and my Franks had been there,” he said, “we would have stormed Calvary and rescued him from his enemies.” When we deal with ordinary, untechnical people, a vivid, factual picture has a power that a close knit argument lacks. For most people, the way to the recesses of a man’s inmost being lies, not through his mind, but through his heart.
(ii) He came speaking in fear. Here we have to be careful to understand. It was not fear for his own safety; still less was it that he was ashamed of the gospel that he was preaching. It was what has been called “the trembling anxiety to perform a duty.” The very phrase which he uses here of himself Paul also uses of the way in which conscientious slaves should serve and obey their masters. ( Eph 6:5). It is not the man who approaches a great task without a tremor who does it really well. The really great actor is he who is wrought up before the performance; the really effective preacher is he whose heart beats faster while he waits to speak. The man who has no nervousness, no tension, in any task, may give an efficient performance; but it is the man who has this trembling anxiety who can produce an effect which artistry alone can never achieve.
(iii) He came with results and not with words alone. The result of Paul’s preaching was that things happened. He says that his preaching was unanswerably demonstrated to be true by the Spirit and by power. The word he uses is the word for the most stringent possible proof, the kind against which there can be no argument. What was it? It was the proof of changed lives. Something re-creating had entered into the polluted society of Corinth.
John Hutton used to tell a story with gusto. A man who had been a reprobate and a drunkard was captured by Christ. His workmates used to try to shake him and say, “Surely a sensible man like you cannot believe in the miracles that the Bible tells about. You cannot, for instance, believe that this Jesus of yours turned water into wine.” “Whether he turned water into wine or not,” said the man, “I do not know; but in my own house I have seen him turn beer into furniture.”
No one can argue against the proof of a changed life. It is our weakness that too often we have tried to talk men into Christianity instead of, in our own lives, showing them Christ. “A saint,” as someone said, “is someone in whom Christ lives again.”
THE WISDOM WHICH IS FROM GOD ( 1Co 2:6-9 ) 2:6-9 True, we speak wisdom among those who are mature–but it is a wisdom which does not belong to this world, nor to the rulers of this world whose extinction is inevitable. But we speak the wisdom of God in a way that only he who is initiated into Christianity can understand, a wisdom which up to now has been kept hidden, a wisdom which God fore-ordained before time for our eternal glory, a wisdom which none of the leaders of this world knew; for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but as it stands written, “Things which eye has not seen, which ear has not heard and which have not entered into the heart of man, all these God has prepared for them that love him.”
This passage introduces us to a distinction between different kinds of Christian instruction and different stages of the Christian life. In the early Church there was a quite clear distinction between two kinds of instruction. (i) There was what was called Kerygma ( G2782) . Kerygma means a herald’s announcement from a king; and this was the plain announcement of the basic facts of Christianity, the announcement of the facts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and his coming again. (ii) There was what was called Didache ( G1322) . Didache means teaching; and this was the explanation of the meaning of the facts which had already been announced. Obviously it is a second stage for those who have already received kerygma ( G2782) .
That is what Paul is getting at here. So far he has been talking about Jesus Christ and him crucified; that was the basic announcement of Christianity; but, he goes on to say, we do not stop there; Christian instruction goes on to teach not only the facts but the meaning of the facts. Paul says that this is done amongst those who are teleioi ( G5046) . The King James Version translates that word as perfect. That is certainly one of its meanings; but it is not appropriate here. Teleios ( G5046) has a physical sense; it describes an animal or a person who has reached the height of his physical development. It has a mental sense. Pythagoras divided his disciples into those who were babes and those who were teleioi ( G5046) . That is to say it describes a person who is a mature student. That is the translation given in the Revised Standard version, and that is the sense in which Paul uses it here. He says, “Out in the streets, and to those who have just newly come into the Church, we talk about the basic elements of Christianity; but when people are a little more mature we give them deeper teaching about what these basic facts mean.” It is not that Paul is hinting at a kind of caste distinction between Christians; it is a difference of the stages at which they are. The tragedy so often is that people are content to remain at the elementary stage when they should be going on strenuously to think things out for themselves.
Paul uses a word here which has a technical sense. The King James Version has it, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” The Greek word musterion ( G3466) means something whose meaning is hidden from those who have not been initiated, but crystal clear to those who have. It would describe a ceremony carried out in some society whose meaning was quite clear to the members of the society, but unintelligible to the outsider. What Paul is saying is, “We go on to explain things which only the man who has already given his heart to Christ can understand.”
He insists that this special teaching is not the product of the intellectual activity of men; it is the gift of God and it came into the world with Jesus Christ. All our discoveries are not so much what our minds have found out as what God has told us. This by no means frees us from the responsibility of human effort. Only the student who works can make himself fit to receive the real riches of the mind of a great teacher. It is so with us and God. The more we strive to understand, the more God can tell us; and there is no limit to this process, because the riches of God are unsearchable.
SPIRITUAL THINGS TO SPIRITUAL MEN ( 1Co 2:10-16 ) 2:10-16 But God revealed it through his Spirit, for the Spirit explores all things, even the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of the man unless the spirit of the man which is in him? So no one ever knew the things of God except the Spirit of God. It is not the spirit of the world that we have received, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may know the things given to us by the grace of God. The things we speak we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. A man who has no life but physical life cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. To him they are foolishness and he cannot understand them, because it takes the Spirit to discern them. But a spiritual man exercises his judgment on the value of all things, but he himself is under no man’s judgment. For who ever understood the mind of the Lord so as to be able to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
There are certain very basic things in this passage.
(i) Paul lays down that the only person who can tell us about God is the Spirit of God. He uses a human analogy. There are feelings which are so personal, things which are so private, experiences which are so intimate that no one knows them except a man’s own spirit. Paul argues that the same is true of God. There are deep and intimate things in him which only his Spirit knows; and that Spirit is the only person who can lead us into really intimate knowledge of God.
(ii) Even then it is not every man who can understand these things. Paul speaks about interpreting spiritual things to spiritual people. He distinguishes two kinds of men. (a) There are those who are pneumatikoi ( G4152) . Pneuma ( G4151) is the word for Spirit; and the man who is pneumatikos ( G4152) is the man who is sensitive to the Spirit and whose life is guided by the Spirit. (b) There is the man who is psuchikos ( G5591) . Psuche ( G5590) in Greek is often translated soul; but that is not its real meaning. It is the principle of physical life. Everything which is alive has psuche ( G5590) ; a dog, a cat, any animal has psuche ( G5590) , but it has not got pneuma ( G4151) . Psuche ( G5590) is that physical life which a man shares with every living thing; but pneuma ( G4151) is that which makes a man different from the rest of creation and kin to God.
So in 1Co 2:14 Paul speaks of the man who is psuchikos ( G5591) . He is the man who lives as if there was nothing beyond physical life and there were no needs other than material needs, whose values are all physical and material. A man like that cannot understand spiritual things. A man who thinks that nothing is more important than the satisfaction of the sex urge cannot understand the meaning of chastity; a man who ranks the amassing of material things as the supreme end of life cannot understand generosity; and a man who has never a thought beyond this world cannot understand the things of God. To him they look mere foolishness. No man need be like this; but if he stifles “the immortal longings” that are in his soul he may make himself like this so that the Spirit of God will speak and he will not hear.
It is easy to become so involved in the world that there exists nothing beyond it. We must pray to have the mind of Christ, for only when he dwells within us are we safe from the encroaching invasion of the demands of material things.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
3. This pride of philosophy Paul renounced at his first coming to Corinth, 1Co 2:1-5.
In continuation of the preceding paragraph, which is unhappily divided by the chapter, Paul resumes the reference to himself which was broken off at 1Co 1:17; which is now continued to 1Co 2:4; and is resumed 1Co 4:3-21. The substance of the whole is, that while he earnestly rejects all pre-eminence on the ground of intellectual leadership, (such as that of philosophers and scribes,) he did assert his apostleship and fatherhood of the Corinthians under the cross of Christ.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
II. BUT HE HAS AN AUTHORITY, AS ORGAN OF A GOD-GIVEN REVELATION, WHICH IS DECISIVE AND ULTIMATE, 1Co 2:6 to 1Co 4:21.
1. Yet Christianity has indeed a wisdom ( sophia) of its own, not human, but God-given, understood by the spiritual alone, 1Co 2:6-16.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. And I As in myself one of the nothings of 1Co 1:26-28.
Speech or of wisdom The same intellectual or philosophical leadership rejected by me in 1Co 1:12-17, was refused by me when I first came to Corinth to preach the Gospel. Excellency of speech, does not mean oratorical excellence; nor does Paul, as some think, aim here or elsewhere any slants at Apollos’ rhetorical style or ability, the phrase really meaning, excellency of philosophical lecturing or discourse.
Or wisdom Sophia, or philosophy; the invariable meaning of the word as used in 1Co 1:22.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Paul Now Stresses His Own Example To Demonstrate That the Gospel in its Successful Presentation by Him Had Not Been with Eloquence and Wisdom, But In Power (2:1-8).
‘And I, brothers, when I came to you, did not come with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery (or ‘testimony’) of God, for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him the crucified one.’
In accordance with what he has said Paul reminds them of how he himself approached them with the Gospel. He did not come as an orator using flowery words. He did not put on a show of wisdom pretending to, and expanding on, special knowledge. He simply and straightly preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is not here attacking eloquence or true wisdom. He is attacking preaching which gained its sole impact through eloquence, and depended on eloquence for its effect, and wisdom which was wisdom in men’s eyes, but not in God’s, as described in the previous verses, both of which could blur the essential content of the message.
‘Proclaiming to you the mystery (or testimony) of God’. The early authorities are fairly equally divided between reading ‘mystery’ (musterion) or ‘testimony’ (marturion) with the edge towards ‘mystery’. The third century papyrus 46 (the Chester Beatty papyrus) and the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus, together with 5th century Alexandrinus, support ‘mystery’ but the fourth century Codex Vaticanus, and a fifth century (?) ‘correction’ in Codex Sinaiticus support ‘testimony’. But as the term ‘mystery’ also appears in 1Co 2:7, and the ‘mystery of God’ is also mentioned in Col 2:2; Rev 10:7 (compare also 1Ti 3:16 ‘the mystery of godliness’), whereas the term ‘the testimony of God’ occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, the weight would seem to be towards ‘mystery’ as the correct original. For ‘testimony’ is usually used in relation to Christ.
The term ‘the testimony of Christ’ occurs in 1Co 1:6 and ‘the testimony of our Lord’ in 2Ti 1:8. The ‘testimony of Jesus Christ’ appears in Rev 1:2; Rev 1:9 in parallel with ‘the word of God’ and in 1Co 12:17 in parallel with ‘the commandments of God’. The ‘testimony of Jesus’ is found in Rev 19:10. Thus in view of the fact that the idea of testimony or witness is always elsewhere referred to Jesus Christ and not God, and the ‘mystery of God’ is mentioned elsewhere, we must favour ‘mystery’ as the original here as in 1Co 2:7, unless there is good reason to do otherwise
In the New Testament a ‘mystery’ refers to God’s divine plan, once hidden but now revealed openly to His own. It is a testimony now made to something not fully previously known. Thus Paul is here referring to the message of the cross as something once hidden, although indirectly depicted in the Old Testament sacrifices, but now openly revealed and declared as the means of salvation. Although depicted clearly in Old Testament prophecy (e.g. Isaiah 53), it was of such a nature that man’s wisdom had not caught on to it. And its present revelation now especially brought out the folly of man’s wisdom. This fits aptly into this context, and ties in with its use in 1Co 2:7.
In favour of ‘testimony’ some would question as to why any copyist should make the change this way. But the reason is not hard to find. ‘Testimony’ is superficially attractive because the whole passage is referring to Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians, and it is unlikely that the copyist would discern or think about its parallel usages. And ‘testimony’ had then become an ‘in word’ for the witness, often to death, of Christians before the heathen world and heathen judges. And they knew that Paul had been a ‘marturos’.
‘I determined not to .’ That is, ‘made a judgment that I would not–’ (krino – to judge).
‘Know anything among you except Christ, the crucified One.’ His message was to be centred only on Christ with special emphasis on Him as the One Who was crucified and now lives, with no flowery background calling on many aspects of wisdom. All was to be centred on Christ. All was to be centred on the cross. And as his letters make clear that means that it included all that He was doing and would yet do as a result of the victory obtained at the cross. For every aspect of the work of Christ, past, present and future, centres around the cross. All that we receive from God comes through the cross. His ministry would thus not be a restricted one except in this, that in everything Jesus Christ as the crucified and risen Saviour was to be kept central and made abundantly clear.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Christ Crucified For Us And The New Birth Through the Spirit Are the Two Central Foundations of Christianity (1:10-4:21).
Paul begins this section by revealing his concern that the Corinthians are in danger of splitting up into different parties around the teaching of certain leading teachers (1Co 1:10-17), and concentrating on secondary aspects of that teaching, rather than being united around the one central truth of Christ crucified, the one fact which is central to the Christian message, and around which all should be united, and which points to the One Who alone, by means of what He accomplished there, is effective in bringing about their salvation through the power of God (1Co 1:18; 1Co 1:24; 1Co 1:30 ; 1Co 2:2; 1Co 2:4), and is the very foundation of the Christian faith (1Co 3:10-15).
The crucifixion of Christ, points out Paul, has brought about the raising up of a wholly new situation. The world is now divided into two. On the one hand is ‘the natural man’, devoid of the Spirit, taken up with human wisdom, divided, rejecting God’s way, despising the cross (1Co 1:19 onwards leading up to 1Co 2:14), and on the other ‘the spiritual one’, receiving true wisdom from God, trusting fully in the word of the cross, enlightened, the temple of God indwelt by the Spirit (1Co 2:4-15; 1Co 3:16; 1Co 1:24).
The ‘natural man’ is the world in Adam, the first man, and as such earthy and without the Spirit and unable to discern the things of God, with no hope of the resurrection to life (1Co 2:14; 1Co 15:45-47). The Spiritual One is the last Adam, the second man, the heavenly One, in Whom are found those who are heavenly, Who has given His Spirit to His own so that they might understand the things of God as manifested through the power of the word of the cross, and know the things that are freely given to them of God, and come finally to the resurrection of life (1Co 2:10-16; 1Co 15:42-49).
But sadly the Corinthian church, while having become a part of the second, are revealing themselves as still very much taken up with the first. They are divided, looking to earthly wisdom, arguing about different teachers as though they brought different messages, rich and yet poor, reigning and yet not reigning (1Co 1:12; 1Co 2:5 ; 1Co 3:3-4; 1Co 4:8), neglecting the word of the cross, and the Crucified One, still behaving as fleshly rather than as spiritual (1Co 3:1-3). They are not allowing the word of the cross to do its work in them.
They need to recognise that the teachers are in themselves nothing, ‘weak and foolish’ tools of God (1Co 1:26-29) who must themselves account to God (1Co 3:10-15), whose task is to build on the One foundation which is Christ, for they are building the Temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is indeed the one Holy Spirit Who reveals through these teachers the crucified Christ and what He has done and is doing for them (1Co 2:10-16). For it is one Christ Who has been crucified and through Whom we are being saved.
What should therefore be all important to them is Christ and Him crucified (1Co 2:2), the word of the cross (1Co 1:18), foreordained before the creation (1Co 2:7), the central message they proclaim (1Co 3:11), and around which they must unite, for it is He who has been made to them the wisdom from God, even righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1Co 1:30). He is the one foundation on which they are built (1Co 3:11). The church is one and it is this message that separates them from the outside world which in its folly and blindness despises Him ( 1Co 1:20-23 ; 1Co 2:6; 1Co 2:8) and what He came to accomplish. Thus must they maintain unity in Him, partaking in His one body (1Co 10:17; 1Co 12:12-13), presenting a united witness to the world (1Co 1:10-12), recognising that they are the one Temple of God (1Co 3:16), rather than splitting up into a group of different argumentative philosophical groups having lost the recognition that what they have come to believe in Christ is central to the whole future of all things. They need the grand vision.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Justification by Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified In 1Co 2:1-16 Paul discusses how the Corinthians were saved, or justified. But he discusses it from the perspective of the Holy Spirit’s work in them since the underlying theme of this epistle is about the office and ministry of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Paul explains that the mystery of the Gospel, hidden in ages past, can only be understood by the Holy Spirit revealing it to us (1Co 2:10).
1Co 2:1 And I, brethren, when 1 Came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2 1Co 2:2
1Co 8:1, “Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
1Co 2:3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
1Co 2:3
“Several days before our annual Campmeeting in 1987, I had a visitation from the Lord. As I relate that visitation, I share it with you in weakness and in reverence and in much trembling because of the awesomeness of God’s power and His presence. Paul, ‘I was with you in weakness, and in fear’ (1Co 2:3). Of course, that didn’t mean he was afraid like you would be afraid of a rattlesnake or a tornado. Paul meant that he had a godly fear, an awe, and a reverence for God. It is with that same reverence that I now relate to that awesome visitation I had from the Lord the week before our Campmeeting.” [98]
[98] Kenneth Hagin, Plans Pursuits and Purposes (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1988, 1993), 1-2.
Paul was not saying that he was afraid of men, or was weak and in bondage to fear. He had been in the presence of God and was walking in a Godly fear and awe as a result of God’s divine interventions in his life (see 2Co 12:2).
2Co 12:1, “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.”
However, when we read Act 18:9-10 we see the Lord telling Paul not to be afraid, but to speak and not hold his peace, and that no man would hurt him. Thus, we see a picture of Paul experiencing fear because of the hostile environment he was in.
Act 18:9-10, “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.”
1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:4
Act 15:12, “Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.”
Act 16:26, “And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
Act 19:11-12, “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.”
Rom 15:19, “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”
Paul’s description of his preaching ministry among the Corinthians in 1Co 2:4 serves as a witness to Paul’s office as an apostle. He will refer to his powerful ministry among them later in his second epistle.
2Co 12:12, “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.”
Paul did not bring the house down in a show of excellent speech, but he brought the power down, that is, God’s power.
In one of Kenneth Hagin’s divine visitations with the Lord Jesus Christ, he was instructed by Jesus on the meaning of 1Co 2:4. The “demonstration of power” refers to the power gifts being in manifestation: special faith, working of miracles and gifts of healings. Those gifts demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord further instructed him that the “demonstration of Spirit” refers to the gifts of revelation (wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits) and of utterance (prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues). [99] Therefore, 1Co 2:4 not only says that Paul’s preaching was accompanied with signs and wonders, i.e., what we would call the power gifts. But, it also includes the other gifts in manifestation, which are the gifts of revelation and of utterance. The Holy Spirit manifests Himself through these ministry gifts.
[99] Kenneth Hagin, Plans Pursuits and Purposes (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Faith Library Publications, c1988, 1993), 46, 127.
Illustration – While Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Mar 1:21-28, He also healed a man with an unclean spirit. Thus, the people were amazed that His teachings were accompanied with miracles, thus saying that Jesus taught with authority.
Mar 1:27, “And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.”
In the Gospel of Mark, we see many stories where Jesus wrought signs and miracles while preaching and teaching the people.
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:1-5
Rom 11:13, “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:”
Gal 2:8, “(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)”
1Ti 2:7, “Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.”
2Ti 1:11, “Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”
Act 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
1Co 2:6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:4-6
1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:7
Psa 49:4, “I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp .”
Psa 78:2, “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old .”
Pro 1:6, “To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings .”
1Co 2:13-14, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
2Pe 3:16, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood , which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
Only the Holy Spirit can give us true understanding. Why does God not reveal His parables to the wicked? Note:
Mar 4:11-12, “And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.”
God does not reveal His whole counsel to the wicked because then they would become accountable to live by it. This would bring greater judgment upon their heads on the Day of Judgment. Therefore, in God’s grace and mercy, He allows them to live their lives in ignorance so that their judgment will be less. This is why Paul describes God’s wisdom as hidden, as a mystery.
Comments (2) – There are a number of mysteries mentioned by Paul in his New Testament epistles regarding our salvation that are not clearly understood; there is the mystery of Christ and His relationship to the Church (Eph 5:32), of His indwelling presence in every believer (Col 1:27), of the resurrection of the saints (1Co 15:51), and of the incarnation of Jesus Christ (1Ti 3:16).
Eph 5:32, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Col 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”
1Co 15:51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”
1Ti 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
The classical writers reveal that the concept of sacred mysteries being utters as divine oracles was practiced in the ancient world. Regarding the use of oracles, the ancient Greeks regarded divine oracles as a form of worship until the time of the Persian war (490-479 B.C.). [100] The temple of Apollo located at Delphi was famous in the ancient world for delivering oracles to men by those in a trance, or they interpreted dreams or patterns in nature. [101] The Greek historians Herodotus (484-425 B.C.) [102] and Plutarch (A.D. 46-100) [103] mention this place of oracles in their writings. While the Romans as a nation did not regard oracles as a religious practice, this custom continued within the Empire, but not without the contempt of the Romans. [104] This practice was later outlawed under the Roman emperor Theodosius (A.D. 379-385). [105] King Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor shows its popularity among ancient eastern cultures (1Sa 28:7-25). The damsel who prophesied over Paul and Barnabas in Philippi is an example of the proliferation of divination in the New Testament times (Act 16:16-24). The Sibylline Oracles, [106] a collection of Greek oracles compiled by Jews and Christians in the early centuries before and after Christ, reflect the widespread popularity that the Sibyl prophetesses held in ancient Greek and Roman history. Regarding the concept of “mysteries” ( ) revealed through oracles, Plutarch, writing about the Pythian priestesses who prophesied at Delphi, speaks of “interpreters of the sacred mysteries.” [107] Thus, when Paul refers to the mysteries hidden from the ages being revealed to the Church (Rom 16:25, 1Co 2:7, Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-4; Eph 3:9; Eph 6:19, Col 1:26; Col 2:2; Col 4:3, 1Ti 3:9), or when Luke, Paul, and Peter speak of the “oracles” ( ) (G3051) of God (Act 7:38, Rom 3:2, Heb 5:12, 1Pe 4:11), they are speaking in a cultural language that the Greeks and Romans understood, where pagans frequently sought oracles through divine utterance at the temples to reveal hidden mysteries for their lives.
[100] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” in A Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), 629.
[101] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Oracle.”
[102] Herodotus writes, “and he [Dorieus] asked the Spartans for a company of folks, whom he took away as colonists; he neither enquired of the oracle at Delphi in what land he should plant his settlement, nor did aught else that was customary” ( Histories 5.42) See Herodotus III, trans. A. D. Godley, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1938), 46-47.
[103] Plutarch tells us that the Sibylline prophetesses of Delphi used poetic verses with their prophecies, saying, “for when we drew near that part of the rock which joins to the senate-house, which by common fame was the seat of the first Sibyl that came to Delphi from Helicon, where she was bred by eh MusesSerapio made mention of certain verses of hers, wherein she had extolled herself as one that should never cease to prophesy even after her death” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 9) He later writes, “but I am constrained to claim your first promise, to tell me the reason wherefore now the Pythian prophetess no longer delivers her oracles in poetic numbers and measuresand also the temple of Tellus, to which the oracle appertained, and where the answers were delivered in verses and song.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 17) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 77, 86-87.
[104] The Roman poet Lucan (A.D. 39-65) reflects the contempt for such oracles by the Romans when he writes, “They had now come to the Temple, the only one which among the Libyan nations the uncivilized Garamantes possess. There stands Jupiter, the foreteller of destiny, as they relate; but not either brandishing the lightnings or like to ours, but Ammon with crooked horns.” ( Pharsalia 9.593-598) See H. T. Riley, The Pharsalia of Lucan (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853), 359.
[105] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” In A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), 629.
[106] The Sibylline Oracles, trans. H. C. O. Lanchester, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2, ed. R. H. Charles (electronic edition), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004).
[107] Plutarch writes, “The interpreters of the sacred mysteries acted without any regard to us, who desired them to contract their relation into as few words as might be, and to pass by the most part of the inscriptions.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Verse 2) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 70.
Rom 16:25, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,”
1Co 2:7, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:”
Eph 1:9, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:”
Eph 3:3-4, “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”
Eph 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
Eph 6:19, “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,”
Col 1:26, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:”
Col 2:2, “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”
Col 4:3, “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:”
1Ti 3:9, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”
Act 7:38, “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”
Rom 3:2, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
Heb 5:12, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”
1Pe 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
The reference to pillars and foundations of the Church in 1Ti 3:15 suggests that Paul had in mind the ancient Greek and Roman temples with their practice of divination, and that he compares this pagan scene of worship to the New Testament Church and the Holy Scriptures, which serve as its pillars and foundation.
1Co 2:7 “ which God ordained before the world unto our glory ” Word Study on “before the world” – The phrase “before the world” in the Greek text reads ( ). Strong says the Greek word (G165) used in this phrase means, “age, perpetuity, the world, a (Jewish) Messianic period (present or future).” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 128 times in the New Testament and is translated in the KJV as “ever 71, world 38, never + 3364 + 1519 + 3588 6, evermore 4, age 2, eternal 2, misc 5.” Therefore, the phrase “before the world” literally means “before the ages.” The word “ages” is used in the plural form in this verse and is a commonly used phrase within the New Testament. It reveals to us that God has divided human history into ages, which we call “dispensations” in today’s theology. Rom 2:8 tells us that in this present age Jesus Christ was crucified. Thus, a careful study of Scriptures would reveal to us these divisions of ages that God has ordained in history of redemption for mankind.
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:8
1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:9
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
1Co 2:10
The pronoun “them” has been added to the English sentence and is not a part of the original Greek text; however, it is implied within the context of these verses. The antecedent for the word “them” in 1Co 2:10 is found in the previous verse, “the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1Co 2:9) Thus, divine wisdom and revelation is not for the world, which has no access to God by His Spirit. They cannot receive it nor understand divine revelation (1Co 2:14).
1Co 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Paul prays in Eph 1:17 that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” Jesus said that He would send the Comforter, who will teach us all things. This teaching is done by divine impartation.
Joh 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
John the apostle writes that the anointing within us will teach us the truth. This is done by divine impartation.
1Jn 2:27, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
“by his Spirit” The UBG3 rd ed. reads “by the spirit.” However, the context supports the translation that it is a reference to the Holy Spirit and not the spirit of man, referring “the Spirit of God” (1Co 2:11).
1Co 2:10 Comments – The natural man does not know God (1Co 2:9). He must be born again in order to receive revelation and understanding of who He is (1Co 2:10)
1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 1Co 2:12
1Co 2:10, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
The “deep things of God” mentioned in verse 10 are freely given to us by God.
Scripture References – Note Eph 1:17-23 and Eph 4:7-8, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:13
ASV, “Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; combining spiritual things with spiritual words. (Or interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men )
Darby, “which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.”
Rotherham, “Which we also speak not in words taught of human wisdom, but in such as are taught of the Spirit, by spiritual words, spiritual things, explaining .”
RSV, “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit ”
YLT, “which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit, with spiritual things spiritual things comparing ,”
Note verse 14, “because they are spiritually discerned.” Thus, the context supports the discernment of spiritual things. Thus, scholars have two interpretations of this phrase, either “to spiritual men” or “with spiritual words”.
When we read 1Co 2:13 in the Greek, it becomes clearer when we add the necessary implied words following the logical thoughts that are implied. My interpretation would be to say, “which things also we are speaking, not with words taught by man’s wisdom, but with (words) taught by (the Holy) Spirit, interpreting spiritual (things) with spiritual (words).”
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:14
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:15
Scripture References – Note:
Pro 28:5, “Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.”
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
1Co 2:16
Note in the quote from Isa 40:13 that the Old Testament Hebrew phrase “the Spirit ( ) (H7307) of the Lord” becomes parallel to the Greek phrase “the mind ( ) of Christ.” Because of the context of this passage BDAG believes the word refers to what Paul usually calls “spirit” because this person’s mind is filled with the Spirit (see BDAG 4).
Paul quotes this Old Testament verse again in Rom 11:34, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?”
1Co 2:16 “But we have the mind of Christ” – Comments – The statement “but we have the mind of Christ” is a summary of 1Co 2:1-16, just as Roman 1Co 8:1 is the summary of the preceding passage in Rom 7:1-25. Paul has just explained to us in the preceding verses that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and that the Holy Spirit is always revealing to us God’s mind. We have the mind of Christ because the Holy Spirit dwells in us, so that we have now become spiritually minded. We have the mind of Christ as we live each day and hear the voice of the Spirit of God directing our lives, even in times when we are not aware of his prompting (1Co 2:10). This phrase is simply a summary of what Paul has just stated.
1Co 2:10, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
This statement does not mean that we automatically know all that God wants us to know, and should not exclude the fact that we must seek the Lord daily to know His will. We must wait on Him daily to hear his voice giving us leadership, although we certainly hear his prompting during our work day.
We do have the mind of Christ! Where is Christ’s mind in us? It is in our spirit. We have to renew our mind to think like Jesus’ mind. Even a newborn believer has Christ’s mind, in his spirit. For years I wondered if this phrase was saying our mind has become Christ’s mind, but I knew this could not be true, because we, as Christians, can be carnal minded.
Rick Joyner writes:
“It is a basic spiritual truth that no one person, or group, has all of the truth. What we have must be joined to what the Lord gives to the rest of His body, if we are to have the whole truth. This is stated in the Lord’s prayer the night before He was crucified:
“The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity , that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me (Joh 17:22-23).
“The word that is translated ‘perfected’ in this scripture could have been translated ‘completed.’ Either way, the Lord has established that the only way that we can fulfill our purpose is to be properly joined to the whole body of Christ. This is why Paul did not write that ‘I have the mind of Christ,’ but rather, ‘. . . we have the mind of Christ’ (1Co 2:16 b). No one person can contain His mind. It takes the coming together of the whole body for us to have his mind, or to reveal His ways.” [108]
[108] Rick Joyner, “True Unity” [on-line] , accessed 31 January 2001; available from http://www.eaglestar.org/word4weekmain.htm: Internet.
You may ask, “If I have the mind of Christ, why am I not thinking like Christ?” Because Christ Jesus’ mind is in your spirit, not your mind. You must renew your mind. But God has already recreated your spirit the moment you were born again (2Co 5:17).
2Co 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
1Co 2:15-16 Comments The Spiritual and the Natural Man – A Spirit-filled man is able to understand and evaluated all things, but the natural man cannot evaluate the spiritual man. This is because the spiritual man has understanding from God (the mind of Christ). Hence the quote, because no one can know and instruct God, nor can this natural man instruct a man with the mind of God.
In Mat 7:1-6 Jesus teaches us about judging our neighbour. We are to avoid being critical of our neighbour (1Co 7:1-4). Instead, we are to live a lifestyle of godliness so that we can speak words of wisdom and advice into the lives of others (1Co 7:5). If they reject what we have to offer, we are not to push Christian teachings into their face, lest they become offended at God’s Word and further bring judgment upon themselves (1Co 7:6). Rather, we are to discern their hearts and help those who will accept our ministry (1Co 7:6). This is why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and told them that he that is spiritual is to judge (or discern) all things while not being found guilty of sin and judged by others (1Co 2:15). That is, we are supposed to live a godly lifestyle without sin by being mature enough to be able to discern between good and evil in our lives as well as those around us.
Solomon made a similar statement in Pro 9:8, “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.” We are to correct those who are in error. If they are rebellious, the burden to correct them is not upon us. However, we are to have enough discernment to recognize when someone is receptive to correction, and offer such in a spirit of love. Solomon as well said, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” (Pro 27:6) If we speak the truth in love when correcting others, we may initially wound someone’s heart, but such wounds in the lives of the humble will quickly heal.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Preaching of the Cross. Paul’s preaching not in man’s wisdom:
v. 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
v. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
v. 3. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
v. 4. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
v. 5. that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul has praised the preaching of the wisdom of the Cross. He now shows what interest he, in his own person and in his office, has in this message: And I also, brethren, when I came to you, came not according to excellency of speech or wisdom. As it was with the Corinthian Christians, to whom Paul had conveyed the call of the Lord, so it was with Paul himself; they were not wise or influential according to the standard of this world, and therewith agreed that he, too, came without wisdom or strength, having in mind nothing but their spiritual welfare and the glory and praise of the Lord. When he came to Corinth, he did not make his entrance before them in accordance with the expectation which men of the world might have had concerning him, heralded as a man of singular accomplishments in oratory and wisdom and relying upon them for a brilliant success in the great metropolis. Never for a moment was he unconscious of the fact that he was proclaiming to the Corinthians the testimony of God. That was the subject-matter, that was the content of his testimony and message; and this excluded, by its very nature, a show of eloquence and wisdom. The testimony concerning Christ and His salvation is supremely excellent only as it is communicated in all simplicity.
And therefore Paul announces as his motto: For I resolved not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified; or: I did not judge it to be right and proper for me to give any evidence of wisdom among you but only that which concerned Jesus Christ in the climax of His vicarious work, as a condemned criminal on Calvary. Paul might well have taken the results of his studies, his learning in the realm of history, in natural theology, in philosophical systems, in order to parade it before the Corinthians. But all this he cast aside as improper and not apt to serve the Gospel. One fact only he wanted to hold before the eyes of the Corinthians: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as all men’s Substitute. “What manner of boasting is this, that he writes of knowing nothing but the crucified Christ? It is a matter such as no reason or human wisdom can comprehend, nor even those that have already studied and learned the Gospel; for it is a wisdom which is powerful, secret, and hidden, and appears like nothing, because He was crucified and gave up all might and power of the Godhead, hangs there like a miserable, forsaken man, and it seems as though God would not help Him; of Him alone I know to say and to preach, says St. Paul. ” Jesus Christ, the crucified Savior, is the one subject which cannot be exhausted in Gospel-preaching.
The theme, or subject, of his preaching having been announced, Paul describes himself as preacher among his hearers and readers: And I came and was among you in a state of weakness and of fear and of much trembling. The experiences which Paul had just had in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, before coming to Corinth, had brought him into a state of deep dejection, Act 18:5-9. And his spiritual weakness in this case had been increased by his weak and infirm body, 2Co 10:1; 2Co 10:10, which was often racked with illness, Gal 4:13-14. He was ever conscious of his want of resources for the task before him, and therefore was troubled with diffidence and timidity, 2Co 7:5. At least in his own opinion, Paul seems to have lacked the bold appearance, the imposing personality which makes an impression upon the average audience. But the very fact that he came without all artificial expedients served as a foil to bring out all the more strongly the quality of the message with which he was entrusted. For his speech and his preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom; he used no philosophical argumentation, no oratorical tricks; he did not try to make his message plausible by the skill of the trained dialectician. But by that very token the apostle’s message was delivered in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of Paul, gave the demonstration of His power, 1Jn 5:6; it was the power of God which was exerted upon the hearts of the hearers when Paul brought his message, 1Th 1:5. So the demonstration of the Spirit is contrasted with that of mere words, and the demonstration of power with that of mere logical argumentation. And the purpose of Paul in so doing was that the faith of his hearers might not be based upon the wisdom of men, but upon the power of God. If they had merely given assent to his teaching as a fine philosophical system which contained much to render it plausible, their faith would have rested upon treacherous sand. Paul’s intention, therefore, was to direct their hearts and minds to the power of God alone, through which they had been called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified, that God alone might be glorified in the faith of the Corinthians. Thus Paul has described the beginning of his ministry in Corinth in regard to his bearing, theme, personal feeling, method, and aim.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
1Co 2:1-5
St. Paul’s own method.
1Co 2:1
And I; “I too;” I in accordance with God’s method. When I came to you. The date of his first visit was in A.D. 52, and he had stayed a year and a half (Act 18:11). He had since been (roughly speaking) “three years” (, Act 20:31) at Ephesus. Of speech or of wisdom. I spoke to you neither oratorically nor philosophically. Hence the Apollos party, fond of the brilliant rhetoric of the young Alexandrian, spoke of Paul’s speech as “contemptible” (2Co 10:10). The testimony of God; that is, the witness borne to Christ by the Father (1Jn 5:10, 1Jn 5:11).
1Co 2:2
I determined. The unadorned simplicity of my teaching was part of a fixed design. Not to know anything. Not, that is, to depend on any human knowledge. Of course, St. Paul neither means to set aside all human knowledge nor to disparage other Christian doer, toes. His words must not be pressed out of their due context and proportion. Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Christ, in the lowest depth of his abasement and self sacrifice. He would “know” nothing else; that is, he would make this the central point and essence of all his knowledge, because he knew the “excellency” of this knowledge (Php 3:8)knew it as the only knowledge which rose to the height of wisdom. Christ is the only Foundation (1Co 3:11). In the person and the work of Christ is involved the whole gospel.
1Co 2:3
I was with you; literally, I became or proved myself, towards you, as in 1Co 16:10. In weakness. St. Paul was physically weak and liable also to nervous weakness and depression (1Co 4:7-12; Gal 4:13; 2Co 10:1, 2Co 10:10; 2Co 12:7, 2Co 12:10). He shows an occasional self distrust rising from the consciousness of personal infirmities. This enhances our sense of his heroic courage and endurance. Doubtless this physical weakness and nervous depression were connected with his “stake in the flesh,” which seems to have been an acute and distressing form of ophthalmia, accompanied with cerebral disturbance (see my ‘Life of St. Paul,’ 1:215-221). In fear, and in much trembling. Probably the words are even literally true, though they are a common phrase (2Co 7:15; Php 2:12, Php 2:13; Eph 6:5). It must be remembered that in his first visit to Corinth St. Paul had gone through stormy and troubled days (Act 18:1-12).
1Co 2:4
My speech and my preaching; the form and matter of my discourse. He would not attempt to use the keen sword of philosophical dialectics or human eloquence, but would only use the weapon of the cross. Was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom; rather, with persuasive words of wisdom (the word anthropines is a gloss). This simplicity was the more remarkable because “Corinthian words” was a proverb for choice, elaborate, and glittering phrases (Wetstein). It is not improbable that the almost total and deeply discouraging want of success of St. Paul in preaching at Athens had impressed him mere strongly with the uselessness of attempting to fight Greek philosophers with their own blunt and imperfect weapons. In demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So he says to the Thessalonians,” Our gospel came not to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” The plain facts, so repellent to the natural intellect, were driven home with matchless force by spiritual conviction. The only heathen critic who has mentioned St. Paul’s method is Longinus, the author of the treatise on ‘The Sublime and Beautiful,’ who calls him “a master of unproved dogma,” meaning apparently that his force lay in the irresistible statement of the facts which he came to preach.
1Co 2:5
In the power of God. So in 2Co 4:7 he says that the treasure they carried was “in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.”
1Co 2:6-16
The apparent foolishness is the only wisdom.
1Co 2:6
Howbeit. In this passage he shows that in reality a crushing irony lay in his description of the gospel as being, in the world’s judgment, “weak” and “foolish.” It was the highest wisdom, but it could only be understood by the perfect. Its apparent folly to the Corinthians was a proof of their blindness and incapacity. Among the perfect. The word either means
(1) the mature, the full grown, as opposed to babes in Christ (1Co 3:1); or
(2) the fully initiated into the mysteries of godliness ( 2Pe 1:16). A wisdom not of this world; literally, of this seen. The word kosmos means the world in its material aspect; aeon is read for the world in its moral and intellectual aspect. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1Co 3:19). Nor of the rulers of this world. Some have taken these “rulers” to be the same as “the world rulers of this darkness,” i.e. the evil spirits, in Eph 6:12 (Joh 13:27; Luk 22:53). Ignatius (?) seems to have understood it thus; for he adopted the strange notion that “the prince of this aeon” (i.e. Satan) had been deceived and frustrated by the incarnation from a virgin, and the death on the cross (Ignat., ‘Ad. Ephesians,’ 19). It means more probably “wisdom,” as understood by Roman governors and Jewish Sanhedrists, who treated the Divine wisdom of the gospel with sovereign contempt (Act 4:27). That [who] come to nought; literally, who are being done away with. Amid all the feebleness of the infant Church, St. Paul saw empires vanishing before it.
1Co 2:7
In a mystery; that is, “in a truth, once hidden, now revealed.” The word is now used for what is dark and incomprehensible, but it has no such meaning in the New Testament, where it means “what was once secret, but has now been made manifest” (Rom 16:25; Eph 3:4, Eph 3:9; Col 1:26; 1Ti 3:16). It implies the very reverse of any esoteric teaching. Hidden. It was “hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes” (Mat 11:25). Before the worlds; literally, before the ages; before time began. Unto our glory. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly states that “the future age” is in God’s counsels subjected, not to the angels, but to man. But “our glory” is that we are “called to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus” (1Pe 5:10).
1Co 2:8
Had they known it; literally, had they recognized; had they got to know it. The apostles often dwell on this ignorance as being in part a palliation for the sin of rejecting Christ (see especially Act 3:17; Act 13:27; comp. Isa 2:1). Jews and Romans, emperors, procurators: high priests, Pharisees, had in their ignorance conspired in vain to prevent what God had foreordained. The Lord of glory. This is not a mere equivalent of “the glorious Lord,” in Psa 24:10. It is “the Lord of the glory,” i.e. “the Lord of the Shechinah” (comp. Eph 1:17, “the Father of the glory “). The Shechinah was the name given by the Jews to the cloud of light which symbolized God’s presence. The cherubim are called, in Heb 9:5, “cherubim of glory,” because the Shechinah was borne on their outspread wings (see, however, Act 7:2; Eph 1:17). There would have been to ancient ears a startling and awful paradox in the words “crucified the Lord of glory.” The words brought into juxtaposition the lowest ignominy and the most splendid exaltation.
1Co 2:9
But as it is written. The whole sentence in the Greek is unfinished. The thought seems to be, “But God has revealed to us things which eye hath not seen, etc., though the princes of this world were ignorant of them.” Scriptural quotations are often thus introduced, apart from the general grammar of the sentence, as in the Greek of 1Co 1:31. Eye hath not seen, etc. The Revised Version is here more literal and accurate. The quotation as it stands is not found in the Old Testament. It most resembles Isa 64:4, but also vaguely resembles Isa 53:1-12 :15; Isa 65:17. It may be another instance of a loose general reminiscence. “Non verbum e verbo expressit,” says St. Jerome, “sed eundem sensum aliis sermonibus indicavit.” St. Chrysostom regards the words as part of a lost prophecy. Origen, Zacharias of Chrysopolis, and others say that the words occurred in an apocryphal book, the ‘Apocalypse of Elias,’ but if so the apocryphal writer must have had the passage of Isaiah in his mind. Some regard the words as a fragment of some ancient liturgy. Origen thought that they came from the ‘Revelation of Elijah.’ They were also to be found in the ‘Ascension of Isaiah’ (Jeremiah on Isa 64:4). and they occur in the Talmud. In a curious fragment of Hegesippus preserved in Photius, that old writer indignantly repudiates this passage, saying that it is futile and “utterly belies () the Holy Scriptures and the Lord, who says, ‘Blessed are your eyes which see, and your ears which hear.'” Photius cannot understand why ( ) Hegesippus should speak thus. Routh hardly knows how to excuse him; but perhaps if we had the context of the fragment we should see that he is attacking, not the words themselves, but some perversion of them by heretics, like the Docetae. The phrase, “As it is written,” decisively marks an intention to refer to Scripture. Neither have entered into the heart of man; literally, things which have not set foot upon the heart. The general thought is that God’s revelations (for the immediate reference is to these, and not to future bliss) pass all understanding. The quotation of these words as referring to heaven is one of the numberless instances of texts inaccurately applied.
1Co 2:10
But God hath revealed them unto us. They are secret no longer, but are “mysteries which now it is given us to know” (Mat 13:11). By his Spirit. The Spirit guides into all truth (Joh 13:16). In 1Co 12:8-11 St. Paul attributes every gift of wisdom directly to him. Searcheth. “How unsearchable are his judgments!” (Rom 11:33). Yea, the deep things of God. This expression, “The depths of God,” passed into the cant expression of the Gnostics, and it may be with reference to their misuse of it that St. John uses the phrase, “The depths of Satan” (Rev 2:24). “Oh, the depth,” etc.! (Rom 11:33).
1Co 2:11
The things of God none knoweth. Some manuscripts have not the same word () as that rendered “knoweth” in the earlier clause, but “hath learnt” (); comp. Joh 21:17; 2Co 5:16. All that is meant is that our knowledge of God must always be relative, not absolute. It is not possible to measure the arm of God with the finger of man.
1Co 2:12
The spirit of the world. The heathen world in its heathen aspect is regarded as under the power of the devil (2Co 4:4; Eph 6:11, Eph 6:12). Freely given to us by God. The word “freely” is here involved in the verb () “graciously bestowed.” It is different from the phrase used in “Freely ye have received,” which is gratuitously (, Mat 10:8). All God’s gifts are “without money and without price” (Is 55:1), and not “to be bought with money” (Act 18:20).
1Co 2:13
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The meaning of this clause is very uncertain. It has been rendered, “Blending spiritual things with spiritual” (Kling, Wordsworth), i.e. not adulterating them with carnal admixtures (2Co 2:17; 1Pe 2:22). “Interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men”. “Explaining spiritual things in spiritual words.” This meaning the Greek will not bear, but Calvin and Beza get the same meaning by rendering it, “Adapting spiritual things to spiritual words.” It is doubtful whether the Greek verb (sunkrinontes) can be rendered “comparing,” which comes from the Vulgate, comparantes. Wickliffe has the version, “Maken a liknesse of spyritual things to goostli men, for a besteli man persuyved not through thingis.” The commonest sense of the word in the LXX. is “interpreting” (Gen 40:8, etc.), and the best rendering is, “Explaining spirituals to spiritual men.” If it be supposed that the verb acquired the sense of “comparing” in Hellenistic Greek (2Co 10:12; Wis. 7:29; 15:18), then the rendering of our Authorized Version may stand.
1Co 2:14
The natural man. The Greek word is (psychical); literally, soulish, i.e. the man who lives the mere life of his lower understanding, the unspiritual, sensuous, and egoistic man. He may be superior to the fleshly, sensual, or carnal man, who lives only the life of the body (); but is far below the spiritual man (). St. Paul (1Th 5:23) recognizes the tripartite nature of manbody, soul, spirit. Receiveth not; i.e. “does not choose to accept.” He judges them by the foregone conclusions of his own prejudice. Because they are spiritually judged. The organ for the recognition of such truthsnamely, the spirithas become paralyzed or fallen into atrophy, from neglect; therefore the egoist and the sensualist have lost the faculty whereby alone spiritual truth is discernible. It becomes to them what painting is to the blind, or music to the deaf. This elementary truth is again and again insisted on in Scripture, and ignored by sceptics (Rom 8:6, Rom 8:7; Joh 3:3; Joh 6:44, Joh 6:45; Joh 14:17; 2Co 4:3-6). This verse is sometimes used to depreciate knowledge, reason, and intellect. On that abuse of the passage, see Hooker, ‘Eccl. Pol.,’ 3. Ecc 8:4-11, an admirable passage, which Bishop Wordsworth quotes at length. It is, perhaps, sufficient to say that if God has no need of human knowledge, he has still less need of human ignorance.
1Co 2:15
Judgeth all things. If he can judge the higher, lie can of course judge the lower. Being spiritual, he becomes intellectual also, as well as more than intellectual. He can see into the difference between the dream and the reality; he can no longer take the shadow for the substance. He can not only decide about ordinary matters, but can also “discriminate the transcendent,” i.e. see that which is best even in different alternatives of good. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psa 25:14). He himself is judged of no man. He may be judged, condemned, depreciated, slandered every day of his life, but the arrow flights of human judgment fall far short of him. These Corinthians were judging and comparing Paul and Apollos and Cephas; but their judgments were false and worthless, and Paul told them that it was less than nothing to him to be judged by them or by man’s feeble transitory day (1Co 4:3). “Evil men,” as Solomon said, “understand not judgment” (Pro 28:5).
1Co 2:16
Who hath known the mind of the Lord? “The Lord” is Jehovah (see Isa 40:13, LXX.; Rom 11:34). This is the reason why no one can judge the spiritual man in his spiritual life. To do so is like judging God. We have the mind of Christ. So Christ himself had told the apostles (Joh 15:15); and St. Paul always claimed to have been taught by direct revelation from Christ (Gal 1:11, Gal 1:12). They had the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9), and therefore the mind of Christ.
HOMILETICS
1Co 2:1-5
A faithful picture of a true gospel preacher.
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech,” etc. These words may be regarded as a faithful picture of a true gospel preacher.
I. The grand subject of his ministry is the CRUCIFIED CHRIST.
1. Christ crucified, because he is the highest revelation of God’s love for man.
2. Christ crucified, because he is the most thrilling demonstration of the wickedness of humanity.
3. Christ crucified, because he is the grandest display of loyalty to moral rectitude. This is the themea personal “Christ crucified;” not a creed or creeds written in books. He himself; not the theories of theologians about him.
II. The grand subject of his ministry is TO HIM SOUL ABSORBING. “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The man who has some paramount sentiment looks at the universe through it, ay, and values the universe so far as it reflects and honours that sentiment. Hence to Paul Christ was “all in all.” All other subjectspolitical and philosophicaldwindled into insignificance in its presence; it swallowed up his great soul.
III. The grand subject of his ministry makes him INDIFFERENT TO ALL RHETORICAL CONSIDERATIONS. “I came not with excellency of speech.” In order to exhibit this theme to men, he never thought of brilliant sentences and polished periods and studied composition; not he. The theme was independent of it, infinitely too great for it. Does the splendid apple tree in full blossom require to be decorated with gaudy ribbons? Christ crucified is eloquence, mighty eloquence. Tell the story of his life in plain vernacular, with the notes of nature, however rough, and in vital sympathy with its spirit; and your discourse will be a thousand times mightier than the orations with which Demosthenes shook the proud democracy of Greece.
IV. The grand subject of his ministry SUBDUES IN HIM ALL SELF CONSCIOUSNESS. “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” This Paul was naturally a strong, intrepid soul, but in the presence of this grand theme he felt weak and trembling. “Who is sufficient for these things?” he exclaims. Vanity in any man is a vile and disgusting incongruity, but in a preacher it is a thousand times worse. A vain preacher is an anomaly, an impostor. He has failed to realize the grand theme about which he prates.
V. The grand subject of his ministry INVESTS HIM WITH DIVINE POWER OVER MAN. “My preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, hut in the rower of God.” There is as truly Divine power in the ministry of a true preacher as there is in the heaving of ocean or the rolling of planets; but a higher power withal, power over mind, it is “the power of God unto salvation.”
“Would I describe a preacher such as Paul,” etc.
(Cowper.)
1Co 2:6, 1Co 2:7
The gospel: its description, preachers, and hearers.
“Howbeit we speak wisdom,” etc. In these words we have three things concerning the gospel.
I. A DESCRIPTION OF ITS NATURE. Paul calls it the” wisdom of God.” The wisdom of a system may be determined by two things.
1. By the character of the end it contemplates. A system which aims at an insignificant or unworthy end would scarcely be considered wise. What is the end the gospel aims at? The restoration in human souls of supreme sympathy with God. The absence of this sympathy is the cause of all the crimes, evils, and sorrows that curse humanity.
2. By the fitness of the means it employs. Though a system contemplate a grand end, yet if the means it employs are unadapted, it could scarcely be called wise. What are the means Christianity employs to generate this love for God in unloving souls? Ask what the souls destitute of this love must have in order to get it, and our answer will be three things:
(1) a personal manifestation of God;
(2) a human manifestation of God;
(3) a loving manifestation of God.
These things we think essential in the nature of the case, and these three things the gospel gives. It is, therefore, emphatically the “wisdom of God.”
II. A RULE FOR ITS PREACHERS. “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” The apostle clearly means by the word “perfect” those in the Christian community who were more advanced in the knowledge of Christ, who stood most in contrast with those who are but” babes in Christ.” One of these ideas may be attached to the language of the apostle. Either that he had an exoteric and esoteric doctrine for men, or that the most advanced Christian alone could discern the wisdom of his doctrine, or that he adapted his teaching to the capacity of his hearers. The last is the idea which I think we are to accept as the meaning. In another place he tells the Christians at Corinth that he had hitherto “fed them with milk, and not with meat, because they were not able to bear it” His conduct is, I take it, a rule for all true preaching.
III. AN OBLIGATION UPON ITS HEARERS. If the higher aspects of gospel religion can only be appreciated by these who are “perfect,” those who have attained to a high stage of Christian knowledge, it is manifestly their duty to advance beyond the “first principles of the oracles of God.” This duty hearers owe
(1) to themselves;
(2) to their minister;
(3) to the system of Christ.
1Co 2:8, 1Co 2:9
Spiritual ignorance the cause of immense evil and the occasion, of immense good.
“Which none of the princes of this world,” etc. The words lead us to look on spiritual ignorancei.e., ignorance of God and our obligations to himin two very opposite aspects.
I. AS THE CAUSE OF IMMENSE EVIL. These “princes of the world,” through ignorance, “crucified the Lord of glory.” A greater crime was never perpetrated. It involved:
(1) The grossest injustice. He was innocent.
(2) The basest ingratitude. He did. good, and good only.
(3) The most heartless cruelty. They crucified himthe most excruciating death that infernal malignity could desire.
(4) The most daring impiety. Whom did they treat thus? “The Lord of glory.” How this spiritual ignorance was the cause of immense evil is evident from two considerations.
1. Because it is in itself an evil, and like will produce like. There is an ignorance that is a calamity. When mind and means are absent, ignorance is a calamity; but when they are present, it is always a crime. These “princes” had both. Their ignorance was a sin, and sin, like virtue, is propagated. That this spiritual ignorance was the cause of evil is clear from the fact that:
2. Had it not existed, such an evil could never have been perpetrated. The words lead us to look at spiritual ignorance
II. AS THE OCCASION OF IMMENSE GOOD. Paul tells us that this Crucifixion introduced things that “eye had never seen nor ear heard.” Divine pardon, spiritual purity, immortal hopes, are all things that come through the Crucifixion. From the subject learn:
1. That the sinner is always engaged in accomplishing that which he never intended. These “princes” did two things they never intended.
(1) They ruined themselves;
(2) they served God.
2. That whatever good a man may accomplish contrary to his intention, is destitute of all praiseworthiness. What oceans of blessings come to the world through the Crucifixion! Yet who can ever praise the crucifiers?
3. That no man should act without an intelligent conception of what he is doing. How many act from prejudice and blind impulse! how few trove a right conception of what they are doing!
1Co 2:10-16
The gospel school.
“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” etc. Because man naturally craves for knowledge and deeply needs it, schools abound everywhere throughout the civilized world, especially here in Englandschools of science, schools of philosophy, schools of art, etc.. But there is one school that transcends allthe gospel school. Three facts are suggested concerning this school.
I. That here the student is INSTRUCTED IN THE SUBLIMEST REALITIES. “Deep things of God.” Things, not words, not theories. “Deep things;” deep because undiscoverable by human reason; deep because they come from the fathomless ocean of Divine love. What are these deep things? The primary elements of the gospel, and the necessary condition of soul restoration. These “deep things” we are here told are:
1. The free gifts of Heaven. “Freely given to us of God.”
2. Freely given to be communicated. “Which things also we speak,” etc. He who gets these things into his mind and heart, not only can communicate, but is bound to tell them to others, and that in plain natural language, free from the affectations of rhetoric, the language which the “Holy Ghost teacheth,” language which is suggested by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” Men think in words; thoughts come dressed in their own language; the intellectual thoughts have their own language, and spiritual thoughts have a language all their own.
II. That here the student is TAUGHT BY THE GREATEST TEACHER. Who is the Teacher? The Divine Spirit himself, here called the “Spirit of God” and the” Holy Ghost.”
1. This Teacher has infinite knowledge. “The Spirit searcheth all things.” The word “searcheth” must not be taken, I presume, in the sense of investigation, but rather in the sense of complete knowledge. In the last clause of the next verse it is said, “The things of God knoweth no matt, but the Spirit of God.” He knoweth those things of God; he knows them in their essence, number, issues, hearings, relations, etc.
2. This Teacher is no other than God himself. “What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” The implication is that this Spirit is as truly God as man’s mind is man. No one knows the things in man’s mind but man himself; no one knows the “deep things of God” but God himself. “Who teacheth like God?” He knows thoroughly the nature of the student, and how best to indoctrinate that nature with his own “deep things.”
III. That here the student MUST DEVELOP HIS HIGHER NATURE. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Man has a threefold nature, designated by St. Paul as soma, psyche, and pneumabody, soul, and spirit. The first is the animal, the second is the mental, and the third the moral or spiritual. This is the conscience, with its intuitions and sympathies, and this is the chief part of man, nay, the man himself, the core of his being, that which Paul calls” the inner man,” the man of the man. Now, this part of the man alone can receive the “things of the Spirit of God.” Set these things before the “natural man,” his mere body; they are no more to him than Euclid to a brute. Set them before the mere psychical or intellectual man, and what are they? Puzzles over which he will speculate; nay, they are “foolishness unto him.” Mere intellect cannot understand love, cannot appreciate right. It concerns itself with the truth or falsehood of propositions, and the advantages and disadvantages of conductnothing more. Moral love only can interpret and feel the things of moral love, the “deep things of God.” Hence this moral pneuma, this spiritual nature, this conscience must be roused from its dormancy, and become the ascendant nature before the “things of the Spirit” can be “discerned,” and then the man shall judge all things, all spiritual things, whilst he himself will not be judged rightly by any “natural man.” “For who hath known the mind of the Lord?” Who, thus uninstructed, can “know the mind of the Lord”?
HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB
1Co 2:1-5
How St. Paul preached the gospel.
A great truth is capable of manifold presentations. To be seen fully it must be viewed in various aspects, each of which is relative to the wholeness of the idea, while supplying to the student an increased sensibility to its excellence. Sir Joshua Reynolds speaks of his disappointment when he first saw the painting of the Transfiguration, but it grew upon him and educated his eye, the mind in the eye, to appreciate its sublimity. Hazlitt mentions a similar experience in his own case. Such impressions are not due to simple recipiency; the active intellect is aroused, and the thinker himself becomes a voluntary party to the object affecting him. Evidently, now, St. Paul’s idea of preaching, as given in the first chapter, returned upon him and solicited further consideration. Accordingly, we find him in the second chapter detailing his personal history as a preacher while at Corinth, and, as usual in his Epistles, the autobiographical clement discloses its presence in his logic. Whenever there was an important issue in his ministry, we see the man in the fulness of his proportions and look into his very heart, so that we are at no loss to understand the reason of his impassioned energy. In this instance he declares that he did not come to the Corinthians “with excellency of speech or of wisdom,” as the world regarded speech and wisdom. But he was with them “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” It was not the “weakness” of cowardice, nor the “fear” that brings a snare, nor the “trembling” that conies from an apprehension of criticism and hostility. Agitation and solicitude were the product of his fine sensibility, not rising from below, but descending from the highest realm of his being, the ideal of duty and responsibility so vast within him as to oppress the capacity of performance. A most blessed “weakness” this, the best possible assurance of truthful power, the most reliable token our latent nature offers as a promise of success. The throb of the engine in a huge Atlantic steamship sends its own quiver into every plank and bolt of the vessel. There is a “trembling” in all its compartments, but it is the trembling of power. St. Paul had no gift more remarkable than the gift of feeling to the utmost the doctrines of the gospel. Christ in him, Christ as the self of self, was the Christ he preached; and hence no discourse he ever delivered, no letter he ever wrote, affected others as much as they affected him. Effective speakers and writers are never on a level with their hearers and readers. They see more, feel more, than those whom they impress, and their personality is no small constituent in the effect produced. Rightly enough, St. Paul specializes “my speech and my preaching.” The “my” means a man “determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Self exaltation he had none; for self exaltation is always a parody on the truthfulness of one’s nature, and Christ was so real to St. Paul that he could not be other than real to himself in his ministerial work. And, in accordance with this fact, his manner of preaching the gospel is itself evidential of the divineness of the gospel. It was a “demonstration of the Spirit and. of power.” Of what avail that the “Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom”? Give them the “sign” and the “wisdom:” what then? The belief, or “faith,” if you so call it, is the man’s own product, standing in his own strength, the pride of his own intellect, the joy of his own vanity. Not so the doctrine of “Christ crucified.” The way it comes to the soul proves its infinite truth. It does not approach a man on the sense side of his nature, but on the spiritual side. Unlike education and culture, which begin with the intellect of the senses and develop upward, Christianity arises from the instant of its initial contact with the human soul at the highest moral capacity, and recognizes this soul as it stands related to God its Father, to Christ its Redeemer, to the Holy Ghost its Convincer and Sanctifier. Man as the image of the natural universe is regarded subsequently. Therefore the emphasis of St. Paul on the “demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” and therefore the strength and glory of faith, which stands, not “in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”L.
1Co 2:6-13
Contents of the revelation.
But the apostle claims “wisdom” for the gospel. The counterfeit has been exposed, and the genuine coin is now presented. And how does he proceed to verify his right to use a term that, in the estimation of all thinkers, commanded respect and admiration? He will honour the Word; he will restore its meaning and clear it of obscurity, nay, expand its significance and invest it with a charm not known before. Solomon had used his splendid intellect to give the word “wisdom” a wide currency among his people, and Socrates had laboured for the Greeks in a similar way, each of them an agent of Providence, to teach intellect its legitimate uses and rescue it from bondage to the senses. And there was that old world in which these men, under very different circumstances and sharing very unlike illumination, had taught their countrymen what they knew of wisdom, and this remnant of its former statethe mere effigy of earlier grandeurstood confronting St. Paul at Corinth, with its conceits, prejudices, and animosities, arrayed most of all against him, because he resisted, so bravely its earthly arts and methods. From a far loftier standpoint than Greeks and Jews acknowledged, an infinite distance, indeed, between the disputants of either side, he preached wisdom that came from Goda wisdom long hidden and hence called “a mystery,” but now revealed in the fulness of the times. Yet, during the ages when this wisdom had been concealed, when eye and ear and the subtlest imagination had been unable to probe the secret, when human thought had exhausted itself in vain research, and had sunk at last into unnatural content with its own imbecility,through all this probation of intellect in the school of the senses, God had reserved “the hidden wisdom” for “our glory.” The demonstration of man’s utter weakness had to be made, and Judaea and Greece had been chosen to make it. Rome’s task was to gather up the results and exhibit them in a solidified form; nor could there have been such a Rome as that of the Caesars unless the experiment with the “wisdom of this world,” and of the “princes of this world,” had proved a failure disastrous in the extreme. That time had passed. And now this “hidden wisdom” had been made known as a spiritual certainty, which was nothing less than a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” “There is a spirit in man,” and it “knoweth the things of a man.” Who can gainsay its consciousness? Who can appeal from its testimony to anything higher in himself? So too the Spirit of God “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God,” and, furthermore, the Holy Spirit is given to our spirit so that we “might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Just before St. Paul had stated that the mystery, the hidden wisdom, had been held back for “our glory.” And is not the truth of that statement now attested? Understand wherein “our glory” lies. It is in thisman has a spirit, and God communicates his own secret intelligence unto it in the shape of a “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Not wisdom alone, not only perception and reflection, but realization and assimilation in the attending form of power, the act of the recipient of grace not being the functional act of a faculty, but of the whole mind; “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”the spirit of the renewed man most fully conscious of itself, because of the presence of God’s Spirit and the expansion thereby of its own consciousness, What a comparing power suddenly wakens! What an outreaching process begins! This capacity of comparing, beginning our development in childhood and continuing till old age, is one of the mind’s foremost activities. It is susceptible of more culture than any mental property. The inventive genius of poets and artists, the skill of the great novelist, the discriminating power of the sagacious statesman, are alike dependent on the diversified energy of comparison. Accuracy of judgment, depth of insight, breadth of sympathy so essential to largeness of view, are mainly due to this quality. Give it fair treatment, and three score and ten years witness its beautiful efflorescence. But its spiritual uses are its noblest uses. “Comparing spiritual things with spiritual” is its grandest office. When the human spirit receives the Divine Spirit, what a glorious enlargement, by reason of the superaddition of “the things of God,” to the domain of thought, emotion, impulse! Calmly the mind works on; its laws never disturbed, its strength invigorated, its ideal of greatness opened in fuller radiance, its range and compass widened by a new horizon, a motive power brought to bear it never knew, and the repose of strength deepening evermore in the peace of Christ.L.
1Co 2:14-16
Natural man and spiritual man.
The natural man, who had not been forgotten by St. Paul in the first chapter, now comes under closer inspection. We can see him from the point of view occupied in the second chapter What is said of him? He “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Nature is represented here as very different from grace, and the difference has the breadth of contrast. Low and vulgar forms of nature are not enumerated, nor would it have been like the apostle to select his illustrations from exceptional cases of human depravity. Corinth could have easily supplied such instances. But the noticeable fact is that he avoids this sort of specification, and chooses his typical examples from “the wise,” “the scribe,” “the disputer of this world,” yea, the very “princes of this world;” and these are they who lack all spiritual discernment, and in their blindness look upon the glorious gospel of Christ as “foolishness.” And the portraiture is not finished till these “princes of this world” are sketched against the darkest of possible backgrounds, even the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. It is not the brutal mob that he pictures on his canvas, but the best specimens, according to current opinion, of the mind and culture of the age. Against thesethe guides of public sentiment and the accepted leaders of society, men of character and positionhe directs his condemnation. And the grief of his heart is that these are the very men whose evil spirit has infected the Corinthian Church, and introduced vitiating elements long ago abandoned by believers as utterly inconsistent with morality and religion. The natural man of that day was not the creature of the day, not an accident of those volcanic times when the foundations of civil order were shaking, and. even the majestic hills of Rome were threatened with upheaval, life; time and opportunity and ample means for development had been allowed; the fairest portions of the world had been given him for home and commerce; a thousand miles around the Mediterranean yielded everything that material civilization demanded; art and philosophy and government had afforded whatever the intellect of the senses craved; and Judaism had diffused itself far and wide, till even Stoicism had felt its influence. After all, however, the natural man has wound up the history of ancient culture by crucifying the Lord of glory; and now, the stain of holy blood upon him, he has learned nothing from his own experience, but persists in treating the gospel as “foolishness”, Nor can it be otherwise so long as the man remains under the thraldom of nature. Anomalous it may seem, but it is none the less true, that nature is morally known to us as the opposite of spirituality; and, though a human spirit is in the man, it is wholly incapable of itself to see, to feel, to will, to act, as a spirit in anything that concerns the truly Divine functions of spirit. Hence the need of the Holy Spirit to create spiritual discernment, and hence the supreme distinction of the Christian is that he has a spiritual judgment. “The things of God” are not discovered by him, but are revealed unto his spirit by the Holy Ghost. The discovering intellect of man is a splendid endowment, and yet it is altogether limited to the senses and their connections, nor can it pass under any urgency beyond the sphere of the visible universe, and penetrate the secrets of the Almighty. If, indeed, he could discover them, he would not be a Christian believer; for the traits of the natural man would adhere to him and be merely enhanced by power thus exerted, and there would be less room than before in his capacious soul for intellectual docility, for childlike trustfulness, for the obedience of self abnegation. And, therefore, the work of the Holy Ghost consists in teaching us to understand, to appreciate, to assimilate, the Divine truths disclosed by him; and, accordingly, what he reveals is not content to remain as ideas and dogmas, but seeks the inmost heart, allies itself with the instincts, and communicates to man a sense of himself and of the possibilities of character hitherto unimagined. Finally, St. Paul argues, “We have the mind of Christ” within us; and what better compendium of all embraced in spiritual discernment than this expression, “mind of Christ”? Far more than the truths he taught, and the practical lessons he enforced, is meant here; for it includes the entire method, the spirit, the aim, of his teachings, as imparting his own life to those believing in him. No moral principle, no doctrinal fact, no phenomenon of spiritual experience, now occupies ground and sustains relations to thought and volition and action that are independently its own. Not one of them is competent to self existence. There is not, there cannot be, a single abstraction in Christianity. “The mind of Christ” is in every ethical truth, in every miracle, in everything that involves taste, sensibility, reason, conscience, affection; and the life in one is the life in all. To dislocate is to destroy. And this “mind of Christ,” the apostle urges, is in us, and, by virtue of its abiding presence and infinite “wisdom” and “power,” the breadth of contrast between the natural man and the spiritual man is fully brought out. After eighteen centuries, the distinction is as luminous as ever. The very words remain to us”wisdom,” “power,” “foolishness”and “the princes of this world” attest their ancient lineage. The “natural man” of our day has grown to large dimensions. Never had the sense man, the intellectual man, the man of physical civilization, so much to boast of; for he has well nigh made good the claim of his sceptre to universal dominion. “Wisdom” was never so conspicuous. “Power” has been developed in a greater degree than its uses. And yet in this very hour, when destructive strength is the daily terror of mankind, and when liberty is ever threatening to riot in licentiousness, we see just what St. Paul saw in old Corinth; and the commentary on God’s Word which the nineteenth century, like all centuries since Christ’s advent, has written for our eyes, only enforces the truth that “the natural man” knows not God, and “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” In science and art, in government, in all sorts of internal sovereignty, “the natural man” has made a vast advance upon himself. But all this has brought him and his institutions and his well being no nearer to “the mind of Christ.”L.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
1Co 2:2
None but Christ crucified.
What is personal is here, as throughout these Epistles to the Corinthians, remarkably combined with what is doctrinal. These are the utterances of a noble minded and tender hearted man, writing to fellow men in whom he takes the deepest personal interest. Hence he writes of himself, and he writes of his correspondents; and to his mind both have the highest interest through their common relation to the Word of life. These Epistles are a window into the heart of the writer, and they are a mirror of the thoughts and conduct of the readers. How naturally, when thinking of present successes and discouragements, Paul reverts in memory to his first visit to Corinth! He has the comfort of a good conscience as he calls to mind the purpose and the method of that ministry. Human philosophy and eloquence may have been wanting; but he rejoices to remember that from his lips the Corinthians had received the testimony of God and the doctrine of Christ crucified.
I. THE ONE GREAT THEME OF THE APOSTOLIC AND OF ALL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
1. A Divine Person is exhibited. Christian preaching sets forth, not rabbinical learning, not Hellenic wisdom, not a code of morals, not a system of doctrine, not a ritual of ceremony, but a Person, even Jesus Christ.
2. An historical fact is related, even the crucifixion of him who is proclaimed. Everything relating to Christ’s ministry was worthy of remembrance, of repetition, of meditation; but one aspect of that ministry was regarded, and still is regarded, as of supreme interestthe Cross, as preceded by the Incarnation, and as followed by the Resurrection. In his earliest Epistle Paul had written, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross;” in one of his latest he taught that the incarnate Redeemer became obedient unto “the death of the cross.”
3. Religious teaching of highest moment was based upon this fact regarding this Person. Thus sin was condemned, redemption was secured, a new motive to holiness was provided; for the cross of Christ was the power of God and the wisdom of God.
II. REASONS FOR EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION IN THE MINISTRY OF RELIGION TO THIS ONE GREAT THEME.
1. A personal and experimental reason on the part of the preacher. Paul had a personal experience of the excellence and power of the doctrine of the cross. The knowledge which he prized he communicated, the blessings he had received and enjoyed he could offer to others. So must it be with every true preacher.
2. A more general reasonthe adaptation of the gospel to the wants of all mankind. For Christ crucified is
(1) the highest revelation of the Divine attributes of righteousness and mercy;
(2) the most convincing testimony and condemnation of the world’s sinfulness and guilt;
(3) the Divine provision for the pardon of the transgressors; and
(4) the most effectual motive to Christian obedience and service. The same doctrine is also
(5) the mighty bond of Christian societies; and therefore
(6) the one hope of the regeneration of humanity.
APPLICATION.
1. Here is a model and an inspiration for those who teach and preach Jesus Christ.
2. Here is a representation of the one only hope of sinful men; what they may seek in vain elsewhere they will find here reconciliation with God, and the power of a new and endless life.T.
1Co 2:4
Spiritual power.
Language like this sometimes refers to those special, supernatural gifts which were bestowed upon the members and officers of the Church in the apostolic days. But, as the apostle is speaking of the gospel of the cross of Christ and of its moral and spiritual effects, it seems reasonable to take the very strong expressions here employed as referring to the Divine vigour and energy accompanying the Word of salvation.
I. CHRISTIANITY IS THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. The Jews would have received it had it been a dispensation of miracle and prodigy; the Greeks, had it been a dispensation of rhetoric and philosophy. But God’s Spirit has his own mode of operation, withheld from the apprehension of carnal natures. The same Spirit who abode upon the Saviour at his baptism, rested as the Spirit of truth and illumination upon the inspired apostles, and as the Spirit of power accompanied their word to the hearts of men. He is from above, as the Breath, the Wind, the Fire, the Dew, the Rain, the Dove of God.
II. HUMAN SOULS ARE THE FIELD OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Christianity is no mechanical religion; its ends are not to be secured by any external conformity; it does not consist in buildings, ceremonies, priesthoods, etc. He only understands the nature of Christ’s purposes who can join in the consecration and confession
“I give my heart to thee,
O Jesus most desired;
And heart for heart the gift shall be,
For thou my soul hast fired.
Thou hearts alone wouldst move;
Thou only hearts dost love;
I would love thee as thou lov’st me,
O Jesus most desired!”
III. THE GOSPEL IS THE IMPLEMENT AND WEAPON OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. God’s Spirit approaches man’s spirit in every true, pure, and lofty thought, in every revelation of pity, love, and sacrifice. But God’s mind is made known with special reference to man’s position and needs in “the truth as it is in Jesus.” It is because the Spirit is in the Word that the Word is living and powerful, and sharper than the two-edged sword.
IV. FAITH AND REPENTANCE, OBEDIENCE AND HOLINESS, ARE THE POWER AND DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Here we have “the witness of the Spirit,” telling us that the source of such streams is above. Here we have “the fruits of the Spirit,” telling us whence is the life which embodies itself in such results. Doubtless under the conviction of the Spirit there present themselves displays of feeling, deep and signal. But the great and reliable proofs of the presence and action of the Divine Spirit are to be sought in those moral effects which can be traced to no inferior cause. The weeds sow themselves; but an abundant and precious crop is witness to the skill and the energy of the husbandman.
V. RESPONSIBILITY IS INVOLVED IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
1. The preacher of the gospel is reminded that his reliance should be, not upon his own gifts, but upon the Word and Spirit of God.
2. The Church of Christ is admonished neither to “quench” nor to “grieve” the Holy Spirit.
3. The hearer of the gospel is warned that to refuse the gospel is to reject the Spirit; and deliberately, persistently, and finally to do so is to sin against the Holy Ghost.T.
1Co 2:7
The Divine mystery.
The Apostle Paul was accustomed to press into his service, as a Christian teacher, all the institutions and usages of the societies with which he was in any way and at any time associated. Thus in this passage he makes use of the Eleusinian mysteries, with which his readers were doubtless familiar, to set forth the profundity of the Divine wisdom, and the distinction and happiness of those who were initiated into the glorious secrets of Christianity. “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery.”
I. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE MYSTERY. There is little reason to believe that the ancient Grecian mysteries had any substantial and valuable truth to conserve and communicate. Observe the contrast: the New Testament tells us of the purpose of God to save mankind; not Jews only, but Gentiles also, in the exercise of his wisdom and compassion.
II. THE HIDING OF THE MYSTERY. It is not for us to explain why a purpose so gracious should have been so long concealed. So it was. And for generations and ages the human race was unacquainted with the purpose which the Supreme had conceived in the counsels of eternity. We can see that the Law had been a “pedagogue” to bring the Jews, and philosophy to bring the Gentiles, to Christ. But the fulness of the time was known only to God.
III. THE REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY. This took place when Christ came and, in his ministry and sacrifice, made known the gracious designs of the Father, that all men should be drawn unto himself, and that the world might not be condemned but saved with an everlasting salvation.
IV. THE COMMUNICATION OF THE MYSTERY. This took place in the gospel. The fervour which Paul and his fellow labourers displayed in the preaching of the glad tidings shows how deeply those tidings had sunk into their nature, and how precious the reception of them appeared to their enlightened minds. They unfolded what had been wrapped up; they brought to light what had been buried beneath the soil, even “the hid treasure;” they brought out from the deep sea that “pearl of great price” which is for the enrichment of every possessor and for the delight of every beholder.T.
1Co 2:8
“The Lord of glory.”
When the Jews and the Roman governor united in effecting the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, neither party to the proceeding can be said to have understood and realized what was being done. The enemies and murderers of the Prophet of Nazareth saw neither the glory of his character and person more than very dimly, nor the glory of his redemption in any measure at all. Jesus himself had declared, “They know not what they do;” and Paul here says that, had they known the counsels of God, they would not have crucified Christ. This does not justify or excuse their act; for they certainly knew that they were putting to a cruel death One who was innocent and just. Christ is the Lord of glory
I. IN RIGHT OF HIS OWN NATURE AND PERSON. This he himself asserted, when he spoke of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. And such was the teaching of the apostles concerning him who was “the Emanation, the Effulgence, of the Father’s glory, and the very Image of his substance.”
II. IN VIRTUE OF THE CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY AND SACRIFICE. It is true that the life of Jesus upon earth was accompanied by lowly circumstances, and was not likely to dazzle the carnally minded. In his incarnation he emptied himself of his glory and took the form of a slave. Yet those who had eyes to see could look through the humiliation to the glory behind and within. And they have left their witness on record: “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Spiritual discernment recognized Divine glory even amidst the ignominy of the awful death of the Redeemer.
III. BY HIS EXALTATION AND THE EVENTS THAT FOLLOWED IT. The Resurrection and Ascension were the completion of the work which was begun by the Incarnation and the Sacrifice. If in the earlier of these movements constituting the redemptive work the glory was hidden, in the later it was conspicuously revealed. Jesus arose “in the glory of the Father;” he ascended, “carrying captivity captive; “he shed forth the gifts of the Spirit in royal profusion; he occupies his immortal throne. To his people he is the eternal “King of glory.”
IV. BECAUSE HE SECURES THE GLORIFICATION OF ALL HIS PEOPLE. Christ is described as “bringing many sons unto glory.” The context refers especially to “our glory,” i.e. to the heavenly happiness, dignity, and reign of those who have a part in Christ’s redemption, who share his conflict here, and to whom it is assured that they shall be partakers of his majesty and of his dominion hereafter. The honour of Christ is bound up with that of his people. It is not intended that they shall behold his majesty and splendour from afar, as something to admire and to adore, but not to share. On the contrary, his glory shall be reflected upon them; as the Lord of glory, he will admit them to participate in it, and this very participation shall be the means of its enhancement.T.
1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10
The revelation of things unseen and unheard.
It may perhaps have been complained, though unreasonably enough, that Paul’s compositions were lacking in logic, and his language in eloquence. There was in the substance of his teaching enough to compensate any deficiencies of such kinds. No sage communicated such wisdom, no poet such wonders, as he. Deep things, drawn by the Spirit from the ocean of God’s unfathomable nature, were brought up, and were by him presented to the Church of Christto all who possess the spiritual capacity to recognize their meaning and to appreciate their worth.
I. CONSIDER WHAT THESE REVELATIONS WERE. In the original prophecy the reference was to marvellous and Divine deliverances wrought for Israel; the apostle “accommodates” the prophet’s language to his own purpose, to express the display of Divine wisdom and power evinced in the gospel, in which Christ is made unto his people wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The privileges of the Christian calling enjoyed in the present are an earnest of the higher joys of the eternal future. The gospel manifests the favour and fellowship of God, assures of sonship and of heirship. It reveals Divine truth, and it imparts Divine grace.
II. OBSERVE HOW INACCESSIBLE THESE BLESSINGS WERE TO THE ORDINARY POWERS OF MEN. The eye can range over the surface of this beautiful earth, and can explore the glories of the majestic firmament. The ear has receptivity for the manifold sounds of nature and for the intricacies and the charms of music. The heart speaks often and profoundly: “A man’s mind is sometimes wont to tell him more than seven watchmen that sit in a tower.” But the revelations here alluded to are not like the features of nature, which are recognizable by sense, or like the inspirations of practical sagacity. The eye can see the works of God, but not the Artificer; the ear can hear the voice of God, but knows not the Speaker; the heart can echo the appeals of God, but these appeals must reach it from above.
III. REMARK THAT THESE REVELATIONS ARE MADE BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF, We possess a spiritual nature susceptible of Divine impression and appeal, and with this nature, created after his own likeness, the Father of spirits is in direct communication. Not that truth is miraculously conveyed; the Spirit takes the revealed facts and applies them to the mind, quickening and illumining the powers so that they receive and rejoice in the truth of God.
IV. PONDER THE CONDITION OF RECEIVING THIS KNOWLEDGE. The revelations are for those who love God. Not the great, or the wise, or the outwardly righteous are the recipients of Heaven’s best blessing; but those who possess this moral and spiritual qualification. They who “wait for God,” as Isaiah puts it; they who “love God,” as it is phrased by Paul,are the enlightened and the enriched. The spirit that is filled with gratitude and with love is thereby prepared to understand and appreciate the mysteries of Divine grace. The true love, which puts on the form of obedience, is the path to spiritual perfection. Love grows, and with it knowledge; and heaven is attractive because it is at once the abode of perfect love and the sphere of perfect knowledge.T.
1Co 2:16
“The mind of Christ.”
Some professed Christians have the name, and only the name, of Christ. Some are satisfied to have in sacramental bread what represents the body of Christ. “We,” says the apostle, and all true Christians will in a lowly grateful spirit unite in the same profession”we have the mind of Christ.”
I. WHAT IS MEANT BY “THE MIND OF CHRIST“? His earthly ministry, his counsels and promises to his disciples, his willing sacrifice, revealed that mind; and that so fully and so clearly that we may justly say, that mind has become and. is the richest heritage and possession of humanity.
1. His was the mind that saw the truth. He did not reason it out or accept it from authority; he looked it in the face; he was naturally and perfectly and always acquainted with it.
2. His was the mind that loved the good. It was through no fierce struggle that Jesus came to admire and to appreciate moral beauty; for goodness was natural to him and perfectly congenial and delightful to his being.
3. His was the mind that chose the right. The will of man is often vacillating and varying, and in some cases it persistently chooses evil. But throughout Christ’s ministry, righteousness was not the law to which he submitted, but the very life he lived. There is no instance of his preferring the wrong; he was without sin.
4. His was the mind that thought and planned and suffered for all men. It is not a just view of the mind of the Lord Christ to regard it as personal character. For he was the Son of man, and took all humanity into the embrace of his great and comprehensive mind. He thought and spake of all men as most closely related to himself. To know his mind is to know alike the mind of man and the mind of God.
II. How can WE PARTAKE “THE MIND OF CHRIST“? When we consider what that mind was, we may well be all but hopeless of possessing and of sharing it. Yet it is his will that his mind should be ours, and he has made provision for our participation in, our appropriation of, his mind.
1. We acquire knowledge of that mind through the record of the gospel. His words, his miracles, his conduct, his sufferings, were all a revelation of his mind; pondering them, we come near to the thought, to the heart, of our Saviour.
2. We receive with faith the all sufficient redemption he has effected. He is not only a Teacher, he is not only a Revelation of the Father; he is the Saviour. And it is in accepting the salvation which is through him that we are re-created in the likeness of his holy mind and nature.
3. We do his will, and learn that obedience is the method by which we attain to a more thorough sympathy with him. Thus a growing revelation on his part brings about a growing appropriation on ours.
III. HOW CAN WE PROVE OURSELVES TO HAVE “THE MIND OF CHRIST“?
1. By our judgment concerning spiritual things; for these are spiritually discerned by the disciplined, the sympathetic, mind.
2. By our life of loving service; for “if a man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”T.
HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL
1Co 2:1-5
Pauline preaching.
I. WHAT IT WAS NOT.
1. It was not “with excellency of speech.” Paul did not come as a rhetorician; his utterances were not orations of highly wrought eloquence. He did not seek to make the gospel palatable by presenting it with “enticing words.” His manner was simple and unaffected; his diction plain and easily understood. He did not aim to carry everything before him with a flood of words, neither did he, a preacher, seek fame as an orator. He had a message to deliver, and would not obscure it by many words; he dreaded lest anything should divert attention from its all important terms. It is recorded of James II. that he once sat for his portrait to a great flower painter, but so completely was the canvas filled with beautiful garlands of flowers, that the king himself was lost sight of. So many paint Christ in their sermons; when they preach Christ they preach everything except Christ.
2. It was not the impartation of human wisdom. Paul did not come as a philosopher; he came as a herald. He had certain facts and truths to proclaim, and he would not philosophize about them, at all events until they were accepted, for, until accepted, their true philosophy could not be understood. Human wisdom had failed; Paul brought something which would not fail. Paul was no enemy to human wisdom; he despised it only as a means of human redemption; it was very contemptible to him when it attempted to transcend its sphere.
II. WHAT IT WAS. It was the proclamation of “Christ and him crucified.” This was pre-eminent, excluding philosophies and subordinating all other things. The apostle would not know aught besides; this should fill his consciousness. If the Corinthians would not receive this, he had nothing more for them; he must turn to others more willing. A myriad other things had been presented to them by philosophers and various teachers; all had failed. He would present Christ, and this Christ crucified, and stake everything upon the issue. That which was the sum and substance of Paul’s preaching is, in much preaching, like the proverbial needle in the haystackexceedingly difficult to discover at all.
1. His theme was:
(1) The person of Christ. The subject of prophecy, of history, of the apostle’s own knowledge. Christ the Sent of God. Christ the Son of God and the Son of man.
(2) The office of Christ. Christ the Saviour of men. Exhibited as the Saviour especially in that tragedy of the cross, when “he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.”
2. This was “the testimony of God” (verse 1). The revelation of Divine wisdom. God had nothing greater or better to disclose to men than this. Well might the apostle pass by the wisdom of man, since he was entrusted with the wisdom of God. The “mystery” of God. Thought of in past eternal ages, long hidden from men, transcending the poor flights of boastful human intellect, but now plainly declared. Paul spoke not his own words or thoughts, but God’s.
3. Note a special feature of his preaching: it was “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” It was the utterance of certain truths with reliance upon the Divine Spirit to carry them to the heart. The apostle, in proclaiming the gospel, whilst using evidence and employing argument, relied upon the conviction of the Spirit. Words and human wisdom could not effect what he desiredconviction of sin, of the need of a Saviour, conviction that Christ was the Saviour, the only Saviour, the “Mighty to save.” Paul preached ‘waiting for the witness of the Spiritand that witness was given. It is sometimes not given because it is not sought. All preaching without it is useless, and yet it is often the last thing thought of.
III. ITS ACCOMPANIMENTS ON THE OCCASION IN QUESTION.
1. Weakness. Possibly the “thorn in the flesh” was at that time specially harassing, or the apostle may have been in special bodily weakness. But perhaps he was deeply conscious of weakness and insufficiency when he viewed the magnitude and importance of his work. Corinth was a strong Satanic citadel to storm.
2. Fear. Under a sense of responsibility, and the issues at stake. Apprehension lest mistakes should be made, and evil done instead of good. It might be well if there was more of this “fear” in some modern preachers.
3. Much trembling. There was much commotion in the apostle’s spirithe was deeply agitated. With no “light heart” did he set about his work. A very pathetic picture! But probably the best condition for the apostle under the circumstances. This apostolic condition has not a little to do with apostolic success. The all confident may succeed in the world, but they will fail sooner or later in the Church. Such a state as that of Paul’s makes us feel that we are nothing, and that we can do nothing; and then God works. When we are weak, then are we strong (2Co 12:10). The despondencies, humiliations, emptyings, of Christian workers have frequently been the preludes of marked spiritual successes. We are often too strong and too confident for God to make any use of us.
IV. ITS AIM.
1. The awakening of faith. This preaching was not a performance for applause, but earnest work for an all important, spiritual result. Nothing less than personal saving faith in Christ as the issue of his preaching could satisfy the apostlea faith which should indissolubly bind to Christ, and blossom into the excellences and beauties of the Christian life.
2. Faith well founded. Not standing in the wisdom of men (verse 5). Not built upon beautiful words or fine spun theories, but having the work of God in the heart as a sure foundation. The apostle desired divinely wrought conviction and conversion. So in his preaching he sought to make all room for God. He did not desire to be personally prominent; he swept away philosophies and the cunning arts of rhetoric, fixed the attention upon the God sent Saviour and his victorious work upon the cross, and relied upon God to make this break down the opposition of the natural heart and to build up in the soul a steadfast, abiding faith in Christ. An important inquiryWhat is our faith based upon? Do we know anything of the “power of God,” the “demonstration of the Spirit “? The faith of not a fewsuch as it isis based upon the imagination, eloquence, learning, or eccentricities of their ministers; upon the authority of their Church; or upon their own unsanctioned fancies.H.
1Co 2:6-16
True wisdom.
I. IS FOUND IN CHRISTIANITY. Paul has been speaking slightingly of” wisdom.” Might lead some to suppose that Christianity was unwise, or at all events a one-sided system; that it was a religion for the heart only, and unfriendly to the intellect. The apostle guards against this damaging supposition by claiming true wisdom for Christianity. What he has been decrying is the ineffective wisdom of the world. Christianity is for the whole man. When a man is in a right condition, Christianity satisfies both his head and heart. Christianity is the sublimest philosophy. Its creed contains the profoundest truths, and under its influence we are placed on the high road to the solution of all that is mysterious in the universe. We are in alliance with, and under the teaching of, the Eternal Mind, which will at last lead us into all truth. An intricate piece of mechanism may baffle the intelligence of careful students, but those on terms of intimacy with the inventor may obtain from him a lucid and all satisfactory explanation. God is the great Inventor of the universe, and all its puzzles are very plain things to him. Those who are on terms of sacred intimacy with himnot those who are estrangedare likely to enter into the higher knowledge of things. Christianity places us in this all advantageous position. We are on the road of knowledge. One day we shall know even as we are known. Perhaps to the lost the disheartening puzzles and mysteries will continue evermore.
II. ITS CONTENT. The knowledge of God’s redemptive work in its widest significance (1Co 2:7). Showing how man is restored to the Divine favour; his relation to God upon his recovery; the plan of his new life; shedding much light upon the Divine character and upon the Divine working in nature and in providence, since these are allied to and influenced by his working in grace; leading to the knowledge of many deep things of God (1Co 2:10), profound doctrines, etc. Man learns whence he came; the meaning of his present life; whither he goes; the cause of the disorders which he beholds in the world and realizes in himself; how this cause may be dealt with so far as he and others are concerned; how he and they may escape from its control and rise from it to God. Christianity solves now the mysteries attaching to practical moral and spiritual life. It shows man how to live. The Christ of Christianity could say, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Joh 1:4). Life wisdom was the wisdom the world needed; it was found in Christianity. The wisdom of the world was powerless to answer the great question of lifein this province it was mere folly. Christianity answered every question that really required an answer; and, in its marvellous plan of salvation, exhibited the sublimest wisdom, seeing that the Deity is hereby glorified and man’s rescue from sin, ennoblement, purification, and present and future well being are secured. When Paul expounded the doctrines of Christianity, he was not speaking folly, hut setting forth the truest and highest wisdom the world had ever listened to; and those who truly embraced Christianity became “wise,” seeing that they then possessed true views of God and of human life, and moreover yielded themselves to the control of an influence which would make them practically wise in every day conduct. Let us realize that Christianity contains the profoundest wisdom. Men laugh at Christianity,not because it is foolish, but because they are. Let us guard against being laughed out of Christianity; for if we are, we shall be laughed out of wisdom and laughed into folly,
III. ITS ORIGIN.
1. Not of this world. The true wisdom is heaven born, not earthborn. The world is at enmity with God, and omits him from its schemes of wisdom; no wonder that these develop into utter folly.
2. Not of the rulers of this world. The world’s great men did not produce Christianity; it sprang not from philosophers, rhetoricians, politicians, or conquerors. World powers tend to come to nought and their wisdom with them (1Co 2:6). The true wisdom revealed in Christianity never entered the heads of the wise men of the world (1Co 2:9); it was alien to their natures and notions. They were natural; it was supernatural.
3. God. It is true wisdom because it is Divine wisdom; its origin proves its quality. It springs from the Supreme Mind; it conveys his thoughts; it reveals his purposes and acts. In Christianity the finite mind runs upon the lines of the infinite. The human occupies the standpoint of the Divine. We see with God’s eyes.
4. Ancient. We speak of the wisdom of the ancients: this is the wisdom of the Ancient of days. Older than the worlds. Thought out by God in a past eternity. Conceived then for our well being. Wondrous thought! Here Divine love takes its place by the side of Divine wisdom. For us; and shall we miss it after all? Because fools call it folly, shall we? It is the eternal wisdom, prepared for us before time was. It comes to us down through the ages unshattered, unshaken, by the assaults of the centuries.
IV. BY WHOM UNDERSTOOD. By the spiritual. It is spoken amongst “the perfect” (1Co 2:6), the spiritually minded, the matured. Every believer has some comprehension of it; but the more spiritual a man is the keener is his perception of its beauty and force, the greater his delight in it. The carnal understand it not. Once they were tested in its close and striking approach to them in the person of the Lord Jesus, but him they sought to destroy (1Co 2:8); and, could they have done so, they would have robbed the world of light and left it to interminable darkness. To the “natural man” the true wisdom is folly (1Co 2:14); as the ordinary wisdom of men might seem to creatures of lower grade. The spiritual man is exalted, and sees clearly what to the man beneath appears blurred, unsightly, puzzling, and undesirable. The carnal man has a valley view, and gazes through thick and distorting mists; the spiritual man has a mountaintop view, and the more spiritual he is the clearer is the atmosphere through which he looks. Many men who quarrel with Christianity should rather quarrel with themselves; the fault is not in it, but in them. We need alteration, not God’s revelation. We must not think lightly of Christianity because many reject it; an imbecile throws away bank notes. Honesty is good, but a thief will have none of it. A blind man has a poor opinion of pictures. When the mouth is out of condition, the sweetest meats are unsavoury. When God revealed the true wisdom in Christianity, he announced that it would be unappreciated by many, and explained why this would be so (Rom 8:7).
V. ITS POSSESSION AND EXERCISE BY THE SPIRITUAL. 1. Possession.
(1) The spiritual possess the Spirit (1Co 2:10, 1Co 2:12, 1Co 2:16). This is the cause of their being spiritual. By nature we are all carnalthe children of darkness and of wrath. Our carnality is dissipated by the coming of the Divine Spirit into our hearts. He is light, we are darkness; the light chases away the darkness. The Divine Spirit commences the work of grace in our hearts and carries it on to the end. How eagerly should we open our hearts to this Divine Guest! How heedful should we be to the command, “Quench not the Spirit” (1Th 5:19)! To quench the Spirit would be to involve ourselves again in the darkness from which we had escaped.
(2) The Splint reveals the true wisdom to the spiritual. We are taught of the Spirit. Here we tread the road of the highest and truest knowledge. “Who teacheth like him?” Here is the school for all Christians; only as they learn here do they learn truly. Men have boasted of their teachers. How many sat at the feet of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle! and one very familiar to us sat at the feet of Gamaliel. But what an honour is reserved for the children of God to have as their Teacher the Holy Spirit! A Teacher, too, always with us, for he dwells within us; and ever ready to instruct. How diligent should we be in learning the lesson set for us by this Teacher!
(3) The Spirit is qualified for this office. What a striking testimony to the divinity of the Holy Ghost we have in 1Co 2:11! God is represented under the figure of a man; the Holy Ghost under the figure of the spirit of that man. How full the knowledge! how intimate the association! how indissoluble the connection!the two are one! We are taught by God, and who can teach God’s wisdom, the true wisdom, like God himself?
2. Exercise. The Spirit not only reveals wisdom to the spiritual, but makes them practically wise. As led by him, all their actions are wise; their foolish deeds are the fruits of refusing to be so led.
(1) They compare spiritual things with spiritual (1Co 2:13). This expression is obscure. Some have thought the meaning to be, comparing passages of Scripture together, all being recognized as inspired by the Spirit, and one being expected to shed light upon the other. And surely such “comparing” is wise. Single text men have a profound impression of their own wisdom, but no one else has. It has been well said that the best commentary on Scripture is Scripture. The Spirit has certainly made us wise when we have a special fondness for his own teaching. Men are apt to search everything before they search the Scriptures. We want more Bible students. Many know a good deal about the Bible, and very little of the Bible. The passage has been thought to mean, joining spiritual truths to spiritual (not worldly wise) words, thus causing it to continue the thought of the preceding clauseupon which, by the way, adherents of the verbal inspiration theory lay much stress as supporting their views. As for ourselves, if we are wise, we shall certainly desire to be led by the Spirit, not only in thought, but in utterance. Preachers and teachers need to attend the Divine school of language. Words are a great power; they hinder or help according to their suitability. How many sermons of noble and useful thought have been thrown away because of unsuitable diction! How much truth has been suffocated under masses of verbiage! How much reproof, exhortation, incitement, has been made pointless by being expressed in carefully rounded periods! The edge has been taken off; the sword has been blunted. How often “eloquence” has hidden Christ! And further, how often false doctrine has been fostered by carelessness of expression! We need a “wisdom of words;” though not that false wisdom of words which Paul so vigorously condemned. The modern Church requires a “gift of tongues,” and must look for it whence the ancient gift came. The ministers of Christ should speak “as the Spirit gives them utterance.”
(2) They form true judgments. In the degree in which they possess the true wisdom, according to the measure in which they are taught and led by the Divine Spirit. The reference is, no doubt, to matters moral and spiritual; but it must be remembered that all things in this life have a moral or spiritual bearing, and it is in this respect that the spiritual have true discernment. The truly spiritual man cannot be judged by the carnal The carnal cannot form a true estimate of spiritual matters, because these are spiritually discerned (1Co 2:14). So that the world’s judgment of the Christian, per se, need not distress him; it is the judgment of ignorance (see 1Co 4:3). This true wisdom, so priceless, is within the reach of all. By believing in Christ we may become “wise unto salvation,” and, under the Spirit’s teaching, wise for all time and for all eternity.H.
HOMILIES BY E. BREMNER
1Co 2:1-5
Paul the model preacher.
The apostle has shown that God does not save men by human wisdom, but by the preaching of Christ. He now declares that his own practice at Corinth was in accordance with this great principle. His example is a pattern for all preachers of the gospel.
I. THE MATTER. AND METHOD OF PREACHING. Paul’s business was to “proclaim the mystery of God,” “even the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations; but now hath it been manifested to his saints” (Col 1:26) The substance of that mystery is set forth in “Jesus Christ, and him crucified. The person and the work of Christ, what he was and what he did, constitute the great theme of the preacher. These two great heads cover all that is distinctively called the gospel. How is this to be preached? “Not with excellency of speech or of wisdom;” “not in persuasive words of wisdom.” Not as a new philosophy to supplant the old; not as a well reasoned argument, compelling the assent of the mind; not as a rhetorical display, taking captive the imagination. The temptation to seek to win men in this way is frequently great, as Paul felt it to be at Corinth, but it must not be yielded to. The preacher is the bearer of a Divine message to men which needs no adventitious helps (compare what is said above on 1Co 1:17-25).
II. THE SOURCE OF POWER IN PREACHING.
1. Self distrust. “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” Paul magnified his office and humbled himself. In presence of the forces arrayed against him and the great trust committed to him, he felt his own weakness. And if the great apostle trembled in view of his work, does it become any preacher of the gospel to be self confident? Human power at its best can produce no spiritual result. The most highly gifted are impotent to convert a single sinner. To be confident in our own strength is to be weak; for this confidence prevents the exercise of Divine power. To be self emptied, self distrustful, consciously weak, is to be really strong; for then God can work by us. Whilst we preach the Word, we are to stand still in impotence and see the salvation of God. This is a negative source of power to the preacher, a keeping of the field clear to let the Divine force have full play. Here also the law holds, “He that exalteth himself shall be humbled; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
2. The presence of the Holy Spirit. The apostle’s preaching was “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” The truth he uttered was carried home to men’s minds and hearts by the Spirit of Christ, and consequently with a power of conviction which no force of reasoning could produce. Here lies the preacher’s strength. Great results may be wrought by human power on a lower level: logic may convince the intellect, rhetoric may dazzle the imagination, pathos may touch the heart; but the Holy Spirit alone can convert, and nothing short of conversion should satisfy us. As the powder to the ball, as the strong arm to the sword (Heb 4:12), so is the Spirit to the Word. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zec 4:6). This was the secret of the apostle’s power, and all workers for Christ must depend on the same source of strength if they would “be strong and do exploits.”
III. THE CHIEF END OF PREACHING. Paul aimed at producing faith in Christ, and he was careful that this “faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Belief in Jesus Christ may rest upon evidence addressed to the understanding, or upon the authority of a teacher or Church; and this is important in its own place. But such belief implies no more than a mental assent to certain facts or truths, and requires for its production nothing beyond the natural force of proof. The faith which saves is the product of the Holy Spirit working effectually in the hearers of the Word, and is based upon his “demonstration” of the truth. It is, therefore, a stable and abiding thing, upheld by him who produced it; and it is an operative thing, affecting the heart and life of the believer. The end of gospel preaching is to bring men to exercise this living faith. Let the preacher pray and work for this; let the hearer ask himself if he has obtained it.B.
1Co 2:6-10
Spiritual wisdom.
While disclaiming a gospel based on the wisdom of men, Paul is careful to show that he does not disparage true wisdom. The facts of Christianity are the embodiments of great principles; the story of the cross has behind it the sublimest philosophy. Hence the gospel is at once milk for babes and meat for men (1Co 3:2); and a wise teacher knows how to adapt his teaching to the capacities of his pupils. Among the newly converted, the apostle confined himself to a simple presentation of truth; but among the “perfect,” or more advanced, he exhibited that truth in its higher relations. The Epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians are examples of the wisdom which he communicated to the full grown in the Christian Churches. The child and the philosopher find a common point of interest in Christ crucified.
I. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SPIRITUAL WISDOM. These are set forth negatively and positively.
1. It is “not of this world.” It is not a natural product springing out of earthly soil. It is not the invention of this world’s princes, the leaders of thought and the wielders of power, who control the ongoings of the age. They and their works belong to a state of things that is coming to nought. They have no place as such within the kingdom of God, and their wisdom shall perish with them. Christianity derived nothing from this source, and all attempts to improve upon it by human wisdom have been futile.
2. This wisdom is of God. The plan of salvation is a product of the Divine mind. At every step in it we mark his impress. Its conception as a whole, and all its details, speak of him. The characteristics here enumerated are in keeping with its Divine origin.
(1) It is “a mystery.” This is a favourite word with Paul in describing the way of redemption (cf. 1Co 4:1; Eph 1:9; Eph 6:19, etc.). Some ancient religions had their so called mysteries, into which their votaries required to be initiated; and the wisdom of God so far resembles these that it needs a Divine preparation in order to understand it. Mere natural reason cannot receive it; it must be revealed to us by God himself.
(2) It “hath been hidden””kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested (Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26). God’s secret purpose of mercy has, been revealed, in the gospel. God has broken the silence and has spoken.
(3) It was “foreordained before the worlds [ages].” Redemption is a forethought, not an afterthought. Before the world was, before man was made, before all time, the thought of God was upon sinners, and he purposed to save them. Follow the broad river of salvation back to the cross of Christ, back through all the stages of its development, and you come at last to the spring of infinite love in the heart of God. This great tree, which in the course of the ages has grown into strength and sent out many branches, has its roots in the timeless past, and its fully ripened fruits in the eternal future. Who shall overturn it (Rom 8:29, et seq.)?
(4) It was foreordained “unto our glory.” Here are the first and last links of the golden chain of redemption. Glory is the final completion of salvation, the full blown flower of grace. God gives all his sons a “crown of glory,” and for this his wisdom and power in Christ are working. The Divine origin of evangelical wisdom is confirmed by the treatment it received at the hands of men. When the hidden mystery was revealed in Jesus Christ, they knew it not. Even the Lord of glory had no charm in their eyes”no beauty that they should desire him.” The rulers of this world, the representatives of its wisdom and power, counted him worthy of a cross. And this has been the case whenever the gospel has encountered human wisdom. Acting on its principles, men have rejected Christianity and sought to crush it by force. Every day the same blindness is seen in those who do not embrace the Saviour, leading now to indifference and now to active hostility.
II. HOW SPIRITUAL WISDOM IS REVEALED. To give point to the contrast he has been drawing out, Paul quotes freely from Isa 64:4, to show whence our knowledge of heavenly wisdom is derived. “Whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him” is a beautiful description of the blessings of salvationpardon, peace, renewal, life eternal. All these have been made ready in the working out of the scheme of redemption. During the Old Testament period they were in course of preparation, the great plan step by step unfolding itself, till in the fulness of the time the Christ appeared, to turn shadow into substance, prophecy into history. And these prepared blessings are for them that love him; for they alone can receive them. Love has an eye to see, an ear to hear, a heart to embrace, the things of salvation; and to love they are revealed.
1. The knowledge of these things is not attained by the exercise of natural faculties.
(1) Not by sight: “Eye saw not.” What wealth of beauty has God prepared for the eye! Sky and earth and sea teem with fair forms from the Creator’s hand. Much knowledge comes to us through this noblest of our senses; but spiritual things lie in a region where it cannot enter. They belong to the invisible (2Co 4:18).
(2) Not by hearing: “Ear heard not.” Many sweet sounds in nature has God prepared for the ear. We learn much through the medium of words, spoken or written; but spiritual knowledge does not come thus. “Faith cometh by hearing,” but hearing alone does not produce faith. The Pharisees heard Jesus, but they did not believe on him. The men of Athens and Corinth heard Paul, but how few under stood his message! Thousands listen to the gospel again and again without entering into its real meaning.
(3) Not by thought: “And which entered not into the heart of man.” Wonderful things have been conceived by man. Think of the progress he has made in wresting from Nature her secrets (the sciences), and of the triumphs of inventive genius (telegraph, telephone, electric light, spectroscope, etc.). Think of the speculations of philosophers in their efforts to understand all mysteries, the dreams of poets in creating new worlds of imagination. But here is something which science could not discover, nor genius invent, nor imagination create.
2. They are revealed to us by the Spirit of God. It is his office, as the Spirit of truth, to guide us into all the truth (Joh 16:13). Spirit can be touched only by spirit. Our inner being lies open to the access of God, who can put his finger on its secret springs and move it as he pleases. The influence of one human mind upon another is similar to this. The process by which the things of God are made known to us is here called revelation. A twofold unveiling is requisite. The Holy Spirit presents the truth to our spirits, holds up before us Jesus Christ and his salvation; whilst at the same time he with draws the veil from the mind, touching the closed eye and opening the deaf ear. Of Lydia it is said, “Whose heart the Lord opened, to give heed unto the things which were spoken” (Act 16:14); and Paul says, “It was the good pleasure of God to reveal his Son in me” (Gal 1:15, Gal 1:16). By this spiritual unveiling, and not by natural sense or reason, do the things of God become to us realities.B.
1Co 2:10-16
The Holy Spirit as the Revealer.
In this section the apostle develops more fully the subject of revelation through the Spirit of God. The things prepared by God for them that love him have not been discovered by human wisdom, nor can they be apprehended by natural reason. As they come from God, they are made known to us by God through the operation of the revealing Spirit.
I. THE COMPETENCE OF THE REVEALING SPIRIT. “For the Spirit searcheth all things,” etc. He is competent to reveal to us the things of God, because he has a thorough knowledge of them. There is nothing in God that is hid from him, not even the “deep things.” The nature, perfections, purposes of the Almighty are patent to his eye. This is explained by an analogy between the spirit of a man and the Spirit of God. “For who among men knoweth the things of a man,” etc.? The depths of my being do not lie open to the eyes of others. They cannot observe the hidden motive, the secret desire, and all the movements that precede the formation of a purpose. They see only what is without, and from that infer what is within. But to my own spirit all that inner region is unveiled. I am immediately conscious of all that is going on within me. “Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God.” We can see a little of God’s working in tile universe, and from that we can gather something of his mind; but we cannot by searching find him out. We can only make dark guesses at a few truths regarding him, whilst the matters of his grace are completely hidden from us. But the Spirit of God knows the things of God, as the spirit of a man knows the things of the man. He does not know them by inference. As dwelling in God and himself God, he knows them immediately, infallibly, and perfectly. The analogy is not to be pressed beyond this particular point. The apostle is not speaking of the relation between the Spirit and the Godhead, except in regard to the Spirit’s perfect knowledge. From all this the fitness of the Spirit to be our Instructor in the things of God is manifest. The argument is not that he is superior to every other teacher, but that in the nature of things he is the only Teacher. He alone fully knows; he alone can fully reveal.
II. THE WORK OF THE REVEALING SPIRIT. The all knowing Spirit, proceeding from God, is imparted to believers. As “the spirit of the world” works in the sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2), the Spirit of God dwells and works in the children of faith. tits work appears in two ways.
1. In teaching us to know the things of God. “That we might know,” etc. (1Co 2:12). The things prepared for them that love God arc the free gifts of his grace. They have been provided at infinite cost, but to us they are given “without money and without price.” These things are taught us by the Spirit, who, as “the Anointing from the Holy One,” gives us to know all things (1Jn 2:20). How great a privilege to have such a Teacher! How far does it raise the Christian above the wise of this world! How accurate and assured should be our knowledge! And this knowledge is more than the apprehension of certain doctrines as true, or the persuasion that the gospel is God’s way of salvation. We know his gracious gifts only in so far as we receive them. Justification and sanctification are verities only to the justified and sanctified. The way to spiritual knowledge is through faith and personal experience.
2. In teaching us to speak the things of God. Paul has in view, first of all, his own case. It was his work as a preacher to declare the glad tidings to men, and this he did, “not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth.” He was not left to his own unaided skill in choosing the forms under which he presented the truth. The Spirit gave him utterance as well as knowledge, taught him the very words he was to employ. This statement covers both his oral and his written teaching. Apart from theories on the subject, inspiration must be held to extend to the verbal framework of apostolic teaching, as well as to the teaching itself; yet so as to give free play to the writer’s own form of thought and style of expression. He fitted spiritual truth to words suggested by the Spirit (this is one probable meaning of , 1Co 2:13), and so interpreted spiritual things to spiritual men (according to another probable meaning). Does not this apply in measure to all speakers for Christ? The apostles had a special inspiration for their special work, but many in the Church at Corinth had a gift of utterance (1Co 1:5). May not preachers, teachers, writers, and all who tell the story of Christ crucified, expect similar help?
III. THE NECESSITY FOR THE REVEALING SPIRIT. This appears in the contrast drawn between the natural man and the spiritual man (1Co 2:14-16). The natural man () is he who is in the fallen condition into which sin has brought mankind, and in whom the faculty of’ knowing Divine things (the spirit, ) is dormant. Such a man is not necessarily sensual or brutish, but he is earthlyall his movements being governed by the lower part of his incoporeal nature (), and directed to selfish ends. The spiritual man () is he in whom the spiritual faculty (), by which we discern the things of God, has been wakened into life and activity by the Spirit of God. This quickened spirit, dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, becomes the ruling part of his nature, to which thought, desire, purpose, passion, are in subjection. Hence:
1. “The natural man
(1) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” He fails to understand them, and, not thinking that the fault is in himself, he rejects them as absurd. They cross his prejudices and overturn his cherished principles. The doctrine of the new birth seemed foolish to Nicodemus. Every unconverted hearer of the gospel confirms the truth of this statement.
(2) This rejection arises from spiritual inability. “And he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.” The natural man is destitute of the faculty by which spiritual things are discerned, as a blind man cannot judge of colour. The tints of the rainbow, the gorgeous hues of sunset, awaken no sensation in him; and for a like reason the glorious things of God’s grace call forth no appreciative response from the natural man. How humbling to human pride and human wisdom] How great the need for spiritual illumination!
2. The spiritual man
(1) “judgeth all things.” This may be taken broadly as covering all the matters on which the spiritual man is called to decide. He alone is in the position where all things are seen in their proper relations, for he alone gives the spiritual element its place of paramount importance. But the apostle has specially in view the things of salvation, which are perceived and appreciated only by the renewed man. His inner eye has been opened, and he now lives and moves in the region of spiritual things, where the natural man stumbles and falls. Many an unlettered, Spirit taught Christian has a clearer insight into God’s ways of grace than the man of mere learning. Hence every believer is called to exercise his own judgment as to Divine truth, and not to rest supinely on the judgment of another. The spiritual eye, like the natural, is given us to be used; and in the use comes greater clearness of discernment and accuracy of judgment. But:
(2) “He himself is judged of no man.” A man with eyesight can judge of the matters of a blind man, but the blind man cannot judge of him. The spiritual man understands the language in which other men speak, but they do not understand his language. Paul understood Greek philosophy, but the philosophers did not understand him. “Thou art mad,” said Festus (Act 26:24); “This babbler,” said the Athenians (Act 17:15); “Fool,” said the Corinthians. None but a poet can criticize a poet; none but a painter can judge a painter; none but a believer can appreciate a believer. The spiritual man has the mind of Christ, of which the natural man is destitute; and for the latter to sit in judgment on the former would imply that he is capable of instructing the Lord.B.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
1Co 2:7
The wisdom of God in a mystery.
The word “mystery” has a twofold meaning as used by the apostle. It means that which is concealed from men until the due time for its disclosure has come; and it also means that which in itself, by reason of its own inherent greatness, surpasses human comprehension. Both meanings are involved here. God’s wisdom in the gospel, though foreordained before the worlds, had been “hidden” from the ages and generations of the past. As it would seem to be with many of the secrets of nature, there was the proper, the “appointed” time for it to be brought to light. The men of the earlier ages were as ignorant of it as our fathers even of the last generation were of many of the marvellous things that are now among the familiar facts of our social life, or as we are of what the triumphs of scientific discovery a hundred years hence shall be. Not that the discovery of this Divine wisdom is like a mere step in scientific development. It is a supernatural revelation. And now that it has been revealed, it is still a “mystery,” too profound for any power of man to fathom. The apostle “speaks” it, handles it, deals with it, as a mysterya mystery which even he himself cannot penetrate and solve (see also Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26; Eph 3:5; Col 1:26). Having special regard now to this inherent characteristic of the gospel, note
I. WHEREIN THIS ELEMENT OF MYSTERY CHIEFLY LIES. It lies in matters such as these.
1. The person of Christ (1Ti 3:16).
2. The efficacy of his atoning sacrifice (Eph 3:9, Eph 3:10; 1Pe 1:12).
3. The operation of his Spirit on the souls of men (Joh 3:8).
4. The nature of the union between himself and his people (Joh 6:53-63; Eph 5:32).
5. The ultimate issues of his redemption (1Co 15:51; 1Jn 3:2; Act 3:21).
II. CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS THAT VINDICATE AND EXPLAIN IT.
1. That which is Divine must needs transcend the limits of human intelligence.
2. It shows Christianity to be in harmony with every other form of Divine revelation.
3. It accords with the progressive character of our present state of existence.
4. It serves to develop in us some of the noblest moral qualities.
5. It heightens our impression of the simplicity of those truths which are vital to our salvation.
6. It stimulates our longing for the brighter and better future (1Co 13:9, 1Co 13:12).W.
1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10, 1Co 2:14
The revelation of the things of God.
It may be that we have here a free quotation of Isa 64:4. But whether a quotation or not, it expresses a principle true in every age. The great “things of God” have ever been beyond the reach of the unaided powers of man. What are these “things which God hath prepared for them that love him”? To apply this expression, as is sometimes done, merely to the glories and joys of the heaven of the future, is to narrow its meaning. Those heavenly things, indeed, are purely matters of faith, above sense, above reason, above experience, above the loftiest flights of imagination. The most suggestive teachings of Scripture, even the grand apocalyptic visions, do not enable us in the remotest degree to conceive of them.
“In vain our fancy strives to paint
The moment after death.”
But the “deep things of God” here spoken of, “the things freely given to us of God” (Isa 64:12), are matters of present realization, facts of consciousness, and not merely anticipations of faith. They are those great moral and spiritual truths of which the Name of Christ is the symbol, and those privileges and joys which are the distinguishing marks of Christian life. Consider what is here asserted about them:
(1) Negativelytreat the eye and the ear and the hearst have not apprehended them;
(2) positivelythat they are revealed to us by the Spirit of God.
I. THE NATURAL POWERS OF MAN CANNOT APPREHEND THESE THINGS. We may take the eye and the ear and the heart as equivalent to the whole sum of our natural faculties. They are those of the “natural man” as contrasted with the “spiritual” (Verse 14). Every faculty of our nature has its own proper sphere, the “things” that belong to it and with which it is conversant. Sense perceives material things, and, according to the delicacy of its organization, it appreciates the truth of thesebeauty of form and colour, variety and harmony of sound, etc. Intellect moves in a region of abstract thought, entertains ideas, judges their relations, etc. Conscience deals with moral questions, determines the dictates of duty, the distinctions of right and wrong. The heart is the seat and tribunal of the affections, love and hate, desire and aversion, hope and fear. Each faculty has its particular part to play in the economy of our life. But when we come to the higher region of the “things of God,” we find that which lies beyond the range of these mere natural powers. These Greeks of Corinth and Athens with whom Paul had to do were many of them men of fine native capacity and high culture, men of subtle thought and delicate sensibility. There were “princes” among them, men who had risen above their fellows in the particular departments of human interest for which nature qualified them. The ruler, the senator, the economist, could discern the exigencies of state, and judge matters of law and policy. The philosopher could weigh the evidences of science and thread the mazes of speculative thought. The poet knew what the “fine frenzy” of imagination meant, and could portray in glowing speech the changeful phases of human passion and life. The sculptor and painter had souls alive to the beauty of form and colour, and conversant with the canons of aesthetic taste. And no doubt there were among them men of tender feeling and noble characterbenevolent citizens; honourable merchants; faithful, loving fathers, husbands, brothers, friends. And yet how utterly in the dark were they as to the real nature and character of the Deity, and the way of access to him; as to how their being might be redeemed from the power of evil; and how they might solve the mystery and soothe the sadness of death and of the tomb! There had been among them many
“A grey spirit yearning with desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought.”
But they could not gain the most distant glimpse of this higher knowledge. It was as a star that had not risen upon them and of the beauty of whose light they could not dream. Indeed, the shadow of their ignorance had settled down so deeply upon them that they had lost the hope of ever seeing the light. They could not recognize it when it came. Paul’s preaching was “foolishness” to them. He was but one of the tribe of “babblers,” a “setter forth of strange gods.” His voice was like that of “one that crieth in the wilderness.” It awakened for the most part no responsive echo, but died away upon the empty air. The powers of the natural man are as ineffectual for any saving purpose now as ever they were; as incapable of receiving the deep things of God as they were of discovering them. To be assured of this, we have only to remember to how large an extent the intellect of the age goes darkly and wildly astray from Christ; how men of scientific genius, dealing with the phenomena and laws of the universe, fail often to find in them anything Divine; and how many there are whose very natural virtues condemn them because they refuse to exercise on the heavenward side of their being affections that give so much charm to their lower earthly life. All this tells us that men must be inspired by a Power higher than any that is latent in their own nature before they can rise to the apprehension of Divine things and to the beauty and dignity of the life of God.
II. THESE THINGS ARE REVEALED TO US BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. The Spirit is plainly spoken of here as a personal Being, entering into personal contact and converse with the human soul, imparting to it a faculty of spiritual apprehension which it would not otherwise possess, Note:
1. The Spirit who inspired the apostles to deliver their gospel message prepared men, rightly to receive and interpret it. It was the same power in both (Joh 15:26, Joh 15:27; Joh 16:13; 1Co 2:4-8; 1Jn 2:20-27).
2. This interpretive faculty is far less a matter of mental perpetration than of spiritual sympathy. This is seen in rite contrast instituted between the “spirit of the world” and the “spirit that is of God.” The spirit of the world is ever a captious, sophistical spirit, distrustful, carnal, vain, self willed. The spirit that is of God is simple, lowly, loving, trustful, submissive, childlike. Coming from God, it is in true affinity with the mind of God, and with that Word which is the reflex of the thought and of the heart of God. When, in answer to the wondering question of the Jews, “How knoweth this man letters,” etc.? (Joh 7:15), Jesus answered, “My teaching is not mine,” etc., he placed himself on a level which they also might occupy. Let them emulate his loving loyalty to the will of the Father, and they also shall “know.” We must have something of the spirit of the well beloved Son in us if we would rightly apprehend “the things that are freely given to us of God.”W.
1Co 2:15
The judging faculty.
“He that is spiritual” is he in whom the Spirit of God dwells, pervading his spirit with a light and quickening it to a life above that of nature. This higher spirit life has many marks of distinction. It is one of these to which the apostle here gives prominence. Two things are affirmed of the spiritual man
(1) His power to judge;
(2) his freedom from being judged.
I. HIS POWER TO JUDGE. The attitude of mind suggested is an inquiring, critical, testing attitudean attitude in which it holds its faith in abeyance until perfectly convinced that that which claims it is divinely true, “proving all things” that it may “hold fast that which is good.” The spiritual man brings everything thus to the secret tribunal of his own soul.
1. All forms of human teaching and influence, the various ways in which men seek to guide our opinions and our conduct. “Believe not every spirit, but prove,” etc. (1Jn 4:1). We may apply this to the whole action of the spirits of men upon us through the ordinary means of personal influence. The spirit of truth and the spirit of error, the spirit of good and of evil, come to us through these human channels; and our mental conditions, our daily habits of thought and life, are determined; often far more than we are aware of, in this way. The spirits of men are embodied in their works and words, and thus not merely when they are physically present with us, but when we have never seen them face to face, when oceans roll between us, when they have passed away to other worlds, we may feel their living touch upon our souls: Their sway over us is independent of the conditions of space and time. “Being dead, they yet speak.” “They rule us from their urns.” Their very names are instruments of persuasive spiritual power. The grand question in every such case is whether this power is on the whole favourable or otherwise to the cause of truth and righteousness. It is by some criterion of right and wrong in our own souls that this question must be determined, and what can the criterion be but the “spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind” that God gives? Books, sermons, newspapers, theories, systems of religious faith and ecclesiastical polity, the personal example and converse of others, the social sentiments and customs that prevail around us,in short, everything that possesses a moral quality and wields a moral influence over us, must be subjected to this test. This is the Divine “right of private judgment,” which in its highest aspect we cannot surrender if we would.
2. The revelation of God, coming to us as it does through human and. natural channels, must needs be amenable to the same law. According to its own teaching, the Divine in us can alone discover and recognize the Divine element in it. “He that is of God heareth the words of God” (Joh 8:47); “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (Joh 18:37); “Ye have an anointing of the Holy One,” etc. (1Jn 2:20). Men justly argue that the Bible, like every other book, must be brought to the tribunal of the “judging faculty.” But what is that faculty? If they mean by it the Spirit of God given in his measure to every lowly Christian believer, the wondrous supernatural light that shines from heaven upon every soul that humbly and prayerfully looks up for it,this is a principle to which all apostolic voices bear witness. But if they mean some native faculty, some light of natural reason, some power of spiritual discernment inherent in the very constitution of our being,they are trusting to that which is the source of all confusion of thought and divergence of opinion, an ignis faluus, which leads through mazes of uncertainty to the darkness of doubt and of despair. The religious sensibility in every man to which revelation appeals is one thing; the interpretive and verifying faculty, which is the special gilt of the Spirit of God, which, indeed, is the Spirit of God in man, is another. How stroll we know that we have this power? In one view of it it is a self witnessing power, which no rival authority can gainsay; in another, it is a power that proves itself by its qualities and results. It is a lowly, loving, patient, trustful, obedient spirit. And its supreme characteristic is that it testifies to Christ as at once the Centre and Circumference of our highest thought, the Source and End of our noblest life. It is the “mind of Christ,” and no “persuasion” can be in harmony with it that does not lead more or less directly to him.
II. HIS FREEDOM FROM BEING JUDGED. “He himself is judged of no man” who has not the same spiritual faculty. This follows as a necessary consequence of the superiority of his own gift. Take it in different ways.
1. No such man can understand him. The workings of his inner life, his deepest thoughts, affections, aspirations, conflicts, the powers that sustain and the principles that govern his whole spiritual existence,these form a world into which the unspiritual man cannot enter. We arc all mysteries to each other in the individuality of our being. Each lives in his own world, and the painful sense of solitude will often seize upon the thoughtful spirit. Imperfect sympathies arising from imperfect mutual acquaintance are among the saddest features of our social existence, and will often awaken strange longings for a state of being in which we “shall know even as also we are known.” In no case is this separation so complete as between the spiritual and the carnal man. Here lies a gulf which no artifice, no arrangement of outward circumstances, can bridge over. When a good man’s lot is cast among uncongenial society, he is driven in upon himself, on the silent satisfactions of his own soul. Like the Master, he “has meat to eat which the world knows not of.” Many a tender spirit has felt thus isolated in the midst of those most fondly loved. An atmosphere of natural affection and all natural endearments of life surround them, but in the deepest reality of their being they dwell alone.
2. He is not open, on the side of his religious thought and life, to the hostile criticism of any man. How shall others “judge” that with which they have nothing in common, and the very essential meaning of which they cannot understand?
3. No false influence from man can lead him fatally astray. Who shall unsettle the faith or shake the steadfastness of one who is thus bathed in the light and rooted and grounded in the life of God? Who is he that shall bring again into bondage one whom the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has thus made free? Here lies the grand condition alike of mental assurance and. moral strength.W.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1Co 2:2
The great theme.
The apostolic preacher considered what was most needful and profitable to his audience, not what would meet their curiosity or please their taste. So he, of deliberate purpose, gave prominence to a theme which the Greeks were disposed to scorn, but which they, in common with all sinners, needed to hearChrist crucified. A modern preacher who would be faithful must keep his soul braced to the same determination: “Not anything save Jesus Christ.” Not Christianity, but Christ; not a system, but the Saviour at the centre of it. “Whom we preach,” etc. (Col 1:28). “And him crucified.” That which appeared to men the indelible disgrace of Jesus of Nazareth has proved to be his great power over human conscience and his great attraction for the human heart. St. Paul had seen many proofs of this in his public ministry, and had felt the force of this in his own soul. And the chief theme of the apostle ought to be the chief theme still. A thousand things have changed in the world, but not the moral and spiritual exigency of man. The preaching of Christ crucified cannot grow obsolete. Take the following as reasons for determining to preach Christ and him crucified:
I. REDEMPTION IS BY CHRIST CRUCIFIED. Whether it be redemption from “all iniquity,” from “the curse of the Law,” or from a “vain manner of life,” it is distinctly ascribed in Scripture to the blood of Christ or to his death (see Eph 1:7; 1Pe 1:18; Gal 3:13; Rev 5:9). The dignity of his person, the purity of his disposition, and the holiness of his life gave value to his death; but it was by his death that he obtained eternal redemption for us.
II. PEACE OF CONSCIENCE COMES THROUGH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, No study of nature, no study of Scripture apart from the cross of Calvary, can relieve the distress of a conscience alive to the heinousness of sin and the imminence of judgment. Not even the contemplation of Jesus Christ in his spotless example can give any relief. How far are we from full conformity to him! We are more and more conscience stricken till we behold him suffering for our sins, and then we have “peace by the blood of his cross.”
III. DEATH TO SIN IS THROUGH CHRIST CRUCIFIED. We are baptized into his death, and, being buried with him, emerge in newness of life. Through faith we have moral identification with our Lord, and, dying to sin, as crucified with him, we live to righteousness, because he lives in us.
IV. THE SUPREME ARGUMENT OF LOVE IS IN CHRIST CRUCIFIED. At the cross God commends his love to us, and Christ proves himself the good Shepherd in giving his life for the sheep. The plea for love among Christians is thus put by St. Paul: “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up,” etc. (Eph 5:2).
V. THE SUPREME EXAMPLE OF PATIENCE IS IN CHRIST CRUCIFIED. (See 1Pe 2:20-24.) Thus it is that many sufferers have learned submission from considering the unmurmuring endurance of the Lamb of God, who, under all the pressure of the last sufferings, made no complaint”opened not his mouth.”
VI. ENMITY TO HIS CROSS IS REPRESENTED AS A FATAL SIN. In Heb 10:29 contempt of “the blood of the covenant” is referred to as deserving of the sorest punishment. In Php 3:18, Php 3:19, St. Paul writes, not without tears, of the destruction which awaits those who are “enemies of the cross of Christ.” Men are such enemies when, being self righteous, they will not put their trust for salvation in Christ crucified; or when, being self willed and earthly minded, they refuse the sanctifying power of the cross, and will not have their “old man crucified with Christ.” It is no light matter or venial offence to ignore or despise the “one Sacrifice for sins.” For all these reasons, the modern preacher should resolve as St. Paul resolved, and let no passing fashion of the time shake his resolution. Great works of God around us have a certain freshness and immortality. The flow of rivers, the surging of the sea, the course of the seasons, the splendour of the sun, and the bright order of the stars are the same now as when man first observed them. So also it is with the great work of God in Christ for our salvation, finished on the cross. Its wisdom and righteousness and love are as worthy of adoring praise today as they were in the days when apostles, prophets, and evangelists went to and fro among wondering cities of the East, determined to know nothing among the people save Jesus Christ and him crucified.F.
1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10
The true wisdom.
Often in the Epistles there is a single word on which the whole discussion turns. In the letter to the Romans, it is “righteousness;” to the Colossians, it is “fulness;” to the Hebrews, it is “perfection.” In the letter to the Corinthians, it is “wisdom.” Those Greeks sought after wisdom. It was nothing to them that the gospel might relieve a troubled conscience or reform an unworthy life, if it did not correspond with their ideas of philosophy. But St. Paul had an answer to give them for which they were not at all prepared. He calmly affirmed that they were incompetent judges of a heavenly wisdom, and that in his gospel to the people there was a philosophy beyond their power of apprehension”the manifold wisdom of God.” Greek philosophy at its best sought to ascertain how man may, by knowledge and the pursuit of virtue, reach up towards the highest good. But the gospel taught that the highest Good had come down to dwell among men; and that, by union in faith to that highest Good, man becomes more than a philosophera saint.
I. THE INAPTITUDE OF MAN TO RECEIVE THE DIVINE WISDOM OF THE GOSPEL. This is expressed by a quotation from the Old Testament (Isa 64:4): “Eye hath not seen it.” The reference is not, as in a well known poem, to “the better land,” but to the wisdom of God. When Jesus, the incarnate Wisdom, was on earth, many eyes saw him that could not discern the glory of God in him. And many an eye today sees the position of Christianity in the world, the width of its influence, and the dignity of its institutions, yet does not “see Jesus,” and the things which God has prepared in Jesus for those that love him. “Ear hath not heard it.” That organ which receives so impartially all communications fails to drink in the wisdom of the gospel. It is closed by earthliness of mind, till the power of God’s Spirit unstops it, so to hear that the soul may live. “Neither have entered into the heart,” etc. (verse 9). The heart is hardened, as well as the eye closed and the ear stopped. The spirit of a man of itself knows only “the things of a man,” conceives of wisdom and goodness after the manner and measure of man, and so fails to conceive the ways and thoughts of God, and the things which are freely given by him. So the apostle denied that a man untaught by the Spirit, even though he were a Greek, could rightly estimate the gospel. He could remind the disputers and rhetoricians of Greece that their philosophy might sound as jargon to the unlettered, who could not bring to it a sufficient intellectual appreciation. In like manner, the gospel which he preached might seem to them a jargon or a piece of “foolishness,” merely because they were out of moral sympathy with it, and had not sufficient spiritual enlightenment to discern and value it. It was the same lesson which our Lord impressed on Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He can see Churches, preachers, forms of service, but not the kingdom which is “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” till he is born again.
II. THE REVELATION OF THE HEAVENLY WISDOM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1. It was made known to holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. By them it was communicated to the Churches. But all who heard them required the unction of the Spirit, that they might receive and know the truth. No one can say that this is unreasonable. Every kind of knowledge requires for its reception a healthy state of the human understanding; and, when it relates to morals, a healthy condition of the imagination, conscience, and affections, because of the effect which these have on the understanding. In like manner, spiritual things can be interpreted only to spiritual men. The all searching Spirit of God must act on the spirits of men to whom the gospel is proclaimed, and so enlighten and empower them to receive “the deep things of God.” Thus boasting is excluded at every point. Boasting of our righteousness is excluded by the work of the Son of God, all sufficient for us; and boasting of our wisdom by the work of the Spirit of God, all sufficient in us. By the Spirit all things are made new. Eye and ear and heart are new. The eye can see, the ear hear, the heart conceive, “the things which are freely given to us of God.” What a dignity is this! What a joy! “We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” We are taught of God, so as to enter with a new power of discernment into the secret of his covenant and the glory of his gospel.F.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1Co 2:2
The subject of the Pauline ministry.
The power of preachers is very various. Some depend on the rhetorical form in which they present their message. Their appeal is rather to feeling than to intellect, and they are stronger in the persuasive than in the instructive faculties. Very important spheres open to such men, though their work always needs careful and wise following up and supplementing. Others depend almost wholly upon the value of their subject matter, and even fail to win the acceptance they might in consequence of their so entirely neglecting to culture rhetorical and persuasive forms of speech. In over civilized people, such as were found at Corinth, there usually grows up a great passion for the merely rhetorical, as pleasing to the ear and to the artistic feeling. The Apostle Paul, in his zeal and intensity, despises all mere arts of rhetoric, and relies wholly on the grandeur of his theme, and the spiritual power with which its announcement is to be accompanied. His subject was
I. A PERSON. “Jesus Christ.” The first work of the apostles was to declare the Christian facts, which are the basis of the Christian system. Those facts concern the life, teaching, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all these things the apostles had precise and accurate knowledge, and concerning them they could render personal testimony. Of all these things they took care that adequate and satisfactory records should be preserved (2Pe 1:15, 2Pe 1:16). But their interest did not lie in the mere facts, but in those facts as throwing light upon the person, the mission, and the Divine saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, they declared, comes by personal trust in Christ; and that he may be trusted he must be known, fully known. Therefore the apostle went everywhere preaching Christ, setting forth Christ, glorifying Christ, bidding men bow to him, confess to him, and receive forgiveness and eternal life from him. It is still true for us that the preaching of the Christian facts must set forth before men Christ, the person, and the unfolding of the Christian doctrines must glorify the “living Christ,” who has all power to save.
II. THAT PERSON‘S HISTORY. In view of the tendency to form myths and legends in those days, and to explain everything by theories of myth and legend in our days, it is important that we press the historical value of the records we have concerning Christ. It may be effectively urged that, apart from the question of the miracles, which demand a separate treatment, there is no feature of our Lord’s life that is in any way unnatural, or likely to offend the historical faculty. No hero of the historic page can be received as real if a like acceptance be not given to the story of Christ; for the records we have of him will stand as welt as any others the severest historical tests. In our day it is necessary to lay firmly again the old foundations of a real human life and human relations. We must begin with the “Man Christ Jesus.” It may further be urged that, apart from higher considerations, the human history of the Lord Jesus Christ presents features of supreme and fascinating interest, as the records of a child, a man, a teacher, a physician, and a sufferer.
III. THAT PERSON‘S WHOLE HISTORY. “And him crucified.” The apostle might have been tempted to withhold portions of our Lord’s story. His town intense Jewish feeling would make him revolt from having to preach salvation by One crucified. “We can scarcely realize now the stumbling block which the preaching of a crucified Christ must have been to Jews and Greeks, the enormous temptation to keep the cross in the background, which the early teachers would naturally have felt, and the sublime and confident faith which must have nerved St. Paul to make it the central fact of all his teaching.” He must have had a revelation of the glory of the mystery of the Crucifixion.
He must have seen how it “behoved Christ thus to suffer.” He knew that this was the necessary completion of his earthly mission, the last earthly step, to be followed by a footfall in the “heavenly places” where he should receive authority and power to save. The “history” would be incomplete without the Crucifixion. The “mission” would have been altogether a failure without the Crucifixion. The Christian doctrine would be a moral scheme, and not a Divine salvation, without the Crucifixion.
IV. THAT IN WHICH CHRIST‘S WHOLE HISTORY CULMINATED. St. Paul could not stay and rest in a human Christ, however attractive the records of his life and doings, or however quickening to human sympathy the story of his suffering death. He says, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him [thus] no more.” The earth story culminated in this, viz. that he is exalted, a Prince and a Saviour. He is endowed with a present saving power. Crucified in weakness, he liveth by the power of God. From the cross he went to the throne, and St. Paul himself saw him at the right hand of God. St. Paul’s subject wasThe once crucified Christ, who can save to the uttermost now.
Impress that men find shame in the Crucified until they can read the mystery of the cross; then they glory in the shame, glory even in the cross. There will always, for true Christian hearts, be darkness and sadness hanging all about the cross, and yet the darkness is dispelled with streams of holy, loving light, and the sadness of our sympathy passes, giving place to songs of joyous triumph.
“We sing the praise of him who died,
Of him who died upon the cross.”
R.T.
1Co 2:3-5
Personal weakness and spiritual strength.
In both the ordinary daily concerns and in the special religious service of life, a man may he just himself alone, confident in his own powers, self centred, self satisfied, reliant, on his own health of body, vigour of mind, well trained habits, quick judgment, and sound wisdom. Titan, no matter how sate and strong he may seem to be, he is really weak; and, as life advances and testing times take new and severer forms, his weakness will be proved and his pride effectively humbled. A man may even now be moved and possessed by an evil spirit. Still the solemn fact remains that man’s soul’ lies open to malign spiritual influences, which work through the bodily lusts and passions. Then the man himself is weak indeed, and the alien force within him shows strength only unto things that are debasing and evil. A man may be God’s agent, having the Spirit of God dwelling in him and working through him. Then, no matter what may be the bodily frailties or the untoward earthly surroundings, the man will be found really strong, efficient to all spiritual work, which the indwelling Spirit may move him to undertake. This last is St. Paul’s experience, Men saw in him great human weakness. tie felt within him great spiritual power, for he was the agent of the Holy Ghost.
I. THE IMPRESSION MADE BY ST. PAUL‘S APPEARANCE. There can be little doubt that he was diminutive in stature, frail in health, unskilful as a rhetorician, and probably he was suffering from some disease or infirmity which made his appearance even unsightly. Of this his enemies were prepared to take undue advantage. The various descriptions of St. Paul’s person should be considered, and the various theories concerning the special infirmity from which he suffered, Many of God’s most devoted servants have, like Richard Baxter, Robert Hall, and many others, had to bear the heavy burden of constitutional disease, of intense physical suffering. But these things have been overruled, as in St. Paul’s case, for good, so that they have become the very forces that have fitted the men for the nobler discharge of their great life works.
II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF FRAILTY WITH WHICH ALL HIS WORK WAS DONE. There was not only the fact of suffering, but also the feeling of frailty. There was the sense of” fear,” and there was much “trembling.” He did not overmaster his trouble, but actually worked with it ever pressing upon him. “There was no self confidence, nothing but self mistrust, anxiety, the deepest sense of unworthiness”. “There was a large element of that self distrust which so noble and sensitive a nature would feel in the fulfilment of such an exalted mission as the preaching of the cross.” We may to some extent realize at how great a cost Christian ministers master bodily infirmity in order to do us service for Christ’s sake; but few can know how much intenser is the struggle with inward fear and hesitation, and with the overwhelming sense of unworthiness and unfitness. Only in the strength and grace of God are these diffidences and inward fears overcome.
III. THE GLORIOUS RESULTS REACHED BY ST. PAUL‘S WORK. These are implied in his appeal to the Corinthians that his work had been “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Those results were of two kinds
(1) conversions;
(2) edifications.
Men received Christ as St. Paul unfolded his claims and his love. The Church was built up in the faith through the Pauline instructions. Subsidiary results, such as overthrow of idolatry, and change of daily moral life and relations, may be further considered. The Corinthians were themselves among the most interesting results of his divinely inspired labours.
IV. THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS IN HIS OPENNESS TO DIVINE LEAD. Men would have found it in his “accent of conviction,” his intensity, his natural gift of leadership, the newness of his subject, the preparedness of the times, or the appeal to men’s feelings; but none of these would have satisfied St. Paul. He would have said, when all had passed by, “You have not found out my secret.” None of these explanations could satisfy any of us who carefully judged the phenomena. St. Paul was an endowed man. He was open to the Divine leadings. He was inspired by the Divine Spirit. God wrought with him, and these were the signs following. True spiritual work has still no other explanation. Men are mighty in the measure of their openness to the Divine lead. And the maintenance of this openness is the supreme anxiety of all earnest Christian workers. There must be, for all noble and lasting issues, the “demonstration of the Spirit.”
Impress the mysterious power which some men have in conversation and in preaching; yet how often they are men or women of frail bodies, sensitive nerves, and wearying disease! They are under all kinds of disabilities; but these seem only to culture the higher spiritual power. Illustrate, e.g., McCheyne, Henry Martyn, F. Ridley Havergal, etc. This openness to the agency of the Holy Ghost is to be won. Our Lord taught us how. Such power comes through prayer and fasting: prayer, or closeness and intimacy of communion with God; fasting, or watchfulness, self denial, and mastery of bodily passion. We may win the joy of being “coworkers together with God.”R.T.
1Co 2:6
Who are the perfect?
The word is used in various senses in the New Testament. Our Lord applied it to God, saying, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It is used to express what a Christian ought to he, and is pledged to be, and is striving to be, very much as the term “saints” is used in the Old Testament. Perfection, as presented by the apostles, is the idea, the aim, to be kept in the soul of the Christian, there to work as a perpetual inspiration to the seeking of perfection in the life. St. Paul presents the distinction between full grown men and little children. The full grown men are the perfect; they have reached the fulness, the standard of Christian manhood. St. John has a similar kind of expression; he addresses several classesthe fathers, the young men, the little children; viewing these as different stages on the way to the perfect, that “perfect” being kept as the thought and aim in the soul of each. In one passage we read, “That ye may be perfect and entire.” The idea of “perfect” comes out more plainly when it is set beside another word. A man “entire:” is one who has preserved or regained a lost completeness, or one in whom no grace is wanting that ought to be found in a Christian man; but a man really “perfect” is one who has attained his moral end, the standard according to which he was made; or one in whom no grace that ought to be found in a Christian is lacking, none are imperfect or weak, but all have reached a certain ripeness and maturity. St. Paul’s idea of the “perfect,” to whom he could speak freely the “wisdom,” the higher spiritual mysteries of the gospel, may be considered under three figuresthey are the whole, the sound, and the full grown. It was not likely that the young Church at Corinth could furnish very many answering to this description; for most of them the simpler instruction in the commonplaces of gospel truth was still needful.
I. THE WHOLE; or the entire, the complete. Those having all the Christian faculties and graces, and all of them harmoniously cultured. The figure suggests the complete animal, with every limb well formed, and every organ efficiently working. Too often we find Christians who are incomplete; some sides of their natures are quite uncultivated, and some axe over cultivated; they are strong in some things, but weak in others. Just as we see in animals, there are Christian “monstrosities,” one sided growths, deficiencies of some important members. Wholeness, perfectness, requires the due culture of the large as well as the small graces and powers. And such “completeness,” when reached, is a most important witness to Christ’s grace, and appeal to men to seek their perfection through him.
II. THE SOUND; that is, the healthy. It is not enough that the different parts are present, and fitted together in good and practically efficient proportions; all the parts must be free from disease and full of vitality. Perfection demands health as well as completeness. Christians often fail of the standard by reason of sin disease affecting various organs of their spiritual life, e.g. their prayer; their activity in Christian service; their watchfulness over personal habits, or their tendency to depression and doubt. St. John very tenderly writes to the well beloved Gains, “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
III. THE FULL GROWN; or the developed and matured, who have quite passed out of the infantile or childish stage. This is probably the precise form of the figure as it was presented to the mind of the apostle. He elsewhere speaks of adapting his teachings to the uncultured and unspiritual, making them like milk that is suited to the nourishment of babes. He means to press on the Corinthians that, while it is quite right that they should be babes, and as such be fed with the simplicities of Christian doctrine, it is not right that they should remain babes; they should reach Christian manhood, and want man’s food of truth and mystery.
Impress how reasonable these views of the “perfect” are, and how contrasted with the vague and sentimental notions of an absolute freedom from sin, of which enthusiasts sometimes dream.R.T.
1Co 2:8
What would have prevented Christ’s crucifixion?
Attention is directed to the second clause of the verse: “For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” From the point of view of merely worldly policy, the crucifixion of Christ was a profound mistake. Martyrdom never effects the objects sought by the persecutors. It tends rather to glorify, in the popular sentiment, the cause for which the martyrs died. “Not a single calculation of those who compassed the Saviour’s death was destined to be fulfilled. Pilate did not escape the emperor’s displeasure. Caiaphas (Joh 11:50) did not save Jerusalem. The scribes and Pharisees did not put down the doctrine of Jesus.” Christ’s crucifixion may be regarded from several points of view. As we understand how it actually came about, we are prepared to consider what might conceivably have prevented it.
1. It occurred in the order of Divine providence. Every man’s life is a plan of God. Each event is fitted, and its influence used or overruled. A man’s incoming to life, and outgoing from life, are arranged by the Divine wisdom. The time, the place, and the mode of a man’s death are Divine ordering. This is true of every man; it is recognized and made a secret of calm trustfulness for all the future by the Christian man; it is in sublime and glorious manner true of God’s own Son, in the life on earth, which was a special Divine mission.
2. It occurred as a natural result of operating causes. In considering this point, we put on one side the Divine overrulings, make a fair estimate of the influence exerted by Christ’s character, example, and teaching upon the various classes constituting the people among whom he lived and laboured. When national prejudices are duly weighed, and the character of the public sentiment concerning the expected Messiah, it no longer seems strange that our Lord excited an opposition which culminated in his death.
3. It occurred as a consequence of our Lord’s own conduct. He did not, in any determined way, avoid those circumstances and situations which tended to bring about his death. He might, humanly speaking, have remained in Galilee, or hidden himself in Bethany, or fled from Gethsemane as the arresting party approached. Instead, we find him day by day following the Divine lead; in no way forcing his circumstances, though the issue of them was evident enough to himself. His example in this has not been sufficiently considered, though it bears so directly on his characteristic submission, and on the virtue of his sacrifice as purely a voluntary act. Enemies of Christ endeavour to set this to his disadvantage, but a glorifying light shines upon it from the consideration that he knew the cross to be then and there the consummation of his earthly life as designed by the Father. Yet the apostle suggests that the cross might conceivably have been avoided. We can see three possible ways in which this might have been.
I. BY AN EXERCISE OF GOD‘S SOVEREIGNTY. It might have pleased God to save mankind in another way. While we see the wonder and the grace of the way God did choose, we are not justified in affirming that it was the only way Divine wisdom could have devised. Or, in God’s sovereignty, he might have read the perfect willingness and obedience of Jesus, and spared him the actual shame and pain of the cross. If such exercise of Divine sovereignty was not made, we may be sure that concern for us and for our full redemption made God send his “Lamb to the slaughter.” That which was abstractly possible was impossible to him who “so loved the world” as to make even so extreme a sacrifice that it might be saved and won.
II. BY CHRIST‘S WILFULNESS. He might have failed in obedience under this last and extreme test. He might have refused the cross, and put away from him his Father’s cup. tie was a free agent, and such wilfulness was possible. But the consequences would have been so serious as to be most painful for us to conceive. Man’s salvation, though in part accomplished by our Lord’s teaching and life, would at last have failed utterly. Christ could have won no saving power. He would have been no more titan a Moses, a Zoroaster, a Socrates, or the Buddha; he could not have been the one only and all sufficient Sin bearer and Saviour.
III. BY THE RULERS‘ KNOWLEDGE OF WHO HE WAS AND WHAT HIS MISSION WAS. This is St. Paul’s point here in the text. The rulers could only put Christ to death while deceiving themselves or deceived as to his character and claims. They could not have put Messiah to death. The whole hope of their race centred in him. But for that very reason their feelings were the more intense against a man of despised Nazareth, who claimed to be the Messiah, and, they thought, dishonoured the very idea of the Messiahship by his imposture. Had they knownhad they seen his glory, they too would have bowed the knee to him, and crowned him with the many crowns. Had they known, they would have sought no false witnesses, nor started the cruel shout, “Crucify him! crucify him!” Often we go over in our thought what might have been, and wish things had been other than they were; and yet God so overrules for good that we may even rejoice in that they, “crucified the Lord of glory.”
From our meditations two things come impressively to view.
1. Our Lord’s death was no accidental circumstance, but a Divine ordination; and this is true though the outworking of the events show what may be called the usual, or common, orderings of Providence.
2. Our Lord’s death was entirely a voluntary act. His will was set on fully carrying out the Divine will, whatever of bearing, doing, or suffering that will might have in it. The virtue of the sacrifice lay partly in the sublime nature of the Victim; partly in the representative character he had taken; but partly also in the flee surrender of his will and life to God, and the unforced voluntariness of his obedience, as tested by a painful and ignominious death. “By the which will we are sanctified.”R.T.
1Co 2:9
The surprising freshness of the new dispensation.
The precise words, as quoted by the apostle, are not found in the Old Testament. They are probably Isa 64:4, given from memory and modified by the thought of phrases found in other parts of Isaiah. Only an unreasonable sentiment concerning verbal inspiration would make difficulty about the inexactness of quotations given from memory. The sense of a passage may be precisely indicated when the words are set in a different order and form. This text has often been used as the basis of elaborate descriptions of heaven, but such treatment is only possible when verse 9 is separated from verse 10. The apostle is plainly dealing with some glory which has been revealed and is now realized, lie conceived of the Divine dealings with men as having been arranged in “ages,” or “dispensations.” We may thus distinguish the Adamic, Patriarchal, Mosaic, Davidic, Exilic, and post-Exilic. In the passage before us St. Paul shows, not merely that the Christian is another and a succeeding dispensation, but also that, in important respects, it differs from others, and is superior to others. Previous dispensations have given only faint suggestions of the surpassing glory of this one, just as Solomon’s magnificent temple did but hint the exceeding glory of that later and spiritual temple, Christ’s Church. We may dwell on some of those points in which the Christian revelation seems so new, so surprisingly fresh, so utterly beyond what human imagination could have conceived or human experience suggested.
I. RELIGION IS NOT A CEREMONIAL, BUT A LIFE. To a Jew this was so fresh a conception as to be even bewildering. A less thoughtful Jew would be in peril of cherishing the sentiment that religion was only a ceremonial, a round of ordinances, festivals, and sacrifices. And this view of religion had become the general and prevailing notion in the time of our Lord. A more thoughtful and pious Jew would connect personal godliness with outward ceremonial, and strive to culture an inner life of trust, obedience, and communion with the outward observance of rites and ceremonies. But the new thing revealed in Christianity is, that religion is, essentially and only, the soul’s life, and that all ceremonial is mere expression and agency in the work of culture. The relations are manifestly reversed. Formerly there must be ceremonial, and there ought to be life now there must be life, and there may be ceremonial. On fully maintaining these later relations, the health and vigour of Christianity must ever depend.
II. SALVATION BY A SUFFERING AND DYING SAVIOUR. This is indeed a fresh and surprising thing. Triumph is to lie in defeat. Glory is to blossom out of shame. A sublime mission is to be accomplished by a seeming failure. Life for men is to come forth out of death for Christ. It is the introduction of a new force, a moral force. Christ lifted up is to draw men. The story of the crucified One is to melt men into penitence, win their faith, and ensure such a love as shall make even self sacrifice for Christ possible. Men knew before of love that would work for those it loved, and love that would fight for those it loved, and love that would bear for those it loved; but it was new that love should die such a death, not for the loved only, but for the ungodly and enemies by wicked works. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
III. SANCTIFICATION BY THE PRESENT POWER OF HIM WHO DIED. This is altogether new. Christ, as the exalted One, by his Spirit, is now carrying out his redeeming purpose in all hearts and lives that are open to him by faith. We do not struggle for righteousness by unaided personal efforts. Unseen, indeed, still the Living Christ is ever with us. Untraced, indeed, the mighty Spirit of Christ is ever working within us, sanctifying us wholly. And so, in face of all difficulties, perplexities, frailties, or hindrances to spiritual progress, we may calmly say, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “Greater is he who is with us than all who can be against us.”
IV. MAN THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT. This is also new; for hitherto the common sentiment had been that God dwelt in places, on the mountain’s crown, at the altar, in shining pillar clouds, in tabernacle or in temple. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the God man, shows us that God can dwell in man and make man’s body his temple. He can even dwell in us; and an apostle may plead with his people, saying, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?” Surely such an honour for us is beyond all that “eye has seen, ear heard, or heart conceived.”
Illustrate that aged Simeon loved God and knew something of him, but he never could have dreamed what God had in store for himeven to hold the world’s Babe Saviour in his own trembling arms. What could Abraham, who saw Christ’s day; or Moses, who spoke of the great prophet to come; or David, who sang of his Lord making his foes his footstool,have really known of the Christian glories, the spiritual mysteries of the revelation in Christ? These spiritual things broke more and more clearly on the minds of Peter and John and Paul, until, in utter ravishment and wonder, they exclaimed, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”R T.
1Co 2:12-14
Speech in the power of the Spirit.
The personal references in St. Paul’s Epistles are suitable to the epistolary style of correspondence, and necessary as the vindication of a man who was seriously attacked and slandered. Generally his allusions arc more or less directed to his claim as an apostle. Because this did not take precisely the same grounds as the claims of the earlier apostles, it was easy for his enemies to question and even deny his rights. St. Paul’s chief argument is that the “signs of an apostle were wrought by him,” and here, in our text, he urges that his teaching was manifestly inspired and sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that his apostolic claim was fully recognized by all “spiritual men.” Wickliffe skilfully renders the last clause of 1Co 2:13, “Maken a liknesse of spyritual things to goostli men.”
I. THE DIVINE PREPARATION FOR APOSTOLIC TEACHING.
1. The apostle must have received the Spirit of God. Personal experience of regeneration, and personal openness to the Divine incoming, are absolute essentials to all Christian service as teachers, in older days and now, in the lesser spheres as well as the greater. Judas can teach nobody; only as “converted” can St. Peter “strengthen the brethren” or “feed the lambs.”
2. He must know the things of God through the Spirit’s teaching. Here the adequacy of the Spirit to be the renewed man’s Teacher may be shown.
(1) He knows God.
(2) He knows man.
(3) He has access to man’s mind and heart, and an adaptation to each individual can be assured.
The operations of the Divine Spirit as the renewed man’s Teacher also require consideration. Generally it may be said that he unfolds the redemption mystery in its practical details and applications.
Our Lord’s division of his work is that he teaches
(1) of sin;
(2) of righteousness;
(3) of judgment.
The true preparation for teaching is an inner spiritual life, a Divine indwelling and endowment, and these finding expression through the natural powers and relations. There is a full sense in which the true Christian teacher has still an inspired and sanctified speech, and therefore all the authority which the Divine Spirit can give.
II. THE MINISTRY OF APOSTLESHIP IN HUMAN LANGUAGE. “Which things we speak.” Speech is almost our best force for the communication of truth and for the impression of duty. It works by persuasion, not force. It has no physical, but wholly moral power. Yet history declares, in repeated instances, how human words can sway emotion and arouse to action; e.g. the Crusades. But man’s words may be mere words, incapable of producing more than limited effects upon passion, sentiment, etc. They may have a Divine life in them, and so be mighty to break stubborn hearts, bow the wicked to penitence, draw men to God, and change the whole character of the life. Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth are mighty to pull down strongholds. By the “foolishness of preaching” men are saved and blessed. But the sphere of apostolic speech is clearly defined. Such a teacher speaks spiritual things; and it is indicated that he will speak in vain, save as men are receptive, spiritually toned, having the spiritual sensibility quickened. The merely natural man cannot receive God inspired teachings. So there is at once a preparation of the teacher, and a preparation of those to whom his words are addressed. The practical duty of culturing Christian life and feeling, in order to gain the best blessing from our pastors and teachers, may be made the subject of an earnest and effective conclusion.R.T.
1Co 2:14, 1Co 2:15
The natural and the spiritual man.
This is not a common division of men, or one that can be recognized from a worldly point of view. The world knows learned men and ignorant men, rich men and poor men, but not natural men and spiritual men. This distinction is wholly made from the Christian standpoint, but it becomes the all important one, in the presence of which all merely worldly classifications of men become insignificant. Modern theories of man’s nature may be reviewed. Some regard man as composed of body and soul; others distinguish the rational soul from the spiritual and immortal nature, and. divide into body, mind, and soul. This mode of regarding man may give clearness to the distinction in our text between the natural and the spiritual man; but the apostle would seem rather to have in mind the principles and spirit ruling the several men, and making the difference between them, and it does not seem likely that he held any particular theory of man’s nature. It is sufficient that the two kinds of menthe natural and the spiritualhave been recognized in every Christian age, and are plain to our view now.
I. COMPARE THE SPHERES OF THE TWO. Most of the spheres are common to both.
(1) The physical sphere;
(2) the relational sphere;
(3) the social, sphere;
(4) the intellectual sphere.
But to the natural man the intellectual is the highest department. He may have genius for literature, poetry, painting, sculpture; but he can never transcend the sphere of mind. “The natural man is he whose perceptions do not extend beyond the region of the intellect, the part of his being which he has in common with the animal creation.” “The natural man is he in whom pure intellectual reason and the merely natural affections predominate.” But though the natural man’s sphere is thus limited, there is glorious fulness within the limits; the perfection of art is yet unattained; the possibilities of knowledge are far from exhausted, though the noble minds of the long ages have been occupied in study and research. We need not undervalue the natural man’s sphere, so far as it goes. But the spiritual man enters a region altogether unknown to, and hopelessly closed to, the natural man. It is the sphere of the unseen, the eternal, the spiritual; in a word, of God and the things of God. Regeneration in the power of the Holy Ghost involves and includes an awakening of new sensibilities to Divine and eternal things. It is as if a man were endowed with some new senses, and found revealed to him what his fellow men might not know. In this higher and further sphere man can alone find satisfaction for his full powers. It is an encircling sphere that hallows all the lesser ones in which he shares with his fellows.
II. COMPARE THE CONDUCT OF THE TWO. As a rule, the conduct of the natural man will be ruled and toned by considerations of self pleasing. This may be tempered by goodness of the natural disposition, or by culture and self mastery; but the tendency always lies towards bodily indulgence and power of sensual passion. The sky over such a man is low, and he fails to get the elevating of the high, vast, pure heavens. Another sentiment tones the conduct of the spiritual man. For him life is God’s, the world is God’s, he is God’s; arid there is no question with him as to what he would like; all his desire is to know what God would wish. His whole conduct must be in harmony with and must tend to work out God’s purposes. For him there is no danger of deterioration. His sphere is exhilarating, his thought is inspiring, his progress is assured.
III. COMPARE THE FUTURE OF THE TWO. The natural man can have no future that is more than sentiment. His sphere is temporary. He must make what he can of the life that now is. His career has its limits here and its good things now. To the spiritual man life here is but a stage of the true life, a preparation time for a nobler life, upon which he is soon to enter. That future ceases to be strange to him, as he fully realizes life in the Divine spheres now.
Impress the disabilities of the “natural man,” and show how, by God’s gracious provision, the “natural” may become “spiritual.”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Co 2:1. And I, brethren, &c. As a further argument to keep them from glorying in their leaders, St. Paul tells the Corinthians, that, as the preachers of the Gospel, of God’s choosing, were mean and illiterate men, so the Gospel was not to be propagated, nor men to be established in the faith, by human learning and eloquence; but by the evidence that it had from the revelation contained in the Old Testament, from the power of God accompanying and confirming it with miracles, and from the influences of the Spirit of God upon the heart, 1Co 2:1-5.
I came not with excellency of speech With the pomp of language. Doddridge. This may allude to the vain affectation of sublimity and subtilty so common among the Greeks of that age, and very remote from the true eloquence in which our Apostle did so remarkably excel. It has been asserted, that the Apostle laboured under a great impediment in his speech, from a stammering or a squeaking shrillness in his voice. Others choose to apply the words to his defect in oratory, and want of experience in the Greek language:both which may be looked upon as wide of the mark, and not the Apostle’s meaning in this verse; which can be no other than that assigned in the beginning of the note. It hence appears, that he was far from taking advantage of a higher education, superior learning, and greater use of the world; and by this conduct put himself upon a level with the other Apostles. But an impostor, whose aim had been power, would have acted a contrary part; he would have availed himself of all those advantages; he would have extolled them as highly as possible; he would have set himself up, by virtue of them, as head of the sect to which he acceded, or at least of the proselytes made by himself. This is no more than was done by every philosopher who formed a school; much more was it natural in one who propagated a new religion. But as his conduct was the reverse, he shewed that he acted upon higher principles than any philosopher, and that same was no motive for his professing himself a Christian, and for endeavouring to make others Christians likewise. By the testimony of God is meant, “what God hath revealed and testified in the Old Testament.” The Apostle declares, that, when he preached the Gospel to the Corinthians, he made use of no human science, no insinuations of eloquence, no speculations of philosophy, no embellishments of human learning; all his arguments were, as he tells them, 1Co 2:4 from the revelation of the Spirit of God, the predictions of the Old Testament, and the miracles which he himself did among them; that their faith might be owing entirely to the Spirit of God, and not to the abilities and wisdom of man. Instead of , which we render testimony, several ancient manuscripts read , mystery. There may be something said in favour of this reading; for though the Apostle owns the doctrine of the Gospel, dictated by the Spirit of God, to be contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and built upon revelation; yet he every where teaches that it remained in some measure a secret there, not fully understood till they were led into the hidden evangelical meaning of those passages, by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the assistance of the Spirit, in the times of the Messiah, and then published to the world by the preachers of the Gospel; and therefore he calls it, especially that part of it which relates to the Gentiles, almost every were , mystery. See particularly Rom 16:25-26. Locke, Wetstein, and Lord Lyttelton on St. Paul’s Conversion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 2:1 . ] I too , as is the duty, in accordance with the previous explanation (1Co 1:17-31 ), of every preacher of the gospel. The construction is such, that . . [314] belongs to ., as indicating the mode adopted in the : I too, when I came to you, brethren, came proclaiming to you, not upon the footing of a pre-eminence of speech (eloquence) or wisdom (philosophy), the testimony of God . Against connecting the words it this way (which is done also by Castalio, Bengel, and others, Pott, Heydenreich, Schrader, de Wette, Osiander, Ewald), it is objected that gives an intolerable tautology. But this is of no weight (see the passages in Bernhardy, p. 475; Bornemann, a [315] Cyrop. v. 3. 2; Sauppe, a [316] Anab. iv. 2. 21 comp on Act 7:34 ), and would, besides, apply to the construction , (Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, Grotius, and others, including Flatt, Rckert, Hofmann); further, it is more natural and more in accordance with the sense to think in connection with . . [318] of the manner of the preaching than of the manner of the coming . For that reason, too, is not placed after . The preposition , again, to express mode (Winer, p. 375 [E. T. 501]), is quite according to rule; comp , , and the like.
As to , eminentia , comp 1Ti 2:2 ; Plat. Legg. iv. p. 711 D; Def. 416; Arist. Pol. iv. 9. 5. Also , 2Ma 13:6 .
] Paul might have used the future, but the present participle places the thing more vividly before us as already begun with the . So especially often (Valck. a [321] Phoen. 1082); e.g. Xen. Hell. ii. 1. 29: , , Plat. Phaed. p. 116 C, and Stallbaum in loc [322] See, in general, Winer, p. 320 f. [E. T. 429 f.]; Dissen, a [323] Pindar. Ol. vii. 14.
. ] in substance not different from . . . , 1Co 1:6 ; 2Ti 1:8 . For the preachers of the gospel give testimony of God , as to what He has done, namely, in Christ for the salvation of men. Comp 1Co 15:15 . In accordance with 1Co 1:6 , the genitive is not, with Calvin, Bengel, Osiander, and Hofmann, to be taken subjectively, as in 1Jn 5:9 f.
[314] . . . .
[315] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[316] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[318] . . . .
[321] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[322] n loc. refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[323] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1Co 2:1-5 . Application of the foregoing section (1Co 1:17-31 ) to the manner in which Paul had come forward as a teacher in Corinth .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1Co 1:10 to 1Co 4:21 . First section of the Epistle: respecting the parties, with a defence of the apostle’s way of teaching .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
C. As Illustrated by the Apostles Example
1Co 2:1-5
1And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony1 of God. 2For I determined not to know2 any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans [om. mans3] wisdom, but in demonstration of theSpirit and of power: 5That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The connection.Paul here affirms his own conduct to have been in strict accordance with the nature of the Divine calling. [His views were sustained by his practice and at the same time justified that practice.] As the Lord chose no one among you on account of his wisdom, so I did not come to you with wisdom.Burger.
1Co 2:1. And I.: I also. So God has dealt with you, and I have conformed to his method. [Or: I also, like all true Christian preachers.De Wette. Or: I accordingly, consistently with the revealed purpose of God just mentioned.Hodge.] The connection with the preceding paragraph is close and direct, though a remoter reference to 1:17, 23 is not thereby excluded.on coming to you, brethren, came not.He has in view here his first long residence at Corinth, although a second shorter visit had been paid them just before writing this Epistle. The repetition coming, I came, as not foreign to classic usage, nor is it mere tautology. The former expresses the fact of his appearing among them [or the occasion of which he was about to speak,] while the second with its qualifying adjuncts states the way and mode of his appearance.with excellency of speech and of wisdom.[As speech and wisdom ( and ) are here distinguished, the former probably refers to the manner or form, and the latter to the matter of his preaching. It was neither as a rhetorician nor as a philosopher that he appeared before them.Hodge. In 1:17 what he disavowed was wisdom of speech ( ), the emphasis being on wisdom. Here, the two are distinguished as separate elements, and the idea of rhetoric is added to that of philosophy.] This clause some make the sole adjunct to I came, leaving the rest of the sentence distinct, as adducing the proof of his appearing as he did, q. d., I came to you thus and so, inasmuch as I proclaimed, etc. [This mode is generally preferred not only because of the position of the words, but also because of the sense.Hodge; and so Alford, Stanley and others.] But the whole clause is to be taken together, and the adjunct before us to be connected withproclaiming to you the testimony of God.The sense is I did not come preaching with highly wrought eloquence and philosophic subtilities. To take the present participle here in a future sense is neither necessary nor suitable, since he is here speaking not of intention but simply of his mode of conduct. The matter of his preaching is the testimony of God. This is essentially the same as the testimony of Christ, 1:6, and what was there said holds good also here. It is the testimony which God bears concerning Christ (1Jn 5:9), or the revelation of his plan of salvation which He makes out of His own consciousness, originally through Christ, and then through the Apostles. This is what it is incumbent on the servant of God simply to proclaim. In this work there is no need of rhetorical ornament and philosophic art. The very object of the proclamation itself precludes the applicability of eloquence and wisdom. (Comp. Osi.) [The Gospel is in its essence not a theory, or an abstraction, or a comment, or an image of the fancy, but it is history, and indeed, Divine history. The preaching of the Gospel is therefore a proclamation of the doings of God, and especially of that one great act of love, viz., the sending of His own Son to die for the sins of the world. This may become a matter for theory and science in the bosom of the Church after faith in it has become established, but even then it is only as a development from faith. Science can never beget faith. Faith comes only through the regenerating power of Gods Spirit, who reveals Himself efficiently and in the most direct manner through the proclamation of the Gospel story. Olshausen.]
1Co 2:2. His conduct in the particular above-mentioned shown to be deliberatethe result of a settled purpose. ForconfirmatoryI did not determine.[The negative particle, by its position here, is more naturally connected with the main verb. So Alf., who interprets: the only thing that I made it definitely my business to know, was; and Meyer says that the common connection of the not with any thing (), as in our E. V., is contrary to the phraseology. But Stanley translates: I determined to know nothing, making like . The difference of import is somewhat. In the one case, Paul tells us how far his mind was made up, that his determination did not go beyond one point; in the other case, his determination was a positive one, covering the whole ground and excluding from that all but one thing.] with the inf.=to conclude upon, resolved, decide, as in 2Co 2:1; 2 Corinthians 1 Rom 14:13.to know any thing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucifiedi.e. to mingle any other sort of knowledge with the preaching of Christ. His one sole aim was to portray before their eyes this one person, and that too in His deepest humiliation, as He had suffered for them the shameful death of the cross. [So far from seeking to conceal his ignominy, so offensive to the worldly spirit, he would make it prominent and glory in it.] Hence it was that he would not indulge in any rhetorical or dialectic arts, in any high-flown discourse or philosophic argumentation. In this way certainly he might fail to attract the educated classes, so called, but he would be the better able to bring to light mens actual religious needs and satisfaction. And this, with him, was the great point, for which he was willing to renounce every attainment in which he excelled, for he knew that those who wilfully neglected the revelation he brought could be gained by no reasonings from the light of nature. (See Bengel in loco.) [Furthermore, it must be observed, that it would be to mistake entirely the drift of the Apostles discourse, were we to take the name of Christ here, according to the fashion of many divines, as put by metonymy for the whole system of divinity, or for the doctrine of the Atonement. The purpose of Paul here is to avoid theorizing of all kinds, and to adhere rigidly to Christianity in its most concrete form as seen in the person and work of its founder. In his view, preaching was to act the part of a herald, to proclaim, not opinions, but the facts and messages as intrusted to him, and to let them speak for themselves. Hence we are here to take his language most literally. What he resolved on proclaiming to the Corinthians was Christ in His person and work, as the living revelation of the Father, as the Truth and the Life, as the One in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, as the source of all salvation and blessing, whom to believe in, love and serve was life eternal. His Gospel was not theory or science, but history, and the glory of this history is, to use the words of Olshausen, that it lives and repeats itself in the Church as a whole and in every member of the Church. It therefore never grows old any more than God himself can become antiquated; and it maintains itself to this day in all that fulness of power which it manifested in the first establishment of the Church.To know any thing. There is a force in the use of the word know, instead of preach, or teach, which is not to be overlooked. It shows that his determination covered not only the range of his words and acts, but also of his thoughts. He meant that Christ should fill his consciousness.].
1Co 2:3. Describes the preacher, as the former verse did his theme. Bengel.And I was with you, . This might be rendered: I came to you, as 2Jn 1:12. (according to the better reading). But Paul is here speaking not of his coming, but of his residence among them (1Co 2:4). In like manner occurs also in 16:10. (: before, in presence of, 16:6, 7; Gal 1:18; Joh 1:1.) How he was with them he proceeds to state in three substantives. a. in weakness. Since he is here speaking of his personal bearing, we are not to understand by this any physical infirmity, such as weak organs, or feeble chest, or ungainliness of form [as Stanley]; nor yet any sickness, or feebleness, bringing with it depression of spirits [as Rckert and Stier], though this would be more plausible; and, least of all, any thing happening from without, like persecutions, and sufferings inflicted by others [as Chrysostom], which would be inconsistent with the use of the singular number. In view of the expressions of Paul himself (2Co 10:1; 2Co 10:10; 2Co 12:10; 2Co 4:7-12) it were better to refer this to inward weakness, but not so much to any sense of defect in science and education (so de Wette, Osi.), as to a feeling of utter inadequacy for the greatness of the work and for the resistance he would have to encounter (see Act 18:9, ff.). [Bengel says: opposed to power (1Co 2:4). We must not suppose that the Apostles were always in an agreeable frame of mind or quite free from perturbations.] b. in fear and c. in great trembling.Terms expressive of great timidity as contrasted with a bold and confident demeanor maintained by the overweening consciousness of his own abilities, such as appeared in the eyes of ancient Paganism to be the highest morality. Neander. It has been justly observed that such anxiety, arising from a sense of insufficiency for the work on hand, is a marked characteristic of the most distinguished servants of God (see Osiander). The interpretation of Olshausen and others is less consistent with the idea expressed in the foregoing term (in weakness.) They understand Paul as intimating a modest fear lest he should corrupt the Divine truth with a mixture of human elements, and fail in the proper discharge of his duty. The sense of the phrase, in fear and trembling, which is a proverbial one (Gen 9:2; Exo 15:16; Isa 19:16) is determined by the connection. Elsewhere, as in Eph 6:5; 2Co 7:15, it denotes: sollicita reverentia; or, as Bengel: A fear which abounds so as to effect even the body in its gestures and movements.
1Co 2:4. Describes the mode of preaching.And my speech and my preaching.The and in 1Co 2:3 and the and in 1Co 2:4 are not so related as to be rendered: As well I myselfas also my speech. But the first of these conjunctions simply joins 1Co 2:3 to the preceding, and the second, 1Co 2:4 to 1Co 2:3, putting the matters stated in harmonious connection. On account of the repetition of my, we are not at liberty to take the two words here as identical, nor yet are they so related as to indicate the first the form and the second the substance of his preaching [so Stanley]. It were better to distinguish them as denoting, the first (), his private discourse, and the second (), his public discourse [so Olsh., Rck., and most others]; or, the first, discourse in general, and the second, discourse in particular, viz., the proclamation of the Gospel [so Hodge]. Less probable is the opinion of de Wette [adopted by Alf.], who takes the two words as designating the same thing but in distinct aspects; the former his style and course of argument, the latter his announcement of Gospel facts and conviction of their certainty.4was not.The verb here has to be supplied; either for 1Co 2:3, or , meaning: was not furnished with (Luk 4:32); or: did not consist in. The character of his speech and preaching is described, 1, negativelynot in the persuasive words of wisdom, .[ mans, is a gloss, inserted most probably through a failure to perceive that the word thus far has been used in a strict and single sense, and from the consequent opinion that it needed some qualification. Wisdom is, all through, synonymous with philosophy.] The adjective has, from the earliest times, proved a stumbling block. It is found no where else in all Greek literature, though its use is warranted by analogous forms, as from . But the explanation, which would take as a substantive, in the sense of: persuasions, and put in apposition, is inadmissible, if only for this reason, that the plural of no where occurs. Hence have arisen manifold conjectures for changing the ordinary reading, none of which are well grounded, not even the suggestion so acutely maintained by Semler, Rincke, Fritzche, that the original read thus: in fitting antithesis to , since it is decisive against this, that this reading no where appears alone without or . Even in the ordinary reading, wisdom may be regarded as expressing the main idea, inasmuch as 1Co 2:5 demands this. , otherwise [and as Meyer suggests, probably a word in common, oral use.]=convincing, winning, enticing, comp. , Col 2:4. [Corinthia verba, pro exquisitis, et magnopere elaboratis et ad ostentationem nitidis. Wetstein ad loc.] 2, positivelybut in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.Demonstration stands in strong contrast with persuasive words, since the word is often used elsewhere also to denote strong, cogent proof in opposition to winning speech. The way in which it is to be taken here, depends upon the manner in which we construe the associated genatives. These express either the object of the demonstration or its subject. In the former case the phrase would mean the practical exhibition of the spirit, as the source of spiritual life, renewing, enlightening and sanctifying, and of the power which resides in this spirit and which it imparts to man. In the latter case, the Spirit must be regarded as dwelling in the Apostle himself, and working through him, displaying His power in the facts he proclaimed, by rendering them effective to salvation. What ability he had to convince and convert would thus be ascribed to the living energy of the Spirit whose minister he was. In this way, as Neander says, the demonstration furnished by the Spirit would be in contrast with that presented through words, and the demonstration of power with that of logical argumentation. It is the testimony of the Spirit which alone Paul admits as valid. This interpretation is to be preferred, since in the antithetic clause wisdom is to be regarded as the subject or source whence the persuasive words originate, or which begets and presents them. Hardly deserving of more than mention are expositions like that which takes Spirit and power as equivalent to: powerful spirit, or which explains the demonstration of the Spirit to consist in the proof afforded by prophecies, and that of power in the miracles Paul wrought (Origen and Grotius). Even were prophecy and miracle to be thought of in this connection still they could not by any means have been exclusively intended. In any case, the reference must primarily have been to that moral power from above which ever accompanied the preaching of the Apostle, and which acted upon the hearts and consciences of his hearers, awakening, agitating and quickening them to a new life. In all this there was a demonstration of a higher sort, more influential for faith than the strongest arguments of philosophy.
1Co 2:5. Expressive of ultimate intent both of God in sending Him to preach as He did, and of Himself acting in compliance with it,that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.The end of preaching is faith in Christ. But if this faith was grounded upon human wisdom and its arguments and persuasions, which were only a superficial assent, then would the foundation be loose. It could remain only until assailed by strong arguments of a contrary sort. But if, on the other hand, faith rested upon a Divine demonstration, which while it convinced, converted also, and so took possession of the whole man, it was then fixed and immovable, and could victoriously withstand all the assaults of human power and art.
[Longinus alludes to the abrupt and unsystematic style on which the Apostle prides himself. Paul of Tarsus was the first who maintained positive assertion without elaborate proof.Stanley].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The nature of faith in Christ.It is a trustful surrender of soul to Him; a conviction concerning Him, which involves at the same time a union with His person, even as He is offered unto us for our salvationhence, with Him as the crucified. It is a reception of Him in such a way that He dwells in us and we in Him. But this pre-supposes a renunciation of all self-confidence, and of all trust in any thing creaturely and human, whether it be in the line of action, or permission, or of suffering, as available before God for working out or earning salvation, or for establishing and restoring our fellowship with God. It is an act which can proceed only from a mind renewed and strengthened by the might of Divine love, since Gods Spirit and power are operative in it, showing and convincing the sinner on the one hand of his own guilt and insufficiency for himself, and on the other hand of the holy and compassionate love of God, His saving righteousness and His almighty grace in Christ; and this, too, in a way to take down all boasting, and beget an implicit reliance upon God alone.
2. The sole means to produce faith.This is a style of preaching which presents the great facts of redemption directly to the heart in their simple Divine energy, without the accessories of human science and art. In such preaching, Gods Spirit and power can bear testimony, and glorify Christ, and bring to mans consciousness the greatness, and holiness, and wisdom, and glory of His redeeming love in such a manner as to qualify the heart for an exercise of faith. Wheresoever, on the contrary, human rhetoric with its artifices, and human philosophy with its speculations, are mingled up with Gospel truth, there offered some obstruction is to the operation of the Divine power; there some purely human influence, such as the charm of style or of fine reasoning, it may be, supersedes the Divine influence, and we fail of being drawn into the sphere of the truth itself, as it is in Jesus; there human selfishness and pride still have free scope. As the result, we have instead of a firm and lasting faith, only a feeble, sickly opinion, which is ever ready to yield to counter-influences, or to changed humors, or to new systems of thought; which does not carry in itself the life of man in Christ, or of Christ in man; which is not heavenly, but earthly, not deeply rooted, but superficial, and ever ready to vanish away.
3. The mood and attitude of the Christian preacher. He who clearly perceives what faith is, and what is requisite for it, and what depends on it; who sees what barriers of every kind, especially of false culture and foolish pride, oppose themselves to it; who understands how the pure and artless preaching of Christ alone has power to awaken faith, and yet what prejudices there are against such preaching, and how little it is acceptable to men, especially to the highly educated classes, and to those who either practise or tolerate the grosser or more refined forms of wickedness, and how the whole life and being of a man strives against the truth which seeks to slay their selfishness and their sensuality,a person who comprehends all this as he ought, will recognize and feel it to be a task transcending all human ability, and too difficult for him in the imperfection of his spiritual life, to go abroad into the world, especially into the circle of the refined and learned, as a simple preacher of Christ crucified, and there maintain his stand. The persons he there meets, seek their satisfaction in art, and science, and learning; they take delight in luxury and sensual enjoyment; and the knowledge of this fact abates confidence, takes away boasting, begets timidity, awakens anxiety, yea bows a man to the very dust with a sense of his own weakness. But for this very reason does he become all the more suitable an instrument for Christ. The more emptied he is of self, the more can God impart to him of His spirit and power, and work in him and through him, the more will he be disposed to cherish a holy courage and confidence in God. With the foolishness of preaching he will be ready to encounter a world full of obstacles, and find himself strong enough to overthrow all its bulwarks, while he will feel ashamed to resort to secular arts for gaining an entrance for himself. And the earnest endeavor of every one, through whom God achieves exploits, is to become just such a simple instrument of the Spirit in subduing the hearts of men through the word of truth, and winning them to Christ.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
[1. Paul the pattern of an Evangelical preacher. On entering Corinth Paul was confronting his severest task. He had just left Athens, where, notwithstanding his brilliant audience and great speech on Mars Hill, he had met with comparatively small success. We read of no Church having been found there. And now he is to offer the Gospel in a city that presented in many respects far greater obstacles than Athens did. In addition to the pride of philosophy there was to be encountered here a degree of luxury and vice no where else to be found. And if there was failure at Athens, how much more the likelihood of failure at Corinth? It is in view of these discouragements, that the picture which the Apostle has given us of himself obtains its peculiar interest. The main features of it are 1. His inward feelings. He is not bold, defiant, self-assured, as an earthly warrior pushing up to an assault. On the contrary, he is much cast down, conscious of weakness, full of fear. To the outward sight, there is every thing against him. But while the flesh trembles, the spirit has courage to go on, being trustful in God. 2. His determination as to the course to be pursued. a. He will not cater to the tastes of the Corinthians, and think to win them by gratifying these. Fine oratory and subtle philosophy, however capable of these, he lays aside. They are not the means for winning faith, for saving souls. b. He will simply proclaim the testimony of God, holding up Christ in all His glory, and in all His shame, as the only means which God hath appointed to make man wise and holy, believing that however much this might scandalize the natural heart, it was the demonstration of Gods spirit and power which would alone prove mighty for the overthrow of Satan, and the setting up of Gods kingdom. 3. His aim. The faith he might awaken should rest in nothing he might say or do of himself, but solely in the exhibition which God should make of Himself through the Son whom He had set forth, and whom Paul was intent on holding up before the minds of men even to the utter hiding of himself from view].
2. Heubner:The Christian must first unlearn in order to learn. To preach Christ the Crucified is to put Him and His atoning work at the top, to set all truth in connection with these, and to derive all good from these (1Co 2:2). Self-diffidence in a preacher helps more than self-confidence. It is a great thing to stand in place of God and proclaim His word in presence of angels and men (1Co 2:3). Christianity is sufficient for itself and needs no adventitious aids. No preacher should so far humble himself as to seek these, nor should the people expect them. What is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power? (1Co 2:4). It is the conviction of sin and of the need of a Saviour, which the Spirit works in the heart through the Gospel. This is something which no man can effect of himself. Hence what the preacher has preminently to strive for, is that the Spirit may operate through his word; and the hearers, that they may experience this heavenly power. In order that the preacher may make demonstration of the Spirit, he must have the Spirit. A faith which rests upon regard for a philosopher Isaiah 1, impurea mans name is put for Christs; 2, unsafe and ficklehuman systems crowd each other out; 3, inoperativethe Spirit of God is not its source; 4, not genuinescience has no faith-begetting power. Therefore a Christians faith should not rest upon scholastic wisdom, but on the power of God renewing the heart. What a person has experienced within cannot be argued out.
Hedinger:Christ Crucified the preachers Alpha and Omega. Away with finery and feathers! Let the Spirit of God speak in thee. He knows how to hit the heart (1Co 2:2). Those conductors to salvation who have been proved in the furnace of affliction are the best approved. To the mariner on a wild sea, experience is every thing. To have only studied maps at school will prove of little account (1Co 2:3).
Gossner:The death of Christ must be recognized and credited. This is what captivates the heart, and kindles the fire that burns. Faith in the Son of God is the greatest miracle of grace. It is a great consolation that here and there one soul that hears us is made to experience the power of Christs blood for the forgiveness of sins. He who preaches Christ crucified must himself be ready for a crucifixion. Paul trembled while preaching that which blessed the world. Many false teachers, who betray the world and lull it into a death sleep, speak with bold front and without sense of danger.
Rieger:It is a question whether ministers do not try too much to conceal their weakness and fear, and are not too assiduous in filling up the gaps and pauses with artificial efforts; whether they do not shrink too much from the criticism of the world, when it insists so strenuously upon calmness, fluency and ease in a speaker. But where there is life, there will be fluctuations. Living growth has to break through obstructions.
[Chalmers:A minister has no ground to hope for fruit from his exertions until in himself he has no hope; until he has learned to put no faith in the point and energy of his sentencesuntil he feel that a man may be mighty to compel the attention, and mighty to regale the imagination, and mighty to silence the gainsayers, and yet not mighty to the pulling down of strong holds].
[Tholuck. 1Co 2:1-5. Paul a type of the true preacher. 1. Contents of his sermon, 1Co 2:2. II. Tone of the preacher. Theremin, 1Co 2:2. The knowledge of Christ the crucified. It includes a threefold knowledge. I. What man is. II. What God is. III. What man should be. Chalmers. 1Co 2:4-5. The necessity of the Spirit to give effect to the preaching of the Gospel. I. Success of the teacher dependent on God in the ordinary branches of learning. II. The specialty in the work of the Christian teacher.]
Footnotes:
[1]1Co 2:1.Instead of . others, according to good and ancient authorities [A. C. Cod. Sin. Syr.], read . But it is more probable that this arose from a gloss suited to 1Co 2:7, than that could have crept in here from 1:6; at the same time only a few authorities read .
[2]1Co 2:2.The received is not well authenticated, and the order is confirmed by B. C. D. E. .and many other decisive authorities. [Wordsworth says: , which is emphatic, is rightly placed before by B. C. D. E. and by Griesbach, Scholz., Lach., Alf., Meyer. Indeed would have been liable to an inconvenient interpretation: to know what is in you.]
[3]1Co 2:4.The received has the balance of authorities against it [and is omitted by Griesb., Scholz. Lach., Tisch., Meyer.] Other variations in this ver. (e. g.) for etc., can hardly be regarded as any thing more than conjectures of an older or a later date, (See below.)
[4][Why de Wettes view should be termed less probable, when it is in perfect consistency with the use of the terms thus far, it is difficult to see.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Apostle enters upon the Relation of his Ministry, which he had exercised among the Corinthians. He reminds them, that he passed by all human Eloquence in his Discourses before them, and had preached only Christ. He spews them how God the Spirit had confirmed his preaching, in their Hearts.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. (2) For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. (3) And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. (4) And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: (5) That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
If any man might have been supposed qualified to have used the powers of human oratory in preaching; who so proper as Paul, who had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; and who had studied, if we might venture to conclude as much from the elegant speech he made before Agrippa, (see Act 26 ) the art of rhetoric, which at that time was much in use in the schools? But what a lovely view is here exhibited, of the plan of Paul’s preaching, in that, he simply preached Christ. Reader! how much to be wished were it, that all whom God hath called to the ministry, would adopt the Apostle’s plan. And indeed, it is matter of astonishment, that men, ravingly called themselves to the knowledge of Christ, in their own souls, and spiritually ordained, by the Holy Ghost, to preach to others; (and of all others it is of little consequence what men uncommissioned preach,) should preach ought beside. When angels came from heaven, at the birth of Christ, to announce his arrival, they preached him as a Savior, Luk 2:11 . When the Son of God came preaching himself, it was the same glad tidings of salvation, Mat 18:11 . And when, after redemption-work was finished, and Christ was returned to glory, and the Holy Ghost came down, the whole burden of the Apostles preaching was to the same amount: God (said they) having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away everyone of you from your iniquities. Hence daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach, and to preach Jesus Christ! Act 5:42Act 5:42 .
There is a peculiar beauty in the Apostle’s expression, not only to preach Christ, but Christ crucified. There were a thousand excellencies in Christ Paul had learnt, and on which he had often dwelt, with holy rapture. But the cross included all. There Paul fixed his eye, his heart, his whole soul. And, what he felt so truly blessed, to himself, he longed to communicate to all the Lord’s people. Christ crucified, was peculiarly suited, to poor sinful men. It was worthy of all acceptation! Reader! how little do those men know of the plague of their own heart, who preach aught beside! Might not a poor sinner say, in every congregation of such men, as Job did of, those who read to him their dunghill lectures of patience: Miserable comforters are ye all: physicians of no value! Job 13:4Job 13:4 .
What a humbling account the Apostle gives of himself, when standing up to minister among the people! And such must it ever be, among all those who have an awful sense of the solemn charge, in holding forth the word of life among dying sinners. Who shall calculate and note down the tears, and prayers, and anxieties, and tremblings of faithful ministers, who watch for the souls of the people, as they who must give account. Men who rush into the service uncalled, unsent, like the sons of Eli, to be put into the priest’s office, can have no apprehension what these things mean. 1Sa 2:36 . But Paul’s conscious weakness, and fear, and much trembling, will be easily understood by those awakened minds, who never stand up to minister in the Lord’s name, but with an holy jealousy over their own hearts; and never end their labors, but with a prayer, that their most holy things may be washed from their uncleanness, in Christ’s blood! Exo 28:38
How sweet a testimony was this to the Apostle’s mind, of the Lord’s speaking in the word, and by the word, when Paul saw the Lord’s blessing on his labors. The demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, in every congregation of the faithful, is indeed the great refreshment, both to minister and people. Paul makes this a proof, of the most decisive kind, of the Church being chosen of God. See 1Th 1:4 to the end. And Reader! it is this, and this alone, which forms the proper foundation, for security in the divine life. What begins in human wisdom and human strength, will end in both; Which is folly and weakness, in the highest attainments. But, what begins in the Lord, will end in the Lord, and be bottomed upon an everlasting security, Isa 45:24-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Great Expiation
1Co 2:2
The Corinth of St. Paul’s day had inherited a revival of philosophy, and was a home of culture so much as to induce a rivalry with Athens herself. But it was not in an atmosphere of intellectual restlessness, in a society where energy was dissipated in an excessive love of dialectic, that the Apostle’s ministry was carried on. It was a wisdom of the world, worldly; brilliant yet pretentious, that led men no nearer to solving the deeper problems of life. When the gifted Alexandrian, Apollos, had appeared as a preacher of Christianity, a considerable section of the Church attached itself to him. The result of an adherence that ought to have been for good was a very grave misunderstanding many of them were men in whom the old pagan temper was by no means exterminated, and they claimed the sanction of his name, as it would seem, for a great deal that he would have been the very first to disown. The issue was the beginning of a party spirit, which has been under the most widely diverse conditions the bane and hindrance of Christendom. That there ought to have been no such divisions because the methods of two men in the interpreting of their common belief were different goes without the saying. But so it was, and this was the distressful condition of affairs with which in his first extant letter to them the founder of the Corinthian Church had to deal.
I. Here at the outset we must be on our guard as to a possible misconception of St. Paul’s determination. Let it be said at once (we shall find abundant reason to justify it later on) that there is no shadow of excuse in his words for a one-sided presentation of Christ’s religion. Such partial treatment, to our great injury, is common enough, but it was not his way who had ‘not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God’. In the conduct of our own life’s occupation we all know that limitation of thought and labour for a while is an indispensable thing. It does not mean neglect of other responsibilities. Because the Bishop of Exeter found it requisite to concentrate two years’ attention on the vast expansion of Plymouth, he did not overlook the claims of Devonshire at large. And St. Paul did not determine to know anything among the Corinthians ‘save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,’ because he knew, not only, as few others, what human life really is, but he rightly judged that in the particular phase of it with which he had to deal a suffering Christ was the aspect under which he should preach His Lord.
II. The cross of Christ, the final act which crowned a life which was a sacrifice throughout, is the centre of the good tidings to all people. It discovered to us the inmost heart of mercy of our God. It was at once the measure of and the only remedy for sin. ‘Can we make the sun go back in its course? Can we recall the tide at its ebb? No more can we do away with, and make as though it had never been done, one single sin that we have ever committed,’ the condemning voice within, the plague of our own hearts, the unbearable burden of secret or open sin. This is it with which, in the end, each one of us must needs reckon, and the true meaning and value of the Sacrifice offered on Calvary is that it alone
Can give the guilty conscience peace,
And wash away the stain.
Therefore he was more than willing to lay aside any ornament of speech and reputation for ability he might possess, so that he might recall them to the one essential point, that in the crucifixion ‘God made Him to be sin for us Who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’. The showy speculations of the schools might supply a passing interest; they were absolutely worthless in view of the sorrows and degradation of humanity. ‘Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified.’ There is nothing else, we may be sure, to come between us and despair. ‘Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified.’ There is no power so attractive as that of the cross. And yet it is no wonder, for ‘God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us’. There is no other appeal like unto it. It calls out an instinctive homage which nothing else can. Two generations ago, during the terrible fire that broke out in York Minster, a line of soldiers was posted at the south-west side to keep back the multitude that thronged the streets. The flames spread toward the extreme point of the aisle, and suddenly from within lighted up the western window, revealing the figure of the crucified Christ. And the soldiers, moved by an overwhelming impulse, presented arms before the suffering King of king. A little child was present at that memorable scene who in after-life became a Canon of this Cathedral and is now the Bishop of an English See. Another incident thoroughly well attested, in a family that is still among us, will illustrate further what I say. A notorious libertine of bygone days was reading one evening, when he saw an unusual blaze of light fall on the page, and looking up he saw before him a representation of our Blessed Lord on the cross surrounded by a glory. At the same instant he heard a voice saying, ‘O sinner, did I suffer this for thee, and are these thy returns?’ The vision filled him with unutterable astonishment and agony of heart, and, pierced by a sense of his ingratitude to God, he from that moment forsook his evil life. Still, it is true that, as in Corinth of old, men will avoid the teaching and the application of the cross. They will go round it, so to speak, and admire the poetry of religion while they resent the self-surrender which the Passion of the Master must ever claim. There can be no place for half-measures with the appeal of the crucified Christ. It implies the crucifixion of self, the abolition of the whole body of sin, the consecration of the personality to work in some unequivocal way for God, and for our fellowmen. It must mean this, as it means ‘so great salvation,’ and therefore many to their peril falter and delay.
Archdeacon Tetley, The Guardian, 26th August, 1910.
1Co 2:2
‘I am determined,’ said William Lloyd Garrison, the great abolitionist leader, ‘to know nothing as a public man save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and in this country I see Him crucified again in the person of the slave.’
References. II. 2. R. J. Campbell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 264. Archbishop Benson, Living Theology, p. 191. A. L. N. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 350. W. C. Wheeler, Sermons and Addresses, p. 44. Joseph Parker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 67. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1264, and vol. xlvi. No. 2673. J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 67. A. Barry, The Doctrine of the Cross, p. 5. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Corinthians, p. 19.
Strength and Weakness
1Co 2:3
Who is it that says so? Weakness and fear and much trembling! Surely he never did any great good. Surely, when he says, ‘I was with you,’ he might as well, or better, have stayed away altogether. Was it so? It is none other than the Apostle St. Paul, who was in so many dangers, who underwent so many labours.
What he felt none of us must be ashamed or discouraged if we feel also.
I. To feel our weakness that is one great way to become strong. If we feel strong of ourselves, we are apt to look to ourselves, and to think that we can manage very well, we can overcome our enemies, we can gain for ourselves a passage to the kingdom of heaven. But when we feel weak, then we are more disposed to go to Him who can give all strength, to Him who is all strength our Lord Jesus Christ, as He said, ‘The earth is weak and all the inhabitants of it; I bear up the pillars of it’.
II. ‘I was with you in weakness and in fear.’ There is enough to be afraid of in this world. But unfortunately we are all just like children, afraid of that which we ought not to be afraid of, and not the least afraid of what we ought to fear. A child will be afraid of a stuffed wild beast, and cry out in terror. The same child will play in a room where there is a most malignant fever, and have no sense of danger.
III. Every man is weak in that which is his besetting sin. Yet God would give us strength to overcome that completely if only we went to Him for it. ‘The congregations of the ungodly have robbed me,’ says David. So they have robbed us. The congregations of the ungodly are the devil and his wicked angels.
IV. ‘I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.’ See where all that ended. He went through fire and water, and he has long since been brought out into a wealthy place.
J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. II. p. 249.
1Co 2:4-5
‘Treasurer Wightman, having glanced at the MS. on the Fourfold State,’ says Thomas Boston in his memoirs for 1st January, 1719, ‘wrote to me, that he found a vein of true Christianity in it, and therefore would contribute to the publication of it; and this requiring an answer, gave me an unlooked-for errand to the throne of grace at this time. He intimated withal, that the style would be nauseous to the polite world, and that no book had yet been written on the depraved state of man, with true spirit and elegancy of expression. This did not much move me; for I do not think that way of writing he is so fond of is the way the Lord has used much to countenance for the advancing of true Christianity.’
‘I preach the Gospel not with the “enticing words of man’s wisdom” this was the way of the Apostles’ discoursing of things sacred,’ says South. ‘Nothing here of “the fringes of the north star”; nothing of “nature’s becoming unnatural”; nothing of the “down of angels’ wings”; or “the beautiful lock of cherubims”: no starched similitudes introduced with a “Thus have I seen a cloud rolling in its airy mansion”; and the like. No, there were sublimities above the rise of the apostolic spirit. For the Apostles, poor mortals, were content to take lower steps…. It tickled not the ear, but sunk into the heart; and when men came from such sermons, they never commended the preacher for his taking voice or gesture; for the fineness of such a simile, or the quaintness of such a sentence; but they spoke like men conquered with the overpowering force and evidence of the most concerning truths.’
We ask questions perhaps about diction, elocution, rhetorical power; but does the commander of a besieging force dream of holiday displays, reviews, mock engagements, feats of strength, or trials of skill, such as would be graceful and suitable on a parade ground when a foreigner of rank was to be received and fted; or does he aim at one and one thing only, viz., to take the strong place? Display dissipates the energy, which for the object in view needs to be concentrated and condensed. We have no reason to suppose that the Divine blessing follows the lead of human accomplishments. Indeed, St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, who made much of such advantages of nature, contrasts the persuasive words of human wisdom ‘with the showing of the Spirit,’ and tells us that’ the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power’.
Newman, The Idea of a University, p. 407.
References. II. 4, 5. T. Sadler, Sunday Thoughts, p. 177. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p. 24. II. 5. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 276. II. 6. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 39. II. 6, 7. J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 373. II. 6-8. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 31. II. 6-16. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 353. II. 7. H. Allen, Penny Pulpit, No. 1569, p. 185. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 111. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 17. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 32. II. 8. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 2; ibid. vol. ix. p. 93; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 180.
Heaven Prepared for Those Prepared for Heaven
1Co 2:9
To go to heaven when they die, to gaze upon the face of Jesus Christ and so to be blessed throughout all eternity, is the one great desire of all people, believers in the Christian religion, in their more serious moments of reflection to go to heaven. But there is a question which confronts every one who has ever so desired, a question so extremely simple and natural that one wonders that a reply is not oftener made to it, viz., What sort of place or state would one find heaven to be if he got there? Granted that earth was done with, its toils and tears for ever over, and a free and full entrance ministered abundantly into that happy realm beyond time and the gloomy grave, what sort of experience would it afford, what sort of occupation would one have assigned him, what kind of society would he find himself, mingling in?
That heaven is a kingdom of unbounded delight, that Jesus is there, and that the ransomed and redeemed of the Lord are there, every one knows who has read even ten pages of the Bible in his lifetime. But this is not the question; but would the newly arrived spirit find it a state of enjoyment if he entered it? Granted that suddenly, as men on the battlefield pass, a soul winged its way into the dread presence of God, and that in the twinkling of an eye the Spirit had sped. If the golden bowl were broken, and the silver cord loosed, and the pitcher broken at the fountain, as happens every hour somewhere in this world, suddenly, and the liberated soul appeared before his Maker, is it conceivable that merely because a man had died and the gates of heaven opened wide to welcome the newly arrived spirit that heaven would be found truly enjoyable irrespective of and wholly apart from the kind of life he had led and the tastes that deepened into habits during that life?
I. Say that a man had led a tolerably forceful and busy life, and had by his personality forged out for himself a well-recognised place in the esteem of his friends and fellow-mortals, and that he was summoned suddenly, as people are constantly, and found himself among the celestial and blessed throng on high, and that gazing round his newly attained, newly entered on surroundings, he found that the company was too good for him, that the employment assigned him was certain to eventually prove uncongenial to him that the presence of God and the holy Jesus and the blessed companionship of the pure angels and the ransomed and the redeemed liberated from earth’s defilements and no longer trammelled by earth’s limitations, all conduced to make up a state for him that he was convinced he could not possibly endure or ever be truly happy in; but that, on the contrary, promised to make him miserable beyond the power of words to describe; what would that heaven be? What though its delights were pure and unbounded its courts hallowed, its streets of gold, its citizens aglow with eagerness to serve the most High God, its infinite expanse pervaded to the remotest part by the consciousness in every heart but his own of the presence of an all-merciful, all-loving, ever-present God! And all this to go on indefinitely perpetuated, with no break, no year of respite, and with no hope of ever terminating an engagement which opened with nothing more certain than the certainty that the experience so often sighed for on earth, and over the attainment of which countless religious services had been engaged in and perhaps occasionally a few insipid tears shed, would end in misery, and this called heaven longed for, sung of, it may be even prayed for and now at last won! Why, such a heaven would prove itself to one unprepared for it a veritable hell, the torture and horror of which would burn into a man’s being like a bar of hot iron into his flesh.
II. Now in these circumstances what can be said in answer to this plain pointed question which every Bible reader finds himself face to face with, nay, which lies before every one who has even once sighed for the joy of heaven and longed to enter there. That question is, What sort of heaven am I prepared for entering here and now? To that plain and most serious question, can any reliable reply be given? Or must we shut and hasp our Bibles and go our ways into the world again, sad at heart, because we are unable to answer the question, and must we live and die unable to say what sort of heaven we are best fitted for inhabiting? Nay! There is no need for this.
We have only to turn our searching scrutiny within to gaze, by the aid of memory and an awakened conscience, over the paths we have loved to tread, the secret delights that have charmed us most, the companionships we have cherished and most enjoyed, the kind of people whose society gave us the most intense and keenest enjoyment, and there, still gazing within ourselves, there rises before the mental eye a picture painted as truthfully as by the very hand of God Himself which with absolute faithfulness portrays the kind of heaven each worshipper is best fitted to inhabit and enjoy. We dare not always call it God’s heaven or the Bible-lovers’ heaven, but the realm or state which from that individual soul’s past experience he or she is quite justified in believing would best secure the continuity of the kind of joy hitherto known on earth. There cannot be a moment’s doubt in any one’s mind that what has been so far said carries with it the emphasis of common sense and universal experience.
We must breathe heaven’s atmosphere on earth. The radiance of heaven, whatever its final fulness, must fall upon the heart on earth now, and wherever there is a heart that is animated by a love of good and by the spirit of a hidden love of God, there heaven has in no dim or uncertain sense already been entered, and the land of promise, however far off at times it may seem, has actually proved to be within. The one golden word in this beautiful verse that gives the key as of heaven itself to every thoughtful inquirer after heaven is love ‘things God hath prepared for them that love Him’. Where this blessed influence is unfeignedly existing, leavening the life, clarifying the spiritual vision, sorting out the soul’s choicest delights, God is and Christ even now reigns, and in a certain sense heaven’s atmosphere is already breathed, though its courts in the final sense are not yet fully won.
From all this there are reducible the following self-manifest deductions, which press themselves upon us all, and that in so solemn, so powerful and yet so persuasive a manner that they are unanswerable. First, although no man knows where heaven is, every man knows the kind of heaven best suited to his secret tastes. Next, the heaven a heart secretly sighs after and most enjoys the foretaste of on earth is the only state best suited for that soul in the hereafter; and finally, the state that affords most enjoyment on earth and which promises its continuity in the dread hereafter is the state that particular soul should inherit and no other. This might be cast into another set of words, viz., the sort of heaven best suited for a man is the sort of heaven he ought to have assigned him.
D. D. F. Macdonald.
1Co 2:9
Hereafter, and up there, above the clouds, you have been taught to think; until you were informed by your land-surveyors that there was neither up nor down; but only an axis of x and an axis of y; and by aspiring aeronauts that there was nothing in the blue but damp and azote. And now you don’t believe these things are prepared any where? They are prepared just as much as ever, when and where they used to be: just now, and here, close at your hand All things are prepared, come ye to the marriage.
Ruskin, Fors Clavigera (III. 72).
References. II. 9. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. pp. 350, 403; ibid. (6th Series), vol. v. p. 64; ibid. vol. viii. p. 454.
1Co 2:9-10
‘These words,’ says Miss Dora Greenwell in The Covenant of Life (p. 101), ‘and those which follow in the twelfth verse, “now we have received of the Spirit which is of God, to know the things which have been freely given us of Him,” and, indeed, the whole tenor of the chapter, make it evident that the Apostle is not looking beyond the time that now is. The mystery with which his thoughts are occupied is the life of God within the soul that “preparation of the heart of man,” wherein He reveals Himself after a manner not to be apprehended by outward sense, or recognised by natural perception. It is the heaven within us, and not the heaven above us, that the Apostle would here unfold to us; he is concerned, not with such things of God as we have yet to wait for, but with such as we have already received.’
References. II. 9. C. Cuthbert Hall, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. p. 12. Llewelyn Davies, The Purpose of God, p. 55.
The Things Which God Reveals to Them That Love Him
1Co 2:9-10
St. Paul claims for himself and his fellow-Christians a certain superior insight and receptiveness, an endowment peculiar and unique, an apprehension which others have not of the things which make up the higher and diviner life. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard…. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.’
I. Now this truth has often provoked the wit of the satirist and the sneer of the infidel. They have laughed at the idea that anything could be revealed to the soul of faith which is not open to the eyes of the intellect And sometimes, alas! their sneer has been not without provocation, for the truth itself has many times suffered in the hands of those who have abused and perverted it for their own ends. The priest has claimed it to silence the laity; the bigot and the persecutor have employed it to stop inquiry and quench the highest aspirations of men. And often the vulgar and self-confident preacher, talking the grossest absurdities, has denounced those who reasonably objected to his utterances as carnal, unspiritual, and incompetent to judge. It is open to anyone who is perhaps equally devoid of modesty and grace to use this as the cover of his own ignorance and arrogance, and to say, ‘ We know these things, and you do not’. All this is inevitable. You have read miserable parodies of the loftiest poems, and seen wretched caricatures of the noblest faces. So the sublimest truths may be easily turned into coarseness and buffoonery; but the truths remain great and immortal, in spite of that.
II. There is a spiritual faculty given to men which makes them wiser in the things of the spirit than all which the wisdom of this world knows, and the merest child in faith may feel and know what the intellectual giant has no perception of. There are simple things in everyday life which are close akin to this. You know people who are clever enough in their own department, and yet blind, deaf, unfeeling, and unappreciative concerning the things which are profoundly interesting to you; men who know fifty times more than you know about the world of books, yet have no more sensitiveness than a stone to the music which sets your heart beating with inexpressible raptures; men who could run up a column of figures whilst you are stumbling over the first of them, and who are no more affected by the most exquisite poetry than your favourite dog might be.
These differences run all through life. They determine whether a life shall be coarse and empty or refined and abounding with joy. There are perceptions which no training can give, which no schools can create: they are the endowment of nature, or rather the gift of God, and they are often in the possession of the child, or the untutored woman, and even of the unlearned preacher, whilst the most omnivorous reader and bookworm may be destitute of them.
And if you think of this you may well allow, if you do not understand, that the same truth holds in the life of faith and religious emotion.
III. It is simply impossible for the secrets of the Christian life to be revealed to those who have no Christian beliefs and sentiments. Plato draws a picture of the worshippers in the old pagan Mysteries. They are going through the sacred dance to the sound of sweet music which is being played in the midst of them. But there are spectators watching them from the hillside afar off who say these dancers are mad. The spectators can see the movements of joy, but they cannot hear the music. And people outside the Christian life are like these spectators. They cannot hear the music, and all the rest is strange and inexplicable. They do not know the raptures which are felt when the load of sin is removed; when God, who has seemed far off, comes as near as a familiar friend; when life moves in heavenly places, overshadowed by the love of Jesus, and there is a singing in the heart sweeter than all earthly music. They cannot know. They must taste before they can experience the things which God hath revealed to them that love Him.
J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 77.
References. II. 9, 10. J. W. Houchin, The Vision of God, p. 132. T. Sadler, Sunday Thoughts, p. 101. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 56. W. R. Inge, All Saints’ Sermons, 1905-7, p. 92.
The Depths of God
1Co 2:10
I. The first suggestion of the passage is that as a man’s own spirit alone knows the depths of his own nature, so the Spirit of God alone can know the depths of God, the mysteries of the Divine nature. A man also has depths within him; within him deep cries unto deep. The growth of a child is a series of revelations, but the development of life after childhood is hardly less surprising. Sir Walter Scott was a dull and wandering mind at school. It is no uncommon thing to find an unsuspected faculty emerging even late in life. The only personal knowledge of me that is in any sense full and inclusive is the knowledge acquired by my own spirit. In the same way the being of the Infinite is known only by the Spirit of God. The self-consciousness of the Being who made the universe, even as we know it, is as far beyond our thought as our human self-consciousness must be beyond the thought of the indistinguishable amoeba, which floats in the ooze of the sea.
II. But now it is implied that the Spirit which is the self-consciousness of God can be and is imparted to the Christian, so that in some limited degree that self-consciousness of God, to which His own vast and unfathomable being lies revealed, produces, or reveals, in us a knowledge of His being. We must be careful here not to lapse into the vagueness and unrealities of Pantheism. And we can avoid the danger only by clinging close to the experience of the spiritual life. St. Paul is particular to say that this wisdom is only intelligible to the wise, or the full-grown, i.e. to those in whom the Spirit has been at work. What is it that occurs when by faith in Christ Jesus we receive the Holy Spirit? We can only say that we are introduced into the being and the life of God.
III. These depths of God are searched for us by the Spirit much as Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise were searched for Dante by Virgil and Beatrice. That is, we are taken into abysses, and round the spiral ledges of a mountain, and into the circles of heaven. No poet, not even Dante, could describe the experience. We shall not venture now to do more than enumerate a few of these unfathomable depths of God, and even in our fullest investigations later we shall not flatter ourselves that we have fathomed them. (1) There is, to begin with, the depth of the Divine nature, which is revealed by the Incarnation of the eternal Son, and the deep beyond the deep which is revealed by His suffering on the cross for us men and for our redemption. (2) Guided by the Spirit, we discover that the Incarnation implies the eternal being of God as Love; a relation between Father and Son which was before the world began and will be when the world has ended. The cross implies that the Love which is God is the love which goes out beyond, creating and redeeming; a love which makes men in His image, a love which will save them even by suffering and death. (3) In Rom 11:33 Paul breaks into an exclamation as the great deeps become for a moment clear to him: ‘O the depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God!’ It is by this initiation into the depths of the infinite God, and surely by this alone, that we can escape the terror of the infinite universe.
R. F. Horton, The Trinity, p. 21.
The Deep Things of God
1Co 2:10
What do we understand by ‘the deep things of God’? There are the depths of Godhead, but that is not what is intended in the text. It is not the depths of Godhead, but the deep things of God which the Holy Ghost wishes us to have and enjoy.
I. First of all, there is God’s deep love. ‘God so loved.’ No plummet has ever been found capable of sounding the depths of that ‘so’. We cannot learn God’s love from Nature. Some people say that the Holy Ghost reveals God’s love by the Incarnation of Christ. True, in the Lord Jesus we do see God’s love, but we do not see its depths in the Incarnation. When the Holy Ghost wants us to know the great depth of God’s love, He points us to Calvary.
II. Another deep thing that the Holy Ghost reveals is God’s deep wisdom.
III. The Holy Ghost also reveals God’s deep mercy.
IV. The Holy Ghost also reveals God’s deep righteousness. ‘Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep.’ The deep things of God cannot be seen by the natural man they can only be spiritually discerned.
A. G. Brown, The Baptist, vol. LXIX. p. 812.
References. II. 10. Bishop Bickersteth, Sermons, p. 77. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 286; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 416. II. 10-12. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 187. II. 11. J. Keble, Sermons for Lent to Passiontide, p. 183. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 248. II. 12. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 125. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 209. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2087. W. T. Davison, The Indwelling Spirit, p. 59.
The Natural Man
1Co 2:14
‘The natural man.’ The Greek is the ‘psychical’ man, the man in whom the soul is all, and the spirit is like a dark untenanted chamber. The natural man is the man whose spirit is empty of God. In the third chapter of the same Epistle, Paul says: ‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ’. Now the ‘carnal’ man is a Christian, a babe in Christ He is regenerate, he is in Christ, and Christ is in him; but instead of Christ being predominant, the carnal element is predominant.
I. There are Four Characteristics of the Carnal Life. (1) The carnal life is a babe life. What is sweeter than a babe? But what is tender and beautiful in a babe for a few months is terrible at the end of twelve months, or ten years. And what is lovely in a young convert is terrible in a man of ten or twenty years of Christian life (2) And then the carnal man lives on milk. (3) A carnal Christian is also sectarian. ‘I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas.’ (4) ‘Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil’ (Heb 5:14 ). Here we have a fourth characteristic of the carnal Christian; such an one is unable to exercise his senses to discern good and evil.
II. How to get Rid of the Self-Life? There are three steps: (1) The cross. Whenever the self-life obtrudes, reckon yourself dead to it; reckon that the cross stands between you and it. (2) The Holy Spirit ‘If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’ And again: ‘The Spirit lusteth against the flesh’. It was by the Eternal Spirit that Christ offered Himself without spot to God, and it is by the Eternal Spirit that the cursed spirit of self is going to be antagonised in your life and mine. (3) This leads me to my third point, that whilst the Spirit of God in the depth of your heart is antagonising the self-life, He does it by making Jesus Christ a living bright reality. He fixes your thoughts upon Jesus.
F. B. Meyer, The Soul’s Ascent, p. 75.
References. II. 14. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. i. p. 286. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 407. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 43; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 164; ibid. vol. ix. p. 456.
1Co 2:15
‘He that is spiritual judgeth all things’ if cleaned from fanaticism and presumption, and taken in connection with ‘But yet I show unto you a more excellent way’ is at once, I think, our privilege and our duty.
Dr. Arnold of Rugby.
References. II. 15. Phillips Brooks, The Law of Growth, p. 294. II. 16. J. Clifford, The Christian Certainties, p. 87. Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p. 404. II. 31, 32. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 197. III. 1. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 198.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Paul’s Style of Preaching
1Co 2:1
Did the Apostle voluntarily deny himself the pleasure of being eloquent? Was he not an eloquent man? Not in the sense in which Apollos was eloquent, the fluent, ornate, dazzling style of eloquence, but rather suggestive, stimulating, audacious, and yet chastened with the sublimest spirit of devotion. Was Paul his very best intellectual self when he went to Corinth? He says he was not. In one sense, the Corinthians saw the poorest aspect of his manifold nature; and yet, if they had known it, they were in reality seeing the very best aspect of the man’s ministry. But they were sensuous, objective, looking out for spectacle and colour, and not listening with the inner ear, which alone can hear the true music of life and speech. The Apostle had a specific reason for not being verbally eloquent: he was talking to children; he would rebuke their intellectual vanity by presenting himself under aspects that were, apparently at least, humiliating. But the reason is deeper than a mere accommodation to Corinthian infancy; the reason is given in plain terms. The Apostle went to Corinth to declare the testimony of God. That was an all-explanatory reason; in the glory of that function the worker lost all his individuality. The Apostle recognised himself to be but a vessel, an instrument, a medium; he himself being as surprised as those who heard him at the music which God sounded through his voice. It is always so with great teaching and great speaking; the speaker is as surprised as the hearer. Why? Because he yields himself to the hands of God, and he knows not what tune will be played upon the instrument of his soul. Who ever found the Apostle Paul wondering what he should say, as to the substance, the pith, and the purport of his doctrine? The Apostle Paul was an errand-bearer; he had himself nothing to say to the world; he had a testimony to deliver, and his testimony was the testimony of God. That carries the whole purpose and thought of Christian ministry. The Apostle must fill his mind with Divine messages, he must read the prophets, and peruse the life of Christ, and study the ministry of the Cross, and only tell what he himself has been told. Preachers have nothing to say; they are unfaithful when they utter any word of their own, then they steal an honour, and arrest public attention with thoughts that are not worth taking out of the dust. The sermon is nothing, the text is everything: but were this theory proceeded upon, all Corinthian congregations would be dissolved. “Excellency of speech or of wisdom” has its subtle temptations. There is a profanity of sentence-making, there is a blasphemy of rhetoric. We do not want the vessel, we want the life-giving fluid which it holds. It is not the goblet that saves us, it is the blood. Has he time to think out of what vessel he drinks who is dying of thirst? Does he take up the goblet and ask questions as to its age, as to its decoration, as to its symbolism? He sees not the vessel, he lays hold of it and drains it, because he is conscious of a fatal thirst. But the Corinthians in all this have themselves to blame that so much attention is paid to the vessel. Their criticisms are flippant, superficial, profane. There are not wanting those who speak about a “finished style”; the heavens frown on them that they should talk such folly and madness within presence of the Cross. The Apostle Paul, therefore, comes before all Christian ages as the exemplar of Christian apostolicity and Christian ministry.
The strength of the temptation may be in some degree measured by the strength of the resolution with which Paul encountered it. Read: “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Men have to gird themselves for great occasions; sometimes men have to go into training for a long time, that they may strengthen muscle and fibre, and flesh and bone, so as to endure the conflict well, and come out of it triumphantly. No man can know how long the Apostle was in corning to this determination. His, indeed, was a swiftly acting mind; he did not hover about a subject, but fell upon it with energetic precision. Yet we have the Apostle here in various moods; trembling like a leaf wind-shaken, and standing like a rock. He was a manifold man. He cried in public, and in public he thundered. The one thing he determined to know was the all-inclusive thing. He was not content to know about Jesus Christ. Many persons are fascinated by that theme who are not Christians. There is nothing less acceptable to the Son of God than a compliment paid to his character, if the payment of that tribute be not followed by the imitation of his Spirit and the reproduction of his life. Many persons preach about Jesus Christ who never preach him. The whole difficulty lies in that word “about.” They are within sight of him, they have a clear vision of his personality, his figure, his colour, his height, his bulk, his historical relations; they write learned essays about him, they paint verbal pictures of the Messiah, they turn his miracles and mighty signs and wonders into poesy, into idyllic incidents. They do not preach Christ. Sometimes they preach Christ best who never name him. Were a minister to preach upon the forgiveness of sins, he would be termed a moralist, a legalist; whereas, he is preaching the very agony of the Cross of Christ. No man can preach the forgiveness of a foe without preaching Christ, yet Christ’s name may not be mentioned. We are humiliated and disgraced by bigots, who call that preaching Christ which simply names the Name without penetrating to the inner meaning, thought, and purpose of the Son of God. You cannot reconcile two enemies without preaching Christ. He who does Christ’s work preaches Christ himself. Could we persuade the Church to accept this definition what charity would be developed, what nobleness, what consciousness of one man supplying what is lacking in the ministry of another, and what a grasp of the whole ministry we should secure! There must be some strong men willing to live on begged bread until they can drill this doctrine into the stony heart of a nominal but insufferable Church. Why was the Apostle not satisfied with knowing about Jesus Christ? Because Jesus Christ may be but a historical name, one of many, the brightest point in a series of brilliant points; what the Apostle would know was Jesus Christ “crucified,” that word bearing all the emphasis of his meaning. Many persons fall short of the Cross; they can witness the performance of any number of miracles, and be appropriately amazed; they can listen to any number of discourses and say, “How wonderful!” All this amounts to nothing: unless a man be crucified with Christ, on Christ’s Cross, he is none of Christ’s. But this would cut down the Church by millions. All the proud people would have to go; all the self-satisfied people would be scattered, while all persons who have little theories and religious inventions and pious tricks of their own would have to be dispersed. Who is sufficient for these things? The man who thinks he has about him one rag of respectability would have to be driven forth, and Jesus Christ would be left with a few broken hearts, a few sinners having one only cry, “God be merciful unto me a sinner.” Numerically, the Church would be small; energetically, spiritually, dynamically, it would be omnipotent. He who erases the word “crucified” erases the words “Jesus Christ.”
How was the Apostle with the Corinthians? He explains his spirit and his attitude in pathetic terms: “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” What a various character was Paul! Hear him on one occasion when they tell him that bonds and imprisonment await him in every city; he says, “None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God.” Then you describe him as a mighty north wind tearing down the valleys of time, never to be resisted or turned back. At Corinth he was in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. This was not all bodily infirmity; there was a touch of another sensation in this mysterious experience. It would be curious to range on the one side all the heroic utterances of Paul, when he is giant conqueror, not a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles; and then to put down on the opposite page all the times of his depression, when he needed cheering words from angels and from God himself; for no man so much needed cheering as the Apostle Paul. Peter had better spirits. Collate the passages in which God is obliged, so to say, by the constraint of love to come to Paul and say, “Fear not.” Listen to Paul as he says: “There stood by me the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul.” To no man in the Church was that word so frequently addressed; yet at other times he seemed to carry the whole Church by his strength, to hold the whole flock of Christ within the fold of his heart. Poor is the life that has only one line in it! How stricken with the disease of monotony the soul that can only sing one tune! Sometimes the Apostle could only rebuke vanity by what might appear to be excessive humility on his own side. The Apostle had to create an atmosphere in which it was impossible for any man to speak above his breath, lest he should convict himself of ostentation and self-idolatry. The mystery wrought by this apostolic action ended in a consciousness on the part of the Corinthians that they must not display themselves, if he, the greatest, was so tremulous, so self-restrained, and so consciously and lovingly subject to the chastening of the Divine Spirit. The only way in which certain blatant persons can be put down is by the silence of the men who are attacked. Paul could only rebuke the vanity of the Church by exhibiting himself in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. For not one man amongst them did he care one iota, so far as that man’s intelligence or power was concerned. Every man in that Church acquired his quality and his value by his attachment to One greater than himself. This was a studied depreciation; this was a calculated abasement.
How does the Apostle describes his preaching? He says: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom”: I never made a sermon: to make a sermon! why, that is to make an idol, a graven image, a shape in clay; and to breathe into its nostrils my own dying breath, why that were waste of life: I simply said, Thou Blessed One of the Cross, put into my heart what has to be uttered by my tongue; tell me thy word, and I will go and speak it, though every man be a lion, and every town a den of lions. “Enticing words of man’s wisdom:” small inventions of man’s mind; man’s answers to the puzzle of the universe; man’s renewed attempt to answer an unanswerable enigma; man’s profession of being able to arrange the little pieces of the universe so as to get the shape of the whole; man correcting himself to-day for what he said yesterday, and begging the pardon of an audience whilst he retracts an assertion and replaces it with another which is equally devoid of truth. What we want is the burning heart, the burning tongue, the self that has no self, the heroic egotism that in the very grandeur of its passion forgets the pettiness of its individuality.
How, then, did Paul preach? “In demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” The converts might be few, but they should be good. No man should be able to say that his minister was not present, and therefore he could not defend his own religion; no one should be driven to say, If you want to know what I believe, consult my preacher: let every man have his own conviction wrought in him by God the Holy Ghost. Faith that stands in the wisdom of men may be overturned by the very energy that created it. Any man who accepts Christ as the result of controversial study may reject Christ tomorrow because some mightier controversialist has undertaken to teach a contrary doctrine. We must come to Christ through the heart. It is not the intellect that receives Christ, but when the heart lays hold upon him it takes another heart greater still to extract the infinite benediction. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” It is because the heart is not touched that we have bigotry, sectarianism, separation one from another, so that one saith, It is so, and another saith, It is not so. Men cannot be reconciled in opinion; they can be one in the ocean of love. But would not this be mere emotion? I answer, No. We should be careful how we admit the existence of any such thing as mere emotion. There may be an animal emotion, but the emotion that is spoken of in connection with the Cross of Christ is a soul-melting passion, a fire that brings into one all the various elements of life, fusing them together, and representing them in outward action as a unity strong and indissoluble.
The Apostle gathers himself together, and says, “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect.” That is to say, we can be wiser than we appear to be: whilst I was in Corinth I taught the alphabet; I could have spoken a fluent literature that would have amazed and distressed you all; but wisdom is not to be spoken in the presence of children; we speak to children in children’s language; we speak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect, them that are strong, them that are spiritually-minded; men who can handle a mystery without taking the bloom off it; men who can see the meaning of a parable without being bewildered by its accidentals; men who see the spirit is greater than the word, the letter, the form. There be those clever people who examine the robe that has been brought out for the shoulders of the prodigal, and who take up his shoes and examine them, and take off the ring that they may look at it; and there be those who see no robe, nor shoes, nor ring, but join the infinite gladness because a soul has been raised from the dead. Do not waste the parables, the mysteries, the symbols of God; they teach some inner core-truth, some heart thought; seize them, and as for the drapery let it flow as it may, for God is often redundant in his gift of cloud and colour, flowers and music.
Paul is very ironical in the after parts of his discourse. It is a beautiful and profitable intellectual study to follow this man in all the gamut of his intellectual action. He looks at the Corinthians with a countenance charged with expressions they can never understand. He speaks “the wisdom of God in a mystery,” in a parable, in a concealed way, in a way that is only half disclosed; “even the hidden wisdom,” the wisdom that rises, floats, passes, falls out of view, returns, shines with added glory, and then dissolves in added clouds and darkness. Then the Apostle says, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Where is it so written? Some say in an Apocryphal book. But that is a poor answer; ten thousand other things may be written in Apocryphal books which we have never read. But it is written where? Did any one try to find out whether this passage is inscribed in the Old Testament? We take it for granted it is written because Paul says it is written; there we are poor Papists, there we are miserable idolaters; Paul says it is written, and therefore we accept it, and never inquire where the fact being it is not written. We should study Paul’s method of quoting the Bible. When Paul seeks to establish a given doctrinal point he will give you, as it were, chapter and verse; at other times he will give you, not chapter and verse, but the whole Bible. It is lawful so to quote the Bible as to lose all sense of chapter and verse. Chapter and verse are not Divine inventions, they are not human inventions we will not press the inquiry farther. We have been ruined by chapter and verse. We may be biblical when we have no text to quote. “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” When did he say so? Never, and yet he never said anything else. If you ask for chapter and verse, then Jesus Christ never said these words; but if you ask for Jesus Christ’s teaching you cannot have a finer, more suggestive declaration of the doctrine and purpose of his life. So “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” You find an echo of this in Isaiah, in more places than one, but not in this connection, and not in this relation; and yet the whole Old Testament simply says this. When you have read through from Genesis to Malachi, you might say the whole is comprehended in one saying, namely, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Talk about the finality of the Book! it begins but never ends. Thus this is the teaching of Paul when he says: “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” There is a continual spiritual communication going on between God and the believer. We know many things by the spirit we do not know by the letter. The ear of corn has outlived the seed out of which it sprang; the flower expresses the secret of the root, and the fragrance of the flower. What shall be said of that? always giving itself away, shaking out its blessing on the wind, so that, though rich men wall in their flower-gardens, the fragrance comes over the wall and blesses the humblest little child that plays on the road. Dear little child, sniff this gift of odour, by-and-by thou shalt have a whole paradise.
Have we the spirit of interpretation and sympathy, the spirit that sees afar off? If so, we are rich, and we are never alone.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XV
THE PREACHER AND FACTIONS
1Co 2:1-4:7
We shall proceed to repeat part of the ground of the last chapter. We were discussing the third division of the outline, ecclesiastical disorders. The first is factions. There were divisions. Paul, in replying to the evil of divisions in churches about persons, made an argument that the world has never equaled, and which will be important for all time upon the subject of factions.
His first argument against factions is that Christ Is not divided. Second, the preacher was not crucified for them. They were making divisions about preachers, yet nobody was crucified but Christ. Third, nobody was baptized in the name of a preacher. Fourth, one of the grounds of division was that some preachers were more oratorical than others in their speaking, and used eloquence and philosophies of the schools. In replying to that he stated the wise or oratorical preacher does not save men. They are saved by the cross. Therefore, it is perfectly foolish to have a division about persons on the ground that one is more oratorical than another. Fifth, that worldly wisdom never did discover God, and never could have devised a plan of salvation. God gave the wisdom of the world all the opportunity that it wanted from the beginning of time to the coming of Christ. There had been many wise men, particularly among the Greeks and Romans, but what did their wisdom amount to? It had never discovered the nature of God, devised a system of morals or a plan of salvation. History presents the awful anomaly that the wisest cities in the world, such as Athens, Ephesus, and Corinth, were morally rotten, spiritually putrid. Their wisdom did not save them from obscenity or debauchery. The sixth argument is that as a matter of fact few of the wise and the great men were saved. Somehow their wisdom and their greatness prevented their stooping down and becoming little children in receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. He proves this by appealing to their own case. “You know, brethren, from your own experience that not many wise, great, or noble are called.” The seventh argument against division, where it was predicated on superior worldly wisdom on the part of any of the persona about whom the division was centered, is that Christ himself is the wisdom of the Christian, the righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of the Christian. How beautifully he works in the thought of the Trinity, “Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” While Christ is the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of his people, the application is different. He is not our sanctification in the sense that he is our righteousness. Our righteousness is imputed to us, and we receive it by a single act of faith. Our sanctification is applied to us differently by the Holy Spirit, and becomes at last a personal righteousness.
His eighth argument is that the gospel which saves men is not discerned according to carnal wisdom, but is spiritually discerned. Whether a man be wise or ignorant does not enter into the question. We might take a Negro that could not read a letter in a book, and put seven wise men of Greece against him, and the Negro might spiritually discern the gospel of eternal life preached to him as a poor, ignorant, lost soul quicker than the seven wise men of Greece.
I have often used as an illustration of that, the case of Gen. Speight, whose children live in Waco now. He was a great man in many respects. He was the best organizer and trainer of a regiment I ever knew, and his intellect was quick as lightning, and yet he could not see how to be converted until his old Negro servant took him off in the gin house and showed him how to come to Christ.
That applies in Paul’s argument. One of the grounds of division, was that they were instituting comparisons between Paul and Apollos. Apollos was a wise man, expert in Alexandrian philosophy. Paul wants to know what that counts in a case of this kind. The natural man receives not the things of God. They are foolishness to him.
His ninth argument is that factions hinder spiritual progress. They were yet babes in Christ when they ought to have been teachers. I don’t know anything that can more quickly destroy the spiritual progress of the church than divisions. Let a church be divided into two parties, one following Deacon A and the other Deacon B; one clamoring for this preacher and the other for that; let the line be drawn sharply, then all spirituality dies. There cannot be power ‘in the church while that continues.
The tenth argument consists of some questions: “What then is Apollos? and what is Paul?” At a last analysis they are only the instruments or ministers by whom they believed; God himself gave the increase.
He advances in the eleventh argument: “You are divided about preachers. You are not the preacher’s field or his building. You are God’s field; you are God’s building. Then if you are God’s building you don’t belong to this preacher or to that preacher.”
The twelfth argument is that the only foundation in this building is Jesus Christ: “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The thirteenth argument is that all the incongruous material the preacher puts on that foundation will be destroyed in the great judgment day tried by fire. He refers to the material received for church membership. Paul laid a divine foundation for the church at Corinth. Other men proposed to build on that foundation. Suppose a man puts into the temple of God “wood, hay, stubble.” Some people thatch the roof of the house with hay or stubble. Every addition to that church, when the Master comes to examine his building, that has not been made of living stone, lasting spiritual material, will be cut out and will go up in fire and smoke. So we will say that one reason for the division was that a preacher held a meeting and received a thousand members and 975 came in without conviction or repentance a dry-eyed, easy, little faith, little sinner, little savior and it did not amount to anything. The preacher, if a Christian, will be saved, but every bit of the unworthy material he put in the church will be lost, and because the work is lost he will suffer loss of reward for his labors.
His fourteenth argument is that factions destroy the church, which is the temple of God, which temple they were: “Him that destroyeth the temple of God will God destroy.” I never knew it to fail where a man through his fault destroyed a church of Christ that that man was destroyed world without end. Even if he was a Christian he was destroyed. Not as to eternal life, but certainly as to his usefulness in this world. His fifteenth argument is what a text! I heard Dr. Hatcher, of Richmond, preach a sermon on it. The church does not belong to the preachers; the preachers belong to the church: “All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
The sixteenth argument is that these preachers about which they were dividing this church must be counted simply as stewards of the grace of God, the deposit of the gospel which has been given to them. They were not to be looked on as the builders, the authors, and the savior of the church. What they were to do in their case was to ask the one question, “Has this steward been faithful?” The seventeenth argument is that they were dividing this church on their human judgment of men, and their human judgment didn’t count at all. The King James version of 1Co 4:3 is, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment; yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself.” How many sermons I have heard on that when the thought is not that at all! This is the meaning of the true text of the Greek: “For though I know nothing against myself, yet I am not hereby justified,” i.e., human judgment doesn’t count. In other words, I may seem to myself perfect, but I may have a thousand faults. The judge is God, and when God lets the light shine, he brings out some spot I don’t see in the dim light of my wisdom. You remember David’s prayer, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults,” i.e., not faults that I am keeping hid from my wife and my friends, but faults secret to me. “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
The eighteenth and last argument is this: Preachers deserve no credit for difference in gifts, and yet they were making their different gifts the ground of their division: “For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?” One of the greatest blessings in this world today is the difference of gifts that God gives to the church and his preachers. Two of the most important chapters in the Bible are devoted to a discussion of that question (Rom 12 ; 1Co 12 ). God has never yet called a man to preach who cannot do some things better than anybody else in the world. He never gives two men exactly the same gifts. I am conscious that I can do some things better than other people. I am sure that God has given me the gift of interpretation of his Word. But others can do some things better than I can. I would hate it very much if I were the best sample in the kingdom all along the line. It would be a very sad thing for the world if some of God’s preachers could not beat me in some things. They had made this difference in gifts the ground of their factions. Now, call each man up and say, “Paul, where did you get your gifts?” He answers, “God gave them to me.” “Did you earn them?” “No, they are free grace.” “Apollos, where did you get your gifts?” “God gave them to me.” “You did not purchase them from God?” “No, they came through free grace.”
One of the greatest preachers I ever heard stood up in the pulpit and pointed to a homely old Baptist preacher in the crowd and said, “Brethren, I would give all I am worth in the world to be able to preach like that man.” The most of the crowd would have said, “You beat him.” He could beat him, but not in all things. That man could preach a sermon by the way he got up in the pulpit and opened the Bible. The humility and tenderness of soul with which he looked into the faces of the sinners was marvelous. That fact alone ought to keep down the jealousy of one preacher against another preacher. There is such s, thing as improving one’s gifts, and for that a man does deserve credit. A man may have a gift, and by disuse of that gift it will go into bankruptcy; one may be lazy and won’t study, and for that he is to be blamed. I care not how dull a man is naturally, if God has called that man, he had a reason for calling him. He has some work for him to do that Michael and Gabriel could not do. That man is responsible for just what gifts he has, and he ought to try to improve those gifts, and not try to imitate somebody whose gifts are different from his.
I am glad our Lord did not, in this matter, imitate a candiemaker who brings a great tub full of tallow and pours it into one mould. All candles come out of candle-moulds exactly alike. I am glad the Lord’s preacher-material is not like a tub of tallow, and that it is not all run into one mould. We want diversity of gifts and division of labor. Some have the gift of exhortation; others, exposition, pastoral power, tactfulness in visiting the sick and the strangers. Some have the evangelistic gift, and some one thing and some another. Thus we have the eighteen arguments which Paul gives against the first of these ecclesiastical disorders factions.
The second ecclesiastical disorder was a revolt against apostolic authority (1Co 1:8-21 ; 1Co 9:1-27 ). In order to unify this discussion, I have taken everything in the letter that bears upon the revolt against apostolic authority. But who questioned Paul’s apostolic authority? Visiting Jewish professors of religion, coming from Jerusalem and having that Judaizing spirit, which would make the Christian religion nothing but a sect of Judaism, came up to Corinth. In the second letter we have this same topic for discussion. These visiting brethren brought letters of recommendation from people in Judea, as we learn in the second letter, and they questioned Paul’s apostolic authority. On what grounds did they question his apostolic authority?
1. Because he was not one of the original twelve apostles, and had not seen the Lord in his lifetime.
2. He did not exercise the apostolic powers when his authority was questioned. Ananias and Sapphira tried to fool Peter and they were struck dead by exertion of apostolic power. But Paul did not use the power of an apostle to strike men dead in Corinth that differed with him.
3. He had not claimed apostolic support for himself, therefore it was evident that he did not count himself as deserving it. The twelve apostles, particularly Cephas and the brothers of our Lord, being married men, as apostles, for devoting themselves to the apostolic office, demanded support for themselves and their families.
4. His suffering proclaimed that he was not an apostle. If he were God’s apostle, he would not get into so much trouble, for the Lord would take care of him.
5. His was not the true gospel. The true gospel was given to those who accompanied the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the baptism of John down to the time he was taken to heaven. Paul was not even a Christian when that took place.
6. His folly. He did a great many foolish things in the way of expediency.
7. His bodily infirmities and weaknesses. He was a little sore-eyed Jew, bald-headed, with no grace of oratory and no rhetorical form of speech.
8. He was against Moses and the Mosaic law.
9. He was a preacher to the Gentiles. These are the nine distinct grounds upon which these living, visiting brethren, who had done nothing for that church, came over there to work up a case. Whenever I read about it I always feel indignant against that scaly crowd. This is a part of Paul’s great controversy to which Stalker devotes a chapter in his Life of Paul. The letters which are alive with the items of this controversy are 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Later it comes up in another form in Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians, and the same matter in yet a different form later in Hebrews. We will see how Paul replies to this question of his apostleship in the next chapter.
QUESTIONS
1. Restate the first six arguments against factions.
2. What is the seventh argument against division predicated on superior worldly wisdom, and how does Paul here bring in the thought of the Trinity?
3. How is Christ our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?
4. What is the eighth argument, relating to the gospel, and what illustrations given?
5. What is the ninth argument, relating to spiritual progress?
6. What is the tenth argument, relating to the instruments of their faith?
7. What is the eleventh argument, relating to God’s field, or building?
8. What is the twelfth argument, relating to the foundation?
9. What is the thirteenth argument, relating to incongruous material?
10. What is the fourteenth argument, relating to the temple of God?
11. What is the fifteenth argument, relating to church ownership, and what sermon noted on this as a text?
12. What is the sixteenth argument, referring to the deposit of the gospel?
13. What is the seventeenth argument, referring to human, judgment, and how is this text often misapplied?
14. What is the eighteenth argument, referring to gifts, and what special blessing in the diversity of gifts?
15. What is the second ecclesiastical disorder at Corinth, and who caused it?
16. On what grounds did they question Paul’s apostolic authority?
17. In what letters of Paul do we have this great controversy?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
Ver. 1. Not with excellency ] St Paul’s speech was neque lecta, neque neglecta, neither curious nor careless. Politian could say, that it is an ornament to an epistle to be without ornaments. And yet he had so little grace as to prefer Pindar’s Odes before David’s Psalms. Hosius also, the cardinal, thought David’s Psalms unlearned, applying that, Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Os durum! We write unlearned teachings and poems everywhere. Harsh speech. The Holy Scriptures have a grave eloquence, but lack those pompous and painted words that carnal rhetoricians hunt after. There is difference between a pedantic style and a majestic. Non Oratorum filii sumus, sed Piscatorum, We are not sons of orators but of Picatus, said that great divine to Libanius the rhetorician, that tickled his hearers with tinkling terms, and delighted to wit-wanton it with lascivious phrases of oratory.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 5 .] Accordingly, Paul did not use among them words of worldly wisdom, but preached Christ crucified only, in the power of the Spirit .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1 .] I also (as one of the of ch. 1Co 1:23 , and also with reference to the preceding verse, . . ) when I came to you, brethren, came, not with excellency of speech or wisdom announcing (pres. part., not fut., as in ref., and in Xen. Hell. ii. 1. 29, . The time taken in the voyage is overlooked, and the announcement regarded as beginning when the voyage began) to you the testimony of (concerning) God .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
10 4:21. ] REPROOF OF THE PARTY-DIVISIONS AMONG THEM: BY OCCASION OF WHICH, THE APOSTLE EXPLAINS AND DEFENDS HIS OWN METHOD OF PREACHING ONLY CHRIST TO THEM.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 2:1-5 . 6. PAUL’S CORINTHIAN MISSION, Paul has justified his refusing to preach on two grounds: (1) the nature of the Gospel, (2) the constituency of the Church of Cor [287] ; it was no philosophy, and they were no philosophers. This refusal he continues to make, in pursuance of the course adopted from the outset . So he returns to his starting-point, viz. , that “Christ sent” him “to bring good tidings,” such as neither required nor admitted of “wisdom of word” (1Co 1:17 ).
[287] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Co 2:1-2 say how P. did not come , vv, 3 5 how he actually did come , to Cor [303]
[303] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Co 2:1 . : “And I at my coming came”: the repeated vb [288] draws attention to Paul’s arrival , to the circumstances and character of his original work at Cor [289] The emphasis of “And I ” may lie in the correspondence between the message and the messenger both “foolish” and “weak” (1Co 1:25 : so Ed [290] ); but the form of the sentence rather suggests allusion to the nearer 1Co 1:26 “As it was with you, brothers, to whom I conveyed God’s call, so with myself who conveyed it; you were not wise nor mighty according to flesh, and I came to you as one without wisdom or strength”. Message, hearers, preacher matched each other for folly and feebleness! “I came not in the way of excellence , cum eminentia (Bz [291] ) of word or wisdom,” not with the bearing of a man distinguished for these accomplishments, and relying upon them for his success: this clause is best attached to the emphatic , which requires a descriptive adjunct (so Or [292] , Cv [293] , Bz [294] , Hf [295] : cf. 1Co 2:3 ); others make it a qualification of . Paul’s humble mien and plain address presented a striking contrast to the pretensions usual in itinerant professors of wisdom, such as he was taken for at Athens. , from (Phi 2:3 ; Phi 3:8 ; Phi 4:7 ), to overtop, outdo . For , see note on (1Co 1:17 ).
[288] verb
[289] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[290] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2
[291] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[292] Origen.
[293] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .
[294] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[295] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).
The manner of Paul’s preaching was determined by its matter; with such a commission he could not adopt the arts of a rhetorican nor the airs of a philosopher: “I came not like a man eminent in speech or wisdom, in proclaiming to you the testimony of God”. . . (subjective gen [296] : cf. note on 1Co 1:6 ) = . . (Rom 1:2 , 1Th 2:2 ; 1Th 2:13 , etc.; cf. 1Jn 5:9 f.), with the connotation of solemnly attested truth ( cf. 2Co 1:18 f.); P. spoke as one through whom God was witnessing. (1Co 1:23 ), denoting official declaration, gives place to , signifying full and clear proclamation (see parls.). , pr [297] ptp [298] , “in the course of preaching”; cf. 2Co 10:14 .
[296] genitive case.
[297] present tense.
[298] participle
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Corinthians Chapter 2
The apostle now touches on that which had been made a matter of reproach against his preaching at Corinth. He had not sought to avoid the scandal of the cross here any more than elsewhere. On the contrary it was this precisely to which he had given undisguised prominence in that city of intellectual culture and of moral corruption. Even here however there was a guard against narrow one-sidedness, as well as care to bring forward Christ personally, not a point of doctrine only, were it even that deepest and most justly absorbing point of the cross. It was Jesus Christ he preached, and Him crucified. He eschewed the pompous phrases and the subtle speculations which Corinth then affected.
Thus the brethren there might see the consistency, first and last, of that which unbelief stumbled at in Paul, and which the flesh in saints would rather shroud in silence. Is the cross God’s power to those that are saved? Is Christ crucified foolishness to the Gentiles and an offence to the Jew? Does wisdom of word make the cross vain? The apostle was led of God to present the truth in a way not palatable but truly wholesome and withal most for God’s glory when he went to Corinth. It was not Jesus and the resurrection (as at Athens), nor was it His return to reign (as at Thessalonica), though no doubt none of these elements was wanting; but at Corinth the Spirit directed to that which was in due season. And as he says to the. law-affecting Galatians, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world;” so here he could look back with satisfaction on the pre-eminence given to Jesus Christ and Him crucified in his first visit to Corinth; and this too with decision and conviction on his own part. It is not merely that so it was, but he judged it best. Nor does it mean, as some have thought, that with all the abasement of the cross he nevertheless preached Christ. No such uncertain sound came from the apostle as from his commentators. It was not Christ, crucified though He was, but emphatically Christ and Him crucified. Well he knew and deeply felt that there is nothing like that cross which stands alone apart from all before and after: yea, nothing in time, nothing in eternity, similar or second to it. For there sin in man rose up to slay the Son of God, yet was in slaying Him itself slain as well as judged, that grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life for every believer.
“And I, when I came unto you, brethren, came not in excellency of word or wisdom announcing to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified: And I in weakness and in fear and in much trembling was with you; and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of* wisdom but in demonstration of [the] Spirit and of power; that your faith might not be in man’s wisdom but in God’s power.” (Ver. 1-5.)
* The common insertion of is supported by corr. A C L P, most cursives, and a few versions, with many Fathers Greek and Latin; but the great weight of authority rejects it; and in my opinion the unqualified phrase is right.
There can be no doubt in my judgment that the various reading in the first verse , though given in the Sinaitic (first hand), Alexandrian and Palimpsest of Paris (C), with some good cursives and very ancient versions (Pesch. and Cop.), etc., is not correct, but the common text. It is not only erroneous but an error which destroys the beauty and indeed the sense of the passage. For the apostle is contrasting his use of revealed truth in dealing with such souls as those in Corinth when he first carried them the gospel, and that which he would do with those who simply and thoroughly submitted to Christ. The mystery in all its hidden depths and all its heavenly glory he sets before those he calls “the perfect,” that is, the full-grown who were established in Christianity; but not so with babes unformed in the truth of the gospel.
Hence the introductory words. The apostle came not in excellency of word or wisdom when announcing at Corinth the testimony of God, who was calling them as all men to repent, and to this end testifying of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To this Paul judged it right to confine himself at the beginning of the gospel in that voluptuous city. Maturer souls need Christ every way, risen, at God’s right hand, and coming again in glory. Here he presented His person, and especially Him crucified. It is not a philosophy but a divine person and work. “The perfect” need much more, and have no stint; and there it is that God’s hidden wisdom in the mystery hidden from ages and generations becomes so important: not that there is reserve on God’s part, but that the state of souls is such that some want milk as being babes, others solid food as being settled in Christ; and they are welcomed into all the truth of God, as indeed they need it all.
But further there was in the apostle’s tone and way a suitability to the message he brought. He repudiated all artificial method whether in thought or in the language which clothed it, that the truth of God should address itself directly to man’s heart. So also he was with the Corinthians in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. This is not the ideal that men in their imagination frame of the great apostle! But such a deep sense of weakness was by grace his strength, as the Corinthians’ straining after power was their weakness. His one desire was to exalt God, owning the nothingness as well as the guilt of man; with an anxious dread lest any word on his part should obscure His true glory, that it might be God’s testimony to and in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Hence his word and his preaching (the thing preached, not merely his manner in it) was not after the rhetoric of the schools, but such as gave scope to God’s Spirit.
Did the saints then loathe the bread of heaven? Did they pine after the leeks and onions and flesh-pots of Egypt? The apostle was not the one to gratify their natural tastes. He at least was true to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He sought not to win by the display of his own extraordinary ability; nor would he exhibit the wonders of the divine word which he could easily have presented so as to dazzle the Corinthian mind; nor did he condescend to set out these precious truths in a diction attractive to refined ears. The matter and the manner he judged most for God’s glory was that which poured contempt on man and looked only to the Spirit’s demonstration and power, that their faith might not be in man’s wisdom but in God’s power. For just so far as preachers fill men with admiration for their peculiar style of thought or language, is it evident that they are weak in the Spirit, and attract to themselves instead of clearing and establishing souls in the truth whereby the Spirit works in power. Another indication of unwholesome teaching (too abundant at Corinth) is that which produces a distaste for all but the favourite or his line. It is not that the heart does not bless God for the instrument; but the effect of such a course as Paul’s is to maintain the Lord’s glory and His truth unimpaired, to avoid the natural tendency to a school or clique with its leader, and to keep the saints in full liberty and holy confidence before God by faith. May our decision be like his whose words (and they are God’s) have occupied us here!
The apostle next explains his attitude towards those established in Christian truth, “the perfect” as they are designated here and elsewhere. To these he brought out far more than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There is no limit or reserve. Had there been truth undisclosed in the Old Testament, secret things which belonged to Jehovah, in contrast with those revealed which had to do with Israel and their children? They are, none of them, hidden now, but shared by the Father with His children to the glory of Christ His Son. They are our proper and needed portion.
Hence says he “But we speak wisdom among the perfect, but wisdom not of this age nor of the rulers of this age that come to nought. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden [wisdom] which God predetermined before the ages for our glory; which none of the rulers of the age knew (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but according as it is written, Things which eye hath not seen and ear not heard, and into man’s heart have not come, all that* God prepared for those that love him, butt God revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the depths of God.” (Ver. 6-10.)
It is not then that “wisdom” is wanting to the christian scheme; nor could this be, for Christ who is all therein is God’s wisdom which has a character, height, depth, and extent proper to God. For this reason it suits His children, at least such as are weaned from the first man and the world in which he seeks activity and exaltation; it suits in a word “the perfect” or full-grown, not the babes that are absorbed in their personal wants and care at best for milk, not for the meat which a riper condition needs for its due nourishment. Wholly apart from such wisdom as Paul spoke of is “this age,” the course of the world that now is, and this not in the lower strata only but in its “rulers” “that come to nought,” little as they themselves expect it, or those who covet their place. Blessed be the grace that has revealed the mind of heaven to man on earth! It is “God’s wisdom” the apostle spoke habitually and characteristically, where it was proper to be spoken, and this “in a mystery;” not meaning by this aught that was unintelligible or vague or obscure, but truth which could not be discovered by the wit of man, and was never before made known in the living oracles of God. The faithful who were settled on the great foundations of Christianity the apostle would initiate into it. All that ignore or oppose Christ come to nought: He is God’s power no less than His wisdom.
* The most ancient witnesses give , the rest .
The Vatican MS., and some cursives, the Cop. Sah., etc., read “for,” which seems to me not to suit the context like which the other authorities support.
But if Christ be God’s wisdom, as He surely is, it is not His personal glory simply, but this “in a mystery.” It is not Christ as He was here presented to the responsibility of man, especially of the Jews; nor is it Christ when He returns again as the Son of man in His universal kingdom which shall not pass away. It is Christ exalted on high and invested with a new glory, outside all the old revelations, and founded on the cross where the world, led on by its prince, rejected Him, but thereon glorified in God, and given as head over all things to the church which is His body. This therefore the apostle adds was “the hidden” wisdom, “which God predetermined before the ages for our glory.” It formed no part of His ways either in creation or in providence. The law never touched it, nor did the chosen people under law look for it Nay, not only did the prophets ignore it altogether, but the Spirit did not speak of it in His ancient communications, though, when it was revealed, it could be seen, from hints here and there from the beginning and all through, that He of course knew all and said enough to justify its principles even where most differing from all that kind been meanwhile carried on.
But when the patient and full trial of man’s responsibility closed in the cross which showed alike his own sin and ruin, Satan’s guile and folly, and God’s perfect goodness and wisdom, then was the suited moment to bring out those counsels of God in Christ for our glory, which were predetermined before all the sorrowful history of man, before even the world was created as the sphere in which his responsibility was tested. Of this man is still as then wholly ignorant, and none more than, if so much as, “the rulers of this age.” None of them knew it when Jesus was here; and just as those that dwelt in Jerusalem and their rulers, not having known Him, fulfilled the voices of the prophets which were and are read on every sabbath by judging and slaying Him, so “none of the rulers of this age knew; for, had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;” yet thus it was that they too instrumentally laid a basis for it. For the cross of Christ on earth answers to and is answered by the glory of God in heaven Wondrous fact – a man exalted over all the universe, risen and glorified with all things set under His feet at God’s right hand! Not only a matter of faith, but the revelation of it is also made known, as indeed only now since the cross and the ascension is it a fact. But it is a fact, and a fact revealed to the Christian, totally distinct from all Old Testament hopes, or that which shall be realised when the kingdom comes in the displayed power and glory of the millennial days.
Strikingly does the apostle proceed to set out the newness of this work and word of God in terms too often perverted through misapprehension to a mere confession of such ignorance as could not but be in the times before Christ rose and the Spirit was given. It is an application of Isa 64:4 , yet for the purpose not of direct illustration but of full contrast. The Jewish prophet most consistently was inspired to stop with the acknowledged inability of man to pierce the veil that hides the future blessedness that God has prepared for him that waits for Him. Not so the christian apostle; for the veil is rent, and we are invited to draw near now emboldened by the blood of Jesus. Thus all things are ours, coming no less than present. We look at the things that are not seen and eternal; we seek and have our mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. It is in vain to say that they are hidden from man. They were so, but assuredly are now revealed to the children of God. They are revealed that we may not doubt or remain in the dark but believe. This is the emphatic statement of the apostle. What God has prepared for those that love Him He has revealed to us by the Spirit.
Do you limit His competency or question His willingness to show us all the truth, yea, things to come, in divine love? Expressly is it added, as if to meet our hesitation, “for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the depths of God.” Such a declaration may well silence every argument of unbelief, as disposed alas! to trust in the ability of man as to distrust the gracious power of God on our behalf. The Spirit who searches all, and knows all, is now in the believer to whom all is revealed in the written word of God. He who sounds the depths of God is able to instruct His children; and He is as ready as able, being here for this as for other loving purposes worthy of God and in virtue of Christ’s redemption.
It is the Holy Spirit then by whom God has revealed to us what of old was hidden; and He is thoroughly able to do so, seeing that He searches the very depths of God, as indeed He is God. This the apostle illustrates by an analogy drawn from human nature. “For who of men* knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of the man that [is] in him? So also the things of God knoweth no one save the Spirit of God. But we received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that [is] from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.” (Vers. 11, 12.)
* A few witnesses, including the Alexandrian uncial and a Paris cursive (17), omit , but it is surely right.
The received text, with one uncial and very many cursives, etc., reads oi[den instead of the true word ( F G 23, etc.) as in A B C D E P ten cursives, etc. With it was proper to say “cometh to know,” rather than “consciously knoweth.” The Spirit of course, and so do we when we have the Spirit of God in us.
No man knows what is in another’s mind. He may conjecture more or less accurately, but none of men can know inwardly what is in another’s mind and has not been communicated to him. The spirit of the man himself knows, and no one else. It is shut out not only from animals inferior to man in the scale of creation, but from his fellows. So, but with incomparably greater force, no one can come to know the things of God, unless they be revealed: only the Spirit of God knows them. But here is the inestimable privilege of the Christian. It was not the spirit of the world we received, but the Spirit that is from God, and this expressly that we might know, inwardly know, the things freely given to us by God.
We are in the conscious relationship of children, and have not merely an acquired objective knowledge, but realize what God has vouchsafed in our own minds. Were any courting the spirit of the world? What a descent for a Christian! What a forgetfulness of our new and divine and eternal associations through our Lord Jesus! Here then it is a question of knowing through the Holy Ghost the things freely given us by God, and to this end is the Spirit given to the believer now that Christ was come and had wrought redemption. Where the blood has been put, the oil can follow, that unction from the Holy One whereby the very babe in Christ knows all things. For the grace that has freely given him all with God’s own Son would put him in the conscious knowledge of all and in the joy of communion; and this can only be by the Holy Spirit of God, who accordingly anoints us when established in Christ, that is, when firmly attached to Him.
But the apostle tells us of more than this supernatural Spirit-given knowledge. In order that they may be enjoyed, the things of God had to be communicated divinely; and here the chosen instruments had to be made, not infallible of course, which is the quality of God alone, but perfectly guided in giving out the truth and guarded from all error for their task. This is inspiration, its permanent fruit being the scriptures we possess in the goodness of God. The principle is stated in verse 13, “which things also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in [those] taught by [the] Spirit,* communicating spiritual things by spiritual [words].”
* The received text, with Dcorr E L P most cursives, etc., adds “holy,” contrary to the best authorities.
The Vatican and a good cursive (17) read , “spiritually;” as the Porphyrian has the Spirit communicating (), not we. The Alexandrian omits “to him.”
It is well known that the last clause has been variously interpreted, through a different sense given, now to , now to , and even to . Thus Chrysostom, Theodoret, etc., take it to mean, “explaining spiritual truths [of the New Testament] by [Old Testament] spiritual testimonies.” Only less far-fetched is the counter-view of Theophylact, H. Grotius, and others, “explaining what the Spirit-led prophets said by what Christ has opened to us by His Spirit” But Theophylact proposed a way too, which as it prevailed in medieval times, so also it has been common up to our day, of taking as masculine, which the late Dean Alford treated as “clearly wrong” in several editions of his Greek Testament, but gave as right in his New Testament revised (1870), as Wiclif had done in 1380.
Again our Authorized Translation preferred, with all the other early English versions except that of Geneva, the sense of “comparing” as in the Syriac, Vulgate, etc., rather of “explaining” for . And doubtless it is a natural impulse to use a meaning which is unquestionable in 2Co 10:12 for the same word in 1Co 2:13 : so Tyndale’s (1534), Cranmer’s (1539), and perhaps that of Rheims (1582), though I am not quite sure what was meant by “comparing spiritual things to the spiritual,” as the latter might be understood as masculine (so the Arabic) no less than as neuter. The Genera Version (1557) gave “joining spiritual things with spiritual things,” I presume after Calvin, Beza, Piscator, etc.
There are two elements for gathering the mind of God in the clause which have not been in general borne in mind adequately. First, the context as elsewhere helps to the sense of a. here demanded. Now it is certain that the apostle is describing, in verse 13, neither the revelation of divine things which the Spirit of God alone knows and can give (vers. 10-12), nor the reception of what is revealed, which is due to the power of the Spirit (vers. 14, 15), but the intermediate process of conveying in words spiritual things when disclosed that they may be received by the spiritual man. Secondly, as appears to be a carrying on the thought of speaking the things of God to others in verse 13, so is equally characteristic of the manner and means of reception. As the one aptly expresses the putting together () spiritual things with spiritual words so as to furnish that concrete whole, the word of God, so the spiritual man ., the converse sifting and examining accurately – a sense common to the New Testament and the LXX. (1Sa 20:12 ; Act 17:11 .) . was a word used technically in ordinary Greek of the preliminary investigation to ascertain whether an action would lie.
Hence in my judgment the meaning of “comparing” or even of “explaining” is here shut out; and, when we examine the present passage along with that in the Second Epistle, we may readily see with certainty that the construction wholly differs, though Parkhurst is rash enough to say the contrary. For in the latter it is a question of persons only, and hence “comparing” gives the sense justly. So Wahl in his second edition rightly, though from Rose’s note to Parkhurst it would seem that in his first with Schleusner he explained it as “we cannot endure to enrol or mix ourselves with” etc. – a poor sense assuredly.
Here, in one phrase, if not in both, it is a question of things, and hence the analogy disappears. In the LXX, which so constantly furnishes the true source of the Greek New Testament language, we find the verb and its derivatives used in senses more suitable to the requirement of our text, as has been often noticed. Compare Gen 40:8 , Gen 40:12 , Gen 40:16 , Gen 40:18 , Gen 40:22 ; 51?: 12 (twice), 15 (twice); Dan 2:4-45 (thirteen times); Dan 4 (seven times); Dan 5 (eight times), where “interpret” or “interpretation” is meant. Again we have Num 15:32 , where it means “to determine;” also Num 9:3 , Num 29 six times in the sense of “ordinance,” etc.
It is certain then that the most common meaning in the Septuagint, so familiar to the writers and earlier” readers of the New Testament, is that of making known the previously hidden mind of God couched in a dream or vision; and that the word was also applied to a determination through a judge or law-giver speaking for God. By an easy transition thence the apostle was inspired to use it here in the sense of “communicating” (or, in a similar usage, of “expounding”) spiritual things by spiritual words. “Communicating” however seems to me better, because less ambiguous than “expounding,” as the point here is the fact and appropriate form of conveying spiritual troths rather than of “expounding” or explaining it when conveyed in words, which is the function of the teacher and not really in the passage at all. It is plain to him who weighs all that, though in some cases may seem to mean pretty much the same as applied to such subjects, it goes really farther. For instance, Joseph’s or Daniel’s task went much beyond that of an ordinary expounder of scripture; and the word which duly described it might easily pass into the sense of communicating the previously unknown things of God in language suited to them. This I feel assured is the idea in the verse under consideration.
The apostle then shows that not human wisdom but the Spirit taught the words to convey the truth of Christ now. How null then in divine things is that wisdom! Why did Corinthian eyes see differently?
There was another lesson in its place of no less weight – the incapacity of man without the Holy Spirit not merely to know or convey, but even to receive the truth of God. “But [the] natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he cannot know [them] because they are spiritually discerned; but the spiritual [man] discerneth all things while he himself is discerned by no one. For who hath known [the] Lord’s mind that he should instruct him? But we have [the] mind of Christ.” (Ver. 14-16.)
This is a momentous declaration in all its parts. For the apostle by the “natural man” means man as he is born and grows up, without being born of God or the Holy Ghost given to him. He might be ever so learned, scientific, intellectual and refined; still, till quickened of the Spirit, he is . He does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for to him they are folly; nor can he learn them, so as to appropriate them, apprehending their truth, because they are spiritually discerned, and the Spirit of God he has not as unbelieving in Christ. The spiritual man on the other hand is one who is not only renewed but in the power of the Spirit. He accordingly has a divine spring of discerning while he is beyond the ken of all who are destitute of the Spirit.
It is in virtue of the Spirit of God that the believer now stands in so astonishing a place, capable of discerning all things, yet himself outside the discernment of man. How great the folly of any saint in Corinth or elsewhere yearning after human wisdom! What makes it even more striking is the application the apostle appends from Isa 40:13 . For there the prophet insists on the supremacy of Jehovah’s intelligence, as before of His infinite goodness and power. Unsearchable Himself yet searching all, “who hath measured the Spirit of Jehovah, and, the man of his counsel, will teach him?” As independent of man’s measuring and instruction is the Christian in divine things, and this through the Spirit of God dwelling in him. Thus the use of Isa 64 bears witness that, as man’s heart had not conceived the purpose of God before the world for our glory (not merely the nations, as Kimchi would have it, but man generally, Israel included), so God has revealed it now that Christ is crucified and received up in glory, and this by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to be in and with us. But the use of Isa 40 goes farther; for the apostle ascribes to the Christian the mind () or intelligence of Christ, in whom God’s wisdom is, and thus appropriates to us now by grace, as possessing the Holy Spirit, that which, belonging characteristically to God, is wholly independent of man and undiscoverable by him.
In short, as the revelation of God’s hidden wisdom is of the Holy Spirit, so is the inspiration that conveys it, and no less truly though of a more general character is the reception of it. In the gospel as Paul knew and made it known, in the mystery of the gospel, was brought positively new truth, of which not Gentiles only but Israel or men universally were ignorant; but now it was revealed, communicated, and received in the Spirit. As He only could make it known, so He gave the words which were the due medium of conveying it, and He enables us to receive it.
How infinite then is the Christian’s debt not only to the Father and the Son but to the Holy Ghost! Paul’s gospel was pure truth to man, and pure truth through man: may we have self judged so as to receive it in like purity. It is the flesh – man’s nature – which ever opposes the Spirit of God. There are those who count what the apostle insists on as supernatural; and they labour, some in this way, some in that, to reduce the gospel to the level of common sense. But let me warn them that if they succeed in their scheme for themselves or other men, they have lost the truth for God, who will not, to please man, give up His purpose of thus glorifying Christ by the Holy Spirit.
To naturalize Christianity is simply to ruin it. Only scripture draws a deep and marked distinction between the revelation and inspiration of the truth on the one hand and the reception of it on the other, though all be of the Spirit, and of Him only to be of true spiritual profit. And indeed it is evident that, if the communication had not been perfect by those employed as instruments of His inspiration, the revelation of God had not been any more perfect ; and consequently the authority of God attached to their writings had been not only a delusion but a deception; for Christ and the apostles treat it as no less the word of God than what He uttered without human intervention. If it be not the infinite brought into the finite, we should have nothing to trust to as divine truth; we should have the finite and nothing else. Whereas the word of God, like Christ Himself, is God’s entering into our circumstances, and this to give us His own grace and truth in perfection. Our use of it is another thing; and for this we are wholly dependent on the Spirit of God. But He is given to us; and we have the mind of Christ.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT 1Co 2:1-5
1And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
1Co 2:1 “brethren” This designation for believers is often used by Paul, consciously or subconsciously, to denote the next step in presentation of a truth or the presentation of a new truth (cf. 1Co 2:1; 1Co 3:1; 1Co 4:6; 1Co 7:24; 1Co 10:1; 1Co 11:33; 1Co 12:1; 1Co 14:6; 1Co 14:20; 1Co 14:35; 1Co 15:1; 1Co 15:31; 1Co 15:50; 1Co 15:58; 1Co 16:15). The term would denote men and women of the Corinthian church.
NASB”I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom”
NKJV”did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom”
NRSV”I did not come proclaiming. . .in lofty words or wisdom”
TEV”I did not use long words and great learning”
NJB”I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument”
Paul is expressing the difference between himself (i.e., Paul at Corinth, cf. Act 18:1-18) and the false over-emphasis on knowledge and rhetoric of some of the Corinthians who later became church leaders. Apollos, not Paul, was the polished rhetorician and they wanted Paul to emulate his public speaking style (see Bruce W. Winter, Philo and Paul Among the Sophists. For “superiority” (huperoch) see Special Topic following.
SPECIAL TOPIC: PAUL’S USE OF HUPER COMPOUNDS
NASB, NKJV”the testimony of God”
NRSV, NJB”mystery of God”
TEV”God’s secret truth”
There is a Greek manuscript variant here. The Greek term musterion (mystery) appears in MSS P46, *, A, and C. The word marturion (testimony) appears in the ancient manuscripts cf8 i2, B, C, D. If it is “mystery,” this concept is described in 1Co 2:7; Eph 2:11 to Eph 3:13; and Col 1:26-27, which is the union of Jews and Greeks through Christ into one family (i.e., the church). If it is “testimony,” it is linking back to 1Co 1:6, which would be synonymous with “the gospel.” The UBS4 gives “mystery” a B rating (i.e., almost certain).
The term “mystery” was used often in the first century Koine papyri found in Egypt in reference to the new initiate to secret knowledge available only to a special group (i.e., mystery religions). Paul takes this technical term and uses it in connection with those who have the Spirit (i.e., believers) and those who do not. There is no distinction at this point in Paul’s presentation between believers (cf. 1Co 3:1). All are considered “the mature” (cf. 1Co 2:6).
SPECIAL TOPIC: MYSTERY
1Co 2:2 “I” In 1Co 2:1-5 Paul seems to be comparing himself with
1. his previous presentation of the gospel at Athens where he used Greek logic, even quoted their poets (i.e., first suggested by Origen, cf. Act 17:16-34)
2. his presentation of the gospel versus those at Corinth who spoke with human wisdom and human rhetoric about spiritual matters
“Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” This is a perfect passive participle (cf. 1Co 1:23). There are two theological aspects revealed in this participle:
1. the perfect tense reveals that Jesus remains the crucified One. When we see Him, He will still have the scars. They have become His badge of glory (see note at 1Co 1:23).
2. the passive voice reveals that Jesus’ death was
a. by the Father’s agency and was His eternal plan (cf. Act 2:23; Act 3:18; Act 4:28; Act 13:29) for redemption (cf. Isa 53:10)
b. by human sin and rebellion demanded a sacrifice (cf. Rom 5:14-15; Rom 5:18-19)
The message about Christ’s death on humanity’s behalf is the central message of Paul’s theology. The concept of a suffering and dying Messiah was foreign to traditional Jewish thought. This aspect of the gospel must have initially troubled Paul. How could YHWH’s anointed One be cursed by God (cf. Deu 21:23). Yet, this was part of the OT revelation (cf. Gen 3:15; Psalms 22; Isaiah 53; Zec 12:10). Jesus, the sinless Son of God, died in our place (cf. Rom 5:18-19; 2Co 5:21). He became the curse for us (cf. Gal 3:13). Christ crucified for all is God’s hidden mystery (cf. Col 1:26-28; Col 2:2-4).
1Co 2:3 “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” This may be an allusion to Exo 15:16 in the LXX. Paul is showing us his inadequacies.
1. he was fearful because of his rough treatment at Philippi, Thessalonika, and Berea (cf. Acts 16-17)
2. he was disappointed at the results and possibly his methodology used in Athens (i.e., Origen’s view from Act 17:22-34)
3. his physical problem, probably eye trouble, caused him great difficulty (cf. 2Co 12:7-9)
4. Paul’s lack of faith and discouragement while at Corinth
Christ had to appear to Paul several times to encourage him (cf. Act 18:9-10; Act 23:11; Act 27:23). His words and his physical condition were not what turned people to faith in Christ, but the gospel’s appeal and the Spirit’s power (cf. 1Co 2:4; 1Co 1:17; 2Co 10:10).
It is helpful to me as a minister of Jesus Christ to realize
1. Jesus had His own discouraging moments (i.e., Gethsemane)
2. the Apostles often did not fully understand Jesus’ teachings
3. Paul felt fearful and weak.
We must always acknowledge the weakness of the flesh yet also the tremendous power of the gospel and the presence of the Spirit! God’s character and provisions are magnified through human weakness (cf. 1Co 1:26-29; 2 Corinthians 12).
Paul’s weaknesses are these very things that the false teachers in 2 Corinthians 10-13 attacked Paul for. They magnified their strengths (i.e., education, social position, spiritual giftedness, speaking skills). Apparently Paul’s writings were more rhetorically structured (i.e., 2 Corinthians 10-13) and powerful than his oral messages. See SPECIAL TOPIC: WEAKNESS at 2Co 12:9.
1Co 2:4
NASB”not in persuasive words of wisdom”
NKJV”not with persuasive words of human wisdom”
NRSV”not with persuasive words of wisdom”
TEV”not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom”
NJB”not meant to convince by philosophical argument”
There are many variants of this phrase in the Greek manuscripts.
1. The first problem relates to the rare adjective peithois (cf. MSS P46, , A, B, C, D), which is not found anywhere else in the Septuagint, Koine papyri, or the NT.
2. Some think the variants were caused by scribes who were unfamiliar with this adjective. They may have slightly changed its form to peithoi, which means “persuasion.”
3. Some Greek manuscripts add “persuasion of men” (cf. 1Co 2:13 and MSS cf8 i2, A, C).
4. In some manuscripts the term “words” (i.e., logois or logos) is missing (cf. MSS P46, F, G and the Greek text used by Chrysostom).
It seems best from the general context to link this phrase with Paul’s rejection of human rhetoric, logic, and wisdom (cf. 1Co 1:17; 1Co 2:1; 1Co 2:13). However, the exact meaning of the word peithois remains uncertain (see NIDNTT, vol. 1, pp. 588-593).
“in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” This refers to the changed lives of the Corinthian converts. It also may relate to the presence of confirming signs that often attended Paul’s preaching of the gospel (cf. Act 13:11; Act 14:10; Act 16:18; Act 16:28; Act 19:11-12; Act 20:10). See note on capital or lower case “s” spirit at 1Co 2:11.
1Co 2:5 For Paul, mankind’s only hope was in the grace of the Father, the finished work of the Son, and the power of the Spirit. In other words, God Himself is the only true foundation for salvation. God’s revelation, not human discovery; God’s wisdom, not human eloquence or logic, are the only source of confidence.
For Paul, God’s gospel and fallen mankind’s appropriate covenantal responses (i.e., repentance, faith, obedience, and perseverance) are the keys to eternal life.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
to = unto. App-104.
not. App-105.
with = according to. App-104.
excellency = pre-eminence. Greek. huperoche. Only here and 1Ti 2:2.
speech = word. App-121.
declaring. App-121.
unto = to.
testimony. Greek. marturion, as in 1Co 1:6.
God. App-98.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1-5.] Accordingly, Paul did not use among them words of worldly wisdom, but preached Christ crucified only, in the power of the Spirit.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Chapter 2
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God ( 1Co 2:1 ).
Paul didn’t come as one of the Corinthian philosophers, trying to stand in the streets and persuade them by the brilliant oratory to believe and to accept Jesus Christ. I wonder where the place of oratory is in the pulpit. It’s interesting how that we so often admire the great orators in the pulpit. But I often wonder if oratory has any place in the pulpit at all. It surely didn’t in Paul’s pulpit. “When I came to you, I came not with the excellency of speech or of wisdom, as I declared unto you the testimony of God.”
For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified ( 1Co 2:2 ).
Oh, the common bond by which we are all brought together, Jesus Christ, Him crucified. That’s all I want to know.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling ( 1Co 2:3 ).
Now Paul had just come from some very upsetting experiences. While he was in Galatia he was wanting to go into Asia, but the Spirit was forbidding him, and Paul was too sick to get out of bed. And so finally, he heard the call, a man from Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” And so he headed over to Macedonia to obey the heavenly vision. And when he arrived in Philippi, as he was preaching, they grabbed him and threw him in jail; beat him. And there in the dungeon at midnight the Lord shook the prison and opened the doors. Paul left Philippi, went down to Thessalonica, and there as he preached they had a riot. So he left Thessalonica . . . sly, really, to get out of there, because they were waiting for him. And he went down to Berea. And there a big ruckus was stirred up, and so he left Berea and headed down to Athens. And there on Mars Hill he was mocked as he sought to proclaim to them the truth of Jesus Christ. And he comes to Corinth now a broken man in weakness, trembling, in fear.
And my speech and my preaching [he said,] was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power ( 1Co 2:4 ):
It wasn’t really man’s wisdom. My speech was a demonstration of the power of God and of the Spirit of God working. I believe that there is, in the ministry of the word, oftentimes the gift of prophecy, the gift of word, of wisdom, and the word of knowledge that is being exercised from the pulpit. And because of this, I often listen to my own tapes and am benefited by them and I enjoy them. I know that sounds weird, but I heard my radio program the other day and I really enjoyed it. Good message. And I said, did I say that? Man, that’s great, that’s rich. Why? Because it was preaching and the preaching was the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. As there was the anointing and the prophecy, the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge coming forth.
And so Paul’s ministry to those in Corinth wasn’t the enticing words of man’s wisdom, the demonstration of the Spirit and power.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but it should stand in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them which are fully matured: yet not the wisdom of this world, that comes to nothing: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory ( 1Co 2:5-8 ).
So that true wisdom, the wisdom which is of God, the wisdom by which He speaks to those who are matured in their Christian walk and experience.
But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those that love him ( 1Co 2:9 ).
Now, this is probably one of the most misquoted scriptures in the Bible because people stop there. And they say, “Well, heaven is going to be so glorious . . . ‘Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, it hasn’t even entered into your heart the things that God has prepared for you.’ Oh, He is so glorious.” But the next verse says,
But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God ( 1Co 2:10 ).
So these things that the world does not know, now he’s talking about the eyes of the world, the ears of the world, the hearts of the people in the world, they have no concept, no idea of the things that God has for us who love Him. “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
For what man knoweth the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God ( 1Co 2:11 ).
So here the Spirit of God is attributed with the same omniscience that God possesses, knowing the things of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God ( 1Co 2:12 ).
And so God has given us the Spirit to teach us, and you have need, John said, “That no man should teach you but that unction that you have received, it will teach you all things” ( 1Jn 2:20 ). “But the Comforter,” Jesus said, “which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have commanded you” ( Joh 14:26 ).
And so God has given to us the Spirit that we might freely know the things of God as He instructs our hearts in the ways of God. And that is why I always encourage a person, before you start reading the Bible, pray, “Oh, God, let your Holy Spirit illuminate my mind and my understanding to your truth as I read.”
Did you ever read the Bible and finish the page and then think, “What did I read?” And you realize that your mind was somewhere else. You don’t remember a word that you read off of that page. Your mind was probably in some carnal pursuit, and here you’re trying to read something of the Spirit.
But then you’ll say, “Oh Lord, now help me to understand this,” and you’ll read it again and how the whole thing just comes alive and begins to minister to your heart in such a powerful way. You’re now seeing things that you didn’t see before. You’re now understanding things you didn’t understand before. It just sort of jumps off the page and begins to burn in your heart. The glorious work of the Holy Spirit in teaching us the way of righteousness and truth.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but with the Holy Spirit teaching; comparing the spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ( 1Co 2:13-14 ).
So the natural man is at a decided disadvantage, because he cannot know the things of the Spirit. He cannot receive them; he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.
The deaf man cannot enjoy the symphony, the blind man cannot enjoy the beauty of the sunset. Why? Because he lacks the faculties by which these things are appreciated. So, in the same logic, the natural man cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit, because he lacks the faculty by which these things are known. He lacks the Spirit. And lacking the Spirit, it’s impossible for him to know the things of the Spirit.
But [in contrast to the natural man] he that is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man ( 1Co 2:15 ).
Or another translation, “He that is spiritual understands all things though he is not understood my man.”
Now the natural man cannot understand your love for the Word of God. He cannot understand your love for the people of God. He cannot understand your love for the things of God. They’re foolishness unto him. What do you do for fun? And the natural man is just at a loss to understand. He walks away and says, “I don’t know, he’s crazy. He talks about the Lord all the time, something’s wrong.”
He which is spiritual, he understands things though he is not understood by the natural man, no man understands him. And that, of course, makes for difficult relationships sometimes. When these kids come and accept the Lord and then they go home and begin to share the things of the Spirit with their parents, all of a sudden there’s lost communication.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ ( 1Co 2:16 ).
What does he mean by that? When he was writing to the Philippians he said, “Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery or something to be grasped to be equal with God, yet He humbled Himself and took upon Himself the form of a man and came in the likeness as a man, as a servant, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” ( Php 2:5-8 ). The mind that was in Christ was the mind that was willing to step down, a mind of humility. “We have the mind of Christ,” Paul said. That mind which doesn’t exalt itself or its own wisdom, but that mind that submits to God and to the will and the authority of God.
We have the mind of Christ. Oh God, help us that we might indeed possess the mind of Christ, that that mind, that mental attitude that Jesus had, will be our mental attitude. That of not lording over one another, but serving one another in love.
Next we’ll go onto the third and fourth chapters as we deal with the carnal man. We see three men: the natural man, the spiritual man, next we get the third one, the carnal man, and he’s the one in trouble.
May the Lord give you a beautiful week. May you walk in the Spirit. May you be led by the Spirit. May you be taught by the Spirit, that you might this week experience that enriching of your life in Christ, become a spiritual plutocrat, just wealthy, luxuriously wealthy in the things of the Lord and in the things of the Spirit as God ministers to you out of those infinite resources of His love and grace, wisdom, and mercy. May you grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May this be a special week of the work of God’s Spirit in your life, conforming you into the image of His Son. May you give place and time for God to work in your life. In Jesus’ name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Co 2:1. , and I) The apostle shows, that he was a suitable instrument in carrying out the counsel and election of God.-) This word is not construed with , but with the words that follow.- , of speech or of wisdom) Speech follows wisdom, a sublime discourse [follows] a sublime subject.- , declaring [announcing] unto you the testimony) Holy men do not so much testify, as declare the testimony, which God gives.- , the testimony of God) in itself most wise and powerful. The correlative is, faith, 1Co 2:5.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 2:1
1Co 2:1
And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.-Paul was not a man of commanding appearance or an eloquent speaker, further than the importance of his message and his anxiety to save gave him eloquence. He refers to these when he says that his opponents will say, His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. (2Co 10:10). God chose a man of this character to bear his testimony to the Gentiles that the salvation might be of God and not of human wisdom, learning, or eloquence.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The apostle reminds the Corinthian Christians that when he first came to them he did not come with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, but with “the Word of the Cross.” Yet there must be no foolish imagining that there is no wisdom, or that the Christian teacher has no deep and sublime subjects with which to deal. The apostle says, “We speak wisdom, however.” And yet the wisdom was such as could be taught only among those who were full grown. Babes and feeble ones in Christ could not be led into the deep things of God. For them there must be the simple proclamation of the word of wisdom, without its explanation and unfolding.
What, then, is this wisdom? It is a mystery, hidden from the world’s wisdom, but known of God and revealed by His Spirit. It could come to man only through the direct and distinct revelation of the Spirit of God. It is pre- eminently important that this should ever be borne in mind. “The Word of the Cross” is not the ultimate of human reasoning. All mere philosophies of the mind have failed to explain it, as the wisdom of the world had failed to discover it. It is the Word of God hidden from ages, and spoken at last only by that Spirit of God “who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” This revelation, moreover, could not be received by the natural man.
Here it is well to understand Paul’s meaning by his use of the term “natural.” He invariably speaks of man unregenerate as the natural man, putting him in contrast with man regenerate, who is the spiritual man. Thus the reason why “the wisdom of words” is folly becomes apparent.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
2:1-5. The False Wisdom (Continued)
So I came to you and preached, not a beautiful philosophy, but a crucified Christ. I was a feeble, timid speaker; and it was not my eloquence, but the power of God, that converted you.
1 And (in accordance with this principle of glory only in the Lord) when I first came to Corinth, Brothers, it was as quite an ordinary person (so far as any pre-eminence in speech or wisdom is concerned) that I proclaimed to you the testimony of Gods love for you. 2 For I did not care to know, still less to preach, anything whatever beyond Jesus Christ; and what I preached about Him was that He was crucified. 3 And, as I say, it was in weakness and timidity and painful nervousness that I paid my visit to you: 4 and my speech to you and my message to you were not conveyed in the persuasive words which earthly wisdom adopts. No, their cogency came from Gods Spirit and Gods power; 5 for God intended that your faith should rest on His power, and not on the wisdom of man.
1. . And I, accordingly. The emphasizes the Apostles consistency with the principles and facts laid down in 1:8-31, especially in 27-31. His first preaching at Corinth eschewed the false , and conformed to the essential character of the Gospel. The negative side comes first (vv. 1, 2).
. At the time of his first visit (Act 18:1 f.). We have an analogous reference, 1Th 1:5, 1Th 2:1.
. The rebuke latent in this reminder, and the affectionate memories of his first ministry to souls at Corinth (4:15), combine to explain this address (1:10, 26).
. The repetition, , instead of , is not a case of broken construction, still less a Hebraism. It gives solemn clearness and directness to St Pauls appeal to their beginnings as a Christian body.
. Most commentators connect the words with rather than . Compare (Act 19:20), (1Co 12:31). Elsewhere in N.T. occurs only 1Ti 2:2; cf. , Rom 13:1 etc. Preeminence is an exact equivalent.
. See on 1:5, 17.
. The tense marks, not the purpose of the visit, for which the future would be suitable, but the way in which the visit was occupied. The aorists sum it up as a whole. Lightfoot suggests that after verbs of mission or arrival (Act 15:27) is commonly in the present participle, as meaning to bear, rather than to deliver, tidings. But this does not always suit in N.T.; see 11:26; Act 4:2; Rom 1:8; Php 1:17; and , uncompounded, occurs only Joh 20:18, with . as v.l.
. He spoke in plain and simple language, as became a witness (Lightfoot). Testimonium simpliciter dicendum est: nec eloquentia nec subtilitate ingenii opus est, quae testem suspectum potius reddit (Wetstein). Cf. 15:15; 2Th 1:10; 1Ti 2:6; 2Ti 1:8. The first reference is decisive as to the meaning here.
. genitivus objecti as in 1:6. The testimony is the message of Gods love to mankind declared in the saving work of Christ (Rom 5:8; Joh 3:16); it is therefore a . as well as a . . . There is, of course, a withness from God (1Jn 5:9), but the present connexion is with the Apostolic message about God and His Christ.
(3 B D E F G L P, Vulg. Sah. Aeth. Arm. AV. RV. marg.) is probably to be preferred to (* A C, Copt. RV.). WH. prefer the latter; but it may owe its origin to v. 7. On the other hand, . may come from 1:6.
2. . Not only did I not speak of, but I had no thought for, anything else. Cf. Act 18:5, , he became engrossed in the word. For of a personal resolve see 7:37; Rom 14:13; 2Co 2:1. Does the connect directly with or with , as in AV., RV.? The latter is attractive on account of its incisiveness; I deliberately refused to know anything. But it assumes that = , on the familiar analogy of . Apparently there is no authority for this use of : , as Lightfoot points out, is not strictly analogous. Accordingly, we must preserve the connexion suitable to the order of the words; I did not think fit to know anything. He did not regard it as his business to know more. Ellicott remarks that the meaning is practically the same: but we must not give to a satisfactory meaning the support of unsatisfactory grammar.
. Not quite in the sense of (8:2), to know something, as Evans here. In that case would mean but only. But simply means anything whatever.
. As in 1:1; contrast 1:23. In the Epistles of this date, still designates primarily the Office; Jesus, the Anointed One, and that (not as King in His glory, but)-crucified.
. The force of is definitely to specify the point on which, in preaching Jesus Christ, stres was laid ( . , 1:18), the effect being that of a climax. The Apostle regards the Person and Work of Jesus the Messiah as comprising in essence the whole Gospel, and the Crucifixion, which him involves the Resurrection, as the turning-point of any preaching of his work. This most vital point must not be forgotten when considering vv. 6 f. below.
(B C P 17) is to be preferred to ( A D2 F G L), D2 L ins. before .
3. . He now gives the positive side-in what fashion he did come (3-5). As in v. 1, the is emphatic; but here the emphasis is one of contrast. Although I was the vehicle of Gods power (1:18, 2:4, 5), I not only eschewed all affectation of cleverness or grandiloquence, but I went to the opposite extreme of diffidence and nervous self-effacement. Others in my place might have been bolder, but I personally was as I say. Or else we may take v. 3 as beginning again at the same point as v. 1; as if the Apostle had been interrupted after dictating v. 2, and had then begun afresh. Lightfoot regards as simply an emphatic repetition, citing Juvenal 1:15, 16, Et nos ergo manum ferulae subduximus, et nos Consilium dedimus Sullae.
. Cf. 2Co 11:29, 2Co 12:10. The sense is general, but may included his unimpressive presentce (2Co 10:10) and shyness in venturing unaccompanied into strange surroundings (cf. Act 17:15, Act 18:5), coupled with anxiety as to the tidings which Timothy and Silvanus might bring (cf. 2Co 2:13). There was also the thought of the appalling wickedness of Corinth, of his poor success at Athens, and of the deadly hostility of the Jews to the infant Church of Thessalonica (Act 17:5, Act 17:13). Possibly the malady which had led to his first preaching in Galatia (Gal 4:13) was upon him once more. If this was epilepsy, or malarial fever (Ramsay), it might well be the recurrent trouble which he calls a thorn for the flesh (2Co 12:7).
. We have and combined in 2Co 7:15; Php 2:12; Eph 6:5. The physical manifestation of distress is a climax. St Paul rarely broke new ground without companions, and to face new hearers required an effort for which he had to brace himself. But it was not the Gospel which he had to preach that made him tremble: he was not ashamed of that (Rom 1:16). Nor was it fear of personal danger. It was rather a trembling anxiety to perform a duty. In Eph 6:5, slaves are told to obey their masters ., which means with that conscientious anxiety that is opposed to (Conybeare and Howson).*, No other N.T. writer has this combination of and . Some MSS. omit the second .
. These words are probably to be taken together, exactly as in 16:10; I was with you. The sense of becoming in the verb, and of movement in the preposition, is attenuated. My visit to you was in weakness, preserves both the shade of meaning and the force of the tense. Cf. 2Jn 1:12; 1Th 1:7, 1Th 1:10.
4. . See on 1:5, 17. Various explanations have been given of the difference between and , and it is clear that to snake the former private conversation, and the latter public preaching, is not satisfactory. Nor is the one the delivery of the message and the other the substance of it: see on 1:21. More probably, looks back to 1:18, and means the Gospel which the Apostle preached, while is the act of proclamation, viewed, not as a process (), but as a whole. Cf. 2Ti 4:17.
. The singular word or , which is found nowhere else, is the equivalent of the classical . which Josephus (Ant. VIII. ix. I) uses of the plausible words of the lying prophet of 1Ki_13. The only exact parallel to or from is or form , and in both cases the spelling with a diphthong seems to be incorrect (WH. App. p. 153). The rarity of the word has produced confusion in the text. Some cursives and Latin witnesses support a reading which is found in Origen and in Eus. Praep. Evang. i. 3., [] , in persuasione sapientiae [humanae] verbi, or sermones for sermonis; where is the dat. of . From this, has been conjectured as the original reading; but the evidence of A B C D E L P for or is decisive; and while almost certainly is genuine, almost certainly is not, except as interpretation.
The meaning is that the false , the cleverness of the rhetorician, which the Apostle is disclaiming and combating throughout this passage, was specially directed to the art of persuasion: cf. (Col 2:4).
. Not elsewhere in N.T. It has two very different meanings: (1) display or showing off (cf. 4:9 and Luk 1:80), and (2) demonstration in the sense of stringent proof. The latter is the meaning here. Aristotle distinguishes it from . The latter proves that a certain conclusion follows from given premises, which may or may not be true. In the premises are known to be true, and therefore the conclusion is not only logical, but certainly true. In Eth. Nic. I. iii. 4 we are told that to demand rigid demonstrations () from a rhetorician is as unreasonable as to allow a mathematician to deal in mere plausibilities. Cf. Plato Phaed. 77 C, Theaet. 162 E.* St Paul is not dealing with scientific certainty: but he claims that the certitude of religious truth to the believer in the Gospel is as complete and as objective -equal in degree, though different in kind-as the certitude of scientific truth to the scientific mind. Mere human may dazzle and overwhelm and seem to be unanswerable, but assensum constringit non res; it does not penetrate to those depths of the soul which are the seat of the decisions of a lifetime. The Stoics used in this sense.
. See on 1:18. The demonstration is that which is wrought by Gods power, especially His power to save man and give a new direction to his life. As it is all from God, why make a party-hero of the human instrument? Some Greek Fathers suppose that miracle-working power is meant, which is an idea remote from the context. Origen refers to the O.T. prophecies, and to the N.T. miracles, thus approximating to the merely philosophic sense of . And if means Gods power, will mean His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The article is omitted as in v. 13 (cf. Gal 5:16 and Php 2:1 with 2Co 13:13). See Ellicott ad loc. The genitives are either subjective, demonstration proceeding from and wrought by the Spirit and power of God, or qualifying, demonstration consisting in the spirit and power of God, as distinct from persuasion produced by mere cleverness. The sense of is well given by Theophylact: . For the general sense see 1Th 1:5 and 2:13; our Gospel came not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit; and ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe. St Pauls appeal is to the strong conviction and deep practical power of the Gospel. Not that strong conviction is incompatible with error: there is such a thing as , causing men to believe what is false (2Th 2:11); but the false engenders on depth of conviction. Lightfoot quotes Longinus, who describes St Paul as -meaning philosophic proof, whereas St Paul is asserting a proof different in kind. It was moral, not verbal [nor scientific] demonstration at which he aimed. This epistle is proof of that.
(cA C L P, Copt. AV.) before is rejected by all editors.
5. . This expresses, either the purpose of God, in so ordering the Apostles preaching (Theodoret), or that of the Apostle himself. The latter suits the of v. 2; but the former best matches the thought of v. 4, and may be preferred (Meyer, Ellicott). The verse is co-ordinate with 1:31, but rises to a higher plane, for is more intimately Christian than the of the O.T. quotation.
. The preposition marks the medium or sphere in which faith has its root: cf. (Joh 16:30). We often express the same idea by depend on rather than by rooted in; that your faith may not depend upon wisdom of men, but upon power of God. What depends upon a clever argument is at the mercy of a cleverer argument. Faith, which is at its root personal trust, springs from the vital contact of human personality with divine. Its affirmations are no mere abstract statements, but comprise the experience of personal deliverance; (2Ti 1:12). Here the negative statement is emphasized.
(II.) 2:6-3:4. The True Wisdom
2:6-13. The True Wisdom Described
To mature Christians we Apostles preach the Divine Wisdom, which God has revealed to us by His Spirit.
6 Not that as preachers of the Gospel we ignore wisdom. when we are among those whose faith is ripe, we impart it. But it is not a wisdom that is possessed by this age; no, nor yet by the leaders of this age, whose influence is destined soon to decline. 7 On the contrary, what we impart is the Wisdom of God, a mystery hitherto kept secret, which God ordained from before all time for our eternal salvation. 8 of this wisdom no one of the leaders of this age has ever acquired knowledge, for if any had done so, they would never have crucified the Lord whose essential attribute is glory. 9 But, so far from any of them knowing this wisdom, what stands written in Scripture is exactly true about them, Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man,-whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him. 10 But to us, who are preachers of His Gospel, God has unveiled these mysteries through the operation of His Spirit; for His Spirit can explore all things, even the deep mysteries of the Divine Nature and Will. 11 We can understand this a little from our own experience. What human being knows the inmost thoughts of a man, except the mans own spirit within him? Just so no one has attained to knowledge of the inmost thoughts of God, except Gods own Spirit. 12 Yet what we received was not the spirit which animates and guides the non-Christian world, but its opposite, the Spirit which proceeds from God, given to us that we may appreciate the benefits lavished upon us by God. 13 And what He has revealed to us we teach, not in choice words taught by the rhetoric of the schools, but in words taught by the Spirit, matching spiritual truth with spiritual language.
6. . The germ of the following passage is in 1:24, 30: Christ crucified is to the the wisdom of God. This is the guiding thought to be borne in mind in discussing St Pauls conception of the true wisdom.* There are two points respecting . Firstly, St Paul includes others with himself, not only his immediate fellow-workers, but the Apostolic body as a whole (15:11). Secondly, the verb means simply utter: it must not be pressed to denote a kind of utterance distinct from and (v. 4), such as private conversation.
. It is just possible that there is here an allusion to the technical language of mystical initiation; but, if so, it is quite subordinate. By St Paul means the mature or full-grown Christians, as contrasted with (3:1). The word is used again 14:20; Php 3:15; Eph 4:13. Those who had attained to the fulness of Christian experience would know that his teaching was really philosophy of the highest kind. The means, not merely in the opinion of, but literally among, in consessu; in such a circle the Apostle utters true wisdom.
It is quite clear that St Paul distinguishes two classes of hearers, and that both of them are distinct from the of 1:18, or the Jews and Greeks of 1:22, 23. On the one hand, there are the , whom he calls lower down (v. 13-3:1); on the other hand, there is the anomalous class of , who are babes in Christ. Ideally, all Christians, as such, are (12:31; Gal 3:2, Gal 3:5; Rom 8:9, Rom 8:15, Rom 8:26). But practically, many Christians need to be treated as (, 3:1), and to all intents are, , , (v. 14), even (3:3). The work of the Apostle has as its aim the raising of all such imperfect Christians to the normal and ideal standard; . (Col 1:28, where see Lightfoot). St Pauls thought, therefore, seems to be radically different from that which is ascribed to Pythagoras, who is said to have divided his disciples into and . It is certainly different from that of the Gnostics, who erected a strong barrier between the initiated () and the average Christians (). There are clear traces of this Gnostic distinction between esoteric and exoteric Christians in the school of Alexandria (Eus. H.E. 5:11.), and a residual distinction survives in the ecclesiastical instinct of later times (Ritschl, Fides Implicita). The vital difference is this: St Paul, with all true teachers, recognizes the principle of gradations. He does not expect the beginner at once to equal the Christian of ripe experience; nor does he expect the Gospel to level all the innumerable diversities of mental and moral capacity (8:7, 12:12-27; Rom_14.). But, although gradations of classes among Christians must be allowed, there must be no differences of caste. The wisdom is open to all; and all, in their several ways, are capable of it, and are to be trained to receive it. So far as the Church, in any region or in any age, is content to leave any class in permanent nonage, reserving spiritual understanding for any caste, learned, or official, or other,-so far the Apostolic charge has been left unfulfilled and the Apostolic ideal has been abandoned.
The is explanatory and corrective; Now by wisdom I mean, not, etc.
. See on 1:20.
. It is quite evident from v. 8 that the are those who took part in the Crucifixion of the Lord of Glory. They, therefore, primarily include the rulers of the Jews. Peter says, , , , (Act 3:17); and if St Luke is responsible for the form in which this speech is reported, the words may be regarded as the earliest commentary on our passage. But Pilate also was a party to the crime: and the rulers of this dispensation includes all, as well ecclesiastical as civil.
Some Fathers and early writers, from Marcion (Tert. Marc. v. 6) downwards, understand the to mean demons: Cf. (Eph 6:12). Perhaps this idea exists already in Ignatius; [. ] . See Thackeray, The Relation of St Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought, pp. 156 f., 230 n. But this interpretation is wholly incompatible with v. 8, as also is the very perverse suggestion of Schmiedel that St Paul refers to Angels, whose rule over certain departments in Gods government of the world belongs only to this dispensation, and ceases with it (), and who are unable to see into the mysteries of redemption (Gal 3:19; 1Pe 1:12). See Abbott, The Son of Man, p. 5.
. See on 1:28. The force of the present tense is axiomatic. These rulers and their function belong to the sphere of (7:31; 2Co 4:18), and are destined to vanish in the dawn of the Kingdom of God. So far as the Kingdom is come, they are gone. Yet they have their place and function in relation to the world in which we have our present station and duties (7:20, 24, 31), until all pass away into nothingness.
7. . The verb is repeated for emphasis with the fully adversative (Rom 8:15; Php 4:17); But what we do utter is, etc.
. The is very emphatic, as the context demands, and nearly every uncial has the words in this order. To read (L) mars the sense.
. We may connect this with , to characterize the manner of communication, as we say, to speak in a whisper, or to characterize its effect-while declaring a mystery. Or we may connect with : and this is better, in spite of the absence of before (see Lightfoot on 1Th 1:1). The wisdom is , because it has been for so long a secret, although now made known to all who can receive it, the (Col 1:26) and .
Assuming that is the right reading in v. 1, we have here almost the earliest use of in N.T. (2Th 2:7 is the earliest). See J.A. Robinson, Ephesians, pp. 234-240, for a full discussion of the use of the word in N.T., also Westcott, Ephesians, pp. 180-182.
. For the sense see Eph 3:5; Col 1:26; Rom 16:25. The words are explanatory of . The wisdom of God had been hidden even from prophets and saints (Luk 10:24), until the fulness of time: now it is made manifest. But it remains hidden from those who are not prepared to receive it; e.g. from Jews (2Co 3:14) and the generally (2Co 4:3-6). This contrast is followed up in vv. 8-16.
. To be taken directly with the words that follow, without supplying or any similar link. The wisdom is Christ crucified (1:18-24), fore-ordained by God (Act 4:28; Eph 3:11) for the salvation of men. It was no afterthought or change of plan, as Theodoret remarks, but was fore-ordained .
. Our eternal glory, or complete salvation (2Co 4:17; Rom 8:18, Rom 8:21, etc.). From meaning opinion, and hence public repute, praise, or honour, acquires in many passages the peculiarly Biblical sense of splendour, brightness, glory. This glory is used sometimes of physical splendour, sometimes of special excellence and pre-eminency; or again of majesty, denoting the unique glory of God, the sum-total either of His incommunicable attributes, or of those which belong to Christ. In reference to Christ, the glory may be either that of His pre-incarnate existence in the Godhead, or of His exaltation through Death and Resurrection, at Gods right hand.
It is on this sense of the word that is based its eschatological sense, denoting the final state of the redeemed. Excepting Heb 2:10 and 1Pe 5:1, this eschatological sense is almost peculiar to St Paul and is characteristic of him (15:43; 1Th 2:12; 2Th 2:14; Rom 5:2; Php 3:21, etc.). This state of the redeemed, closely corresponding to the Kingdom of God, is called the glory of God, because as Gods adopted sons they share in the glory of the exalted Christ, which consists in fellowship with God. This glory maybe said to be enjoyed in this life in so far as we are partakers of the Spirit who is the earnest () of our full inheritance (2Co 1:22, 2Co 1:5:5; Eph 1:14; cf. Rom 8:23). But the eschatological sense is primary and determinant in the class of passages to which the present text belongs, and this fact is of importance.
What is the wisdom of which the Apostle is speaking? Does he mean a special and esoteric doctrine reserved for a select body of the initiated ()? Or does he mean the Gospel, the word of the Cross, as it is apprehended, not by babes in Christ, but by Christians of full growth? Some weighty considerations suggest the former view, which is adopted by Clement, Origen, Meyer, and others; especially the clear distinction made in 3:1, 2 between the and the , coupled with the right meaning of in v. 6. On the other hand, the frequent assertions (1:18, 24, 30) that Christ crucified is the Power and Wisdom of God, coupled with the fact that this Wisdom was fore-ordained for our salvation (see also in 1:21), seem to demand the equation of the wisdom uttered by the Apostle with the , and the equation of in 2:7 with in 1:24 (cf. 1:30). These considerations seem to be decisive. With Heinrici, Edwards, and others, we conclude that St Pauls wisdom is the Gospel, simply. With this Chrysostom agrees; , .
But the and the of 3:2, and the distinction between and , must be satisfied. The are able to follow the unsearchable riches of Christ and manifold wisdom of God (Eph 3:8, Eph 3:10) into regions of spiritual insight, and into questions of practical import, to which cannot at present rise. But they may rise, and with proper nurture and experience will rise. There is no bar to their progress.
The wisdom of God, therefore, comprises primarily Christ and Him crucified; the preparation for Christ as regards Jew and Gentile; the great mystery of the call of the Gentiles and the apparent rejection of the Jews; the justification of man and the principles of the Christian life; and (the thought dominant in the immediate context) the consummation of Christs work in the . The Epistle to the Romans, which is an unfolding of the thought of 1Co 1:24-31, is St Pauls completest utterance of this wisdom. It is , while our Epistle is occupied with things answering to , although we see how the latter naturally leads on into the range of deeper problems (13., 15). But there is no thought here, or in Romans, or anywhere in St Pauls writings, of a disciplina arcani or body of esoteric doctrine. The is meant for all, and all are expected to grow into fitness for it (see Lightfoot on Col 1:26 f.); and the form of the Gospel (2:2) contains the whole of it in germ.
8. . The must refer to , which wisdom none of the rulers of this world hath discerned.
. Parenthetical confirmation of the previous statement. Had they discerned, as they did not, they would not have crucified, as they did. It is manifest from this that the are neither demons nor angels, but the rulers who took part in crucifying the Christ.
. Cf. Jam 2:1; Eph 1:17; Act 7:2; also Psa 24:7; Heb 9:5. The genitive is qualifying, but the attributive force is strongly emphatic, bringing out the contrast between the indignity of the Cross (Heb 12:2) and the majesty of the Victim (Luk 22:69, Luk 23:43).*
9. . On the contrary (so far from any, even among the great ones of this world, knowing this wisdom, the event was) just as it stands written. There is no difficulty in understanding , or some such word, with . But the construction can be explained otherwise, and perhaps better. See below, and on 1:19.
. The relative is co-ordinate with in v. 8, refers to , and therefore is indirectly governed by in v. 7 (so Heinrici, Meyer, Schmiedel). It might (so Evans) be governed by , if we read and take v. 10 as an apodosis. But this is awkward, especially as does not precede . The only grammatical irregularity which it is necessary to acknowledge is that serves first as an accusative governed by and , then as nominative to , and once more in apposition to (or ) in the accusative. Such an anacoluthon is not at all violent.
. Cf. Act 7:23; Isa 65:17; Jer 3:16, etc. Heart in the Bible includes the mind, as here, Rom 1:21, Rom 10:6, etc.
. In richness and scale they exceed sense and thought (Joh 14:2).
. Here only does St Paul use the verb of God. When it is so used, it refers to the blessings of final glory, with (Luk 2:31) or without (Mat 20:23, Mat 20:25:34; Mar 10:40; Heb 11:16) including present grace; or else to the miseries of final punishment (Mat 25:41). See note on , v. 7. The analogy of N.T. language, and the dominant thought of the context here, compel us to find the primary reference in the consummation of final blessedness. See Aug. De catech. rud. 27; Const. Apost. VII. xxxii. 2; with Irenaeus, Cyprian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. This does not exclude, but rather carries with it, the thought of present insight into Divine things (Edwards). See on v. 10, and last note on v. 7.
. See Rom 8:28-30. Clement of Rome (Cor. 34), in quoting this passage, restores from Isa 64:4 in place of . This seems to show that he regards the is introducing a quotation from Isaiah.
We ought possibly to read with A B C, Clem-Rom. But is strongly supported ( D E F G L P, Clem-Alex. Orig. Polyc-Mart.). Vulg. has quae with d e f g r.
The much debated question of the source of St Pauls quotation must be solved within the limits imposed by his use of . See on 1:19 and 31. The Apostle unquestionably intends to quote Canonical Scripture. Either, then, he actually does so, or he unintentionally (Meyer) slips into a citation from some other source. The only passages of the O.T. which come into consideration are three from Isaiah. (1) 54:4, , (Heb. From eternity they have not heard, they have not hearkened, neither bath eye seen, a God save Thee, who shall do gloriously for him that awaiteth Him). (2) 65:17, (observe the context). Also (3) 52:15, as quoted Rom 15:21, a passage very slightly to the purpose. The first of these three passages is the one that is nearest to the present quotation. Its general sense is, The only living God, who, from the beginning of the world, has proved Himself to be such by helping all who trust in His mercy, is Jehovah; and it must be admitted that, although germane, it is not very close to St Pauls meaning here. But we must remember that St Paul quotes with great freedom, often compounding different passages and altering words to suit his purpose. Consider the quotations in 1:19, 20, 31, and in Rom 9:27, Rom 9:29, and especially in Rom 9:33, Rom 9:10:6, Rom 9:8, Rom 9:15. Freedom of quotation is a vera causa; and if there are degrees of freedom, an extreme point will be found somewhere. With the possible exception of the doubtful case in Eph 5:14, it is probable that we reach an extreme point here. This view is confirmed by the fact that Clement of Rome, in the earliest extant quotation from our present passage, goes back to the LXX of Isa 64:4, which is evidence that he regarded that to be the source of St Pauls quotation. At the very least, it proves that Clement felt that there was resemblance between 1Co 2:9 and Isa 64:4.
Of other solutions, the most popular has been that of Origen (in Mat 27:9); in nullo regulari libro hoc positum invenitur, nisi in Secretis Eliae Prophetae. Origen was followed by others, but was warmly contradicted by Jerome (in Esai. lxiv. 4: see also Prol. in Gen. ix. and Ep. lvii. [ci.] 7), who nevertheless allows that the passage occurs not only in the Apocalypse of Elias, but also in the Ascension of Esaias. This, however, by no means proves that the Apostle quotes from either book; for the writers of those books may both of them be quoting from him. Indeed, it is fairly certain that this is true of the Apocalypse of Elias; unless we reject the testimony of Epiphanius (Haer. xlii.), who says that this Apocalypse also contains the passage in Eph 5:14, which (if St Paul quotes it without adaptation) is certainly from a Christian source. And there is no good reason for doubting the statement of Epiphanius. The Apocalypse of Elias, if it existed at all before St Pauls time, would be sure to be edited by Christian copyists, who, as in the case of many other apocalyptic writings, inserted quotations from N.T. books, especially from passages like the present one. The Ascension of Esaias, as quoted by Epiphanius (67:3), was certainly Christianized, for it contained allusions to the Holy Trinity. It is probably identical with the Ascension and Vision of Isaiah, published by Laurence in an Ethiopic, and by Gieseler in a Latin, version. The latter (11:34) contains our passage, and was doubtless the one known to Jerome; the Ethiopic, though Christian, does not contain it. See Tisserant, Ascension dIsaie, p. 211.
On the whole, therefore, we have decisive ground for regarding our passage as the source whence these Christian or Christianized apocrypha derived their quotation, and not vice versa. Still more strongly does this hold good of the paradox of oversanguine liturgiologists (Lightfoot), who would see in our passage a quotation from the Liturgy of St James, a document of the Gentile Church of Aelia far later than Hadrian, and full of quotations from the N.T.*
Resch, also over-sanguine, claims the passage for his collection of Agrapha, or lost Sayings of our Lord, but on no grounds which call for discussion here.
Without, therefore, denying that St Paul, like other N.T. writers, might quote a non-canonical book, we conclude with Clement of Rome and Jerome, that he meant to quote, and actually does quote-very freely and with reminiscence of 65:17-from Isa 64:4. He may, as Origen saw, be quoting from a lost Greek version which was textually nearer to our passage than the Septuagint is, but such an hypothesis is at best only a guess, and, in view of St Pauls habitual freedom, it is not a very helpful guess.
The above view, which is substantially that of the majority of modern commentators, including Ellicott, Edwards, and Lightfoot (to whose note this discussion has special obligations) is rejected by Meyer-Heinr, Schmiedel, and some others, who think that St Paul, perhaps per incuriam, quotes one of the apocryphal writings referred to above. It has been shown already that this hypothesis is untenable. For further discussion, see Lightfoot, S. Clement of Rome, I. p. 390, and on Clem. Rom. Cor. 34; Resch, Agrapha, pp. 102, 154, 281; Thackeray, St Paul and Contemporary Jewish Thought, pp. 240 f. On the seemingly hostile reference of Hegesippus to this verse, see Lightfoots last note in loc.
These two verses (9, 10) give a far higher idea of the future revelation than is found in Jewish apocalyptic writings, which deal rather with marvels than with the unveiling of spiritual truth. See Hastings, DB. iv. pp. 186, 187; Schrer, J.P., II. iii. pp. 129-132; Ency. Bib. i:210.
10. . Reason why we can utter things hidden from eye, ear, and mind of man: Because to us God, through the Spirit, unveiled them, or, For to us they were revealed by God through the Spirit. The follows hard upon and interprets , just as on (1:18): cf. in 1:30 and in 2:7. The is in emphatic contrast to the rulers of this world who do not know (v. 8). God reveals His glory, through His Spirit, to those for whom it is prepared. See note on v. 7; also Eph 1:14, Eph 1:17; 2Co 1:22.
If be read instead of , we must either adopt the awkward construction of … advocated by Evans and rejected above, or else, with Ellicott, make introduce a second and supplementary contrast (co-ordinate with, but more general than, that introduced by in v. 9) to the ignorance of the in v. 8. On the whole, the latent inferiority of the reading is fairly clear.
. The aorist points to a definite time when the revelation took place, viz. to the entry of the Gospel into the world.* Compare the aorists in Col 1:26; Eph 3:5.
. Explanatory of . The and the possess the Spirit, who has, and gives access to, the secrets of God.
. The Alexandrian form of (T.R.). The word does not here mean searcheth in order to know, any more than it means this when it is said that God searches the heart of man (Rom 8:27; Rev 2:23; Psa 139:1). It expresses the activity of divine knowledge (Edwards); or rather, it expresses the activity of the Spirit in throwing His light upon the deep things of God, for those in whom He dwells. Scrutatur omnia, non quia nescit, ut inveniat, sed quia nihil relinquit quod nesciat (Atto). For the form see Gregory, Prolegomena to Tisch., p. 81.
. Cf. (Rom 11:33), and contrast , (Rev 2:24).*
(B and several cursives, Sah. Copt., Clem-Alex. Bas.) seems to be preferable to ( A C D E F G L P, Vulg. Syrr. Arm. Aeth., Orig.), but the external evidence for the latter is very strong. Certainly ( A B C D E F G P, Vulg. Copt. Arm. Aeth.) is preferable to . (L, Sah. Orig.). After . 3 D E G F L, Vulg. Syrr. Sah. Arm. Aeth. AV. add . * A B C, Copt. RV. omit.
11. . This verse, taken as a whole, confirms the second clause of v. 10, and thereby further explains the words , The words and , repeated, are emphatic, the argument being a minori ad majus. Even a human being has within him secrets of his own, which no human being whatever can penetrate, but only his own spirit. How much more is this true of God! The language here recalls Pro 20:27, , . Cf. Jer 17:9, Jer 17:10. The question does not mean that nothing about God can be known; it means that what is known is known through His Spirit (v. 10).
. The personal memories, reflexions, motives, etc., of any individual human being; all the thoughts of which he is conscious (4:4).
. . The word is here used, as in 5:5, 7:34; 2Co 7:1; 1Th 5:23, in the purely psychological sense, to denote an element in the natural constitution of every human being. This sense, if we carefully separate all passages where it may stand for the spirit of man as touched by the Spirit of God, is not very frequent in Paul. See below on v. 14 for the relation of to .
… It is here that the whole weight of the statement lies.
. This seems to be purposely substituted for the weaker and more general . For the contrast between the two see 2Co 5:16; 1Jn 2:29. The seems to place a degree more out of reach than does (Lightfoot, whose note, with its illustrations from 1 John, should be consulted). This passage is a locus classicus for the Divinity, as Rom 8:26, Rom 8:27 is for the Personality, of the Holy Spirit.
. But only, as in Gal 1:7, and (probably) 1:19; cf. 2:16.
. St Paul does not add . which would have suggested a closer analogy between the relation of mans spirit to man and that of Gods Spirit to God than the argument requires, and than the Apostle would hold to exist.
A 17, Ath. Cyr-Alex. omit . F G omit second . F G have , while L has , for ( A B C D E P, Vulg. cognovit).
12. . See on in v. 10: we Christians. . An interjected negative clause, added to give more force to the positive statement that follows, as in Rom 8:15. What does St Paul mean by the spirit of the world?
(1) Meyer, Evans, Edwards, and others understand it of Satan, or the spirit of Satan, the being a system of organized evil, with its own principles and its own laws (Evans): see Eph 2:2, Eph 2:6:11; Joh 12:31; 1Jn 4:3, 1Jn 4:5:19; and possibly 2Co 4:4. But this goes beyond the requirements of the passage: indeed, it seems to go beyond the analogy of N.T. language, in which has not per se a bad sense. Nor is the wisdom of the world Satanical. It is human, not divine; but it is evil only in so far as the flesh is sinful: i.e. it is not inherently evil, but only when ruled by sin, instead of being subjected to the Spirit. See Giffords discussion of the subject in his Comm. on Romans, viii. 15.
(2) Heinrici, Lightfoot, and others understand of the temper of the world, the spirit of human wisdom, of the world as alienated from God: non sumus instituli sapientia mundi (Est.). On this view it is practically identical with the of v. 13, and homogeneous with the of Rom 8:6, Rom 8:7: indeed, it may be said to be identical with it in substance, though not in aspect. In both places in this verse, therefore, would be impersonal, and almost attributive, as in Rom 8:15; but there the absence of the article makes a difference. Compare the in 2Co 11:4. On the whole, this second explanation of the spirit of the world seems to be the better.
. Like (v. 10), this aorist refers to a definite time when the gift was received. St Paul regards the gift as ideally summed up when he and they were ideally included in the Christian church, though it is true that the Spirit is received constantly (Lightfoot). Cf. 12:13.
. The gift rather than the Person of the Spirit, although here, as not infrequently in Paul, the distinction between the Personal Spirit of God (v. 11), dwelling in man (Rom 8:11), and the spirit (in the sense of the higher element of mans nature), inhabited and quickened by the Holy Spirit, is subtle and difficult to fix with accuracy. The Person is in the gift, and the activity of the recipient is the work of the Divine Indweller.
. This is the result to which vv. 10-12 lead up. The words reproduce, under a different aspect, the thought in , and give the foundation for v. 13, .
. The same blessings appear successively as (v. 7), … (v. 9), and (v. 12). The last perhaps includes a little more of present reference (Ellicott). The connexion of thought in the passage may be shown by treating vv. 11 and 12 as expanding the thought of v. 10 into a kind of syllogism;-major premiss, None knows the things of God, but only the Spirit of God; minor premiss, We received the Spirit which is of God; conclusion, So that we know what is given us by God. The possession of the gift of the Spirit of God is a sort of middle term which enables the Apostle to claim the power to know, and to utter, the deep things of God.
After , D E F G, Vulg. Copt. Arm. add . A B C L P, Syrr. Aeth. omit.
13. . This is the dominant verb of the whole passage (vv. 6, 7: see notes on , v. 8, and , v. 9). The emphasizes the justification, furnished by the preceding verses, for the claim made; Which are the very things that we do utter. The present passage is the personal application of the foregoing, as vv. 1-5 are of 1:18-31.
. Taught by mans wisdom. We have similar genitives in Joh 6:45, , and in Mat 25:34, . In class. Grk. the construction is found only in poets; (Soph. Elect. 343), (Pind. Ol. 9:152). Cf. 1:17.
. See on v. 4, where, as here and 1Th 1:5, has no article. The Apostle is not claiming verbal inspiration; but verba rem sequuntur (Wetstein). Cf. Luk 21:15; Jer 1:9. Sapientia est scaturigo sermonum (Beng.). Bentley, Kuenen, etc. conjecture .
. Two questions arise here, on the answer to which the interpretation of the words depends,-the gender of , and the meaning of . The latter is used by St Paul only here and 2Co 10:12, where it means to compare. This is a late use, frequent from Aristotle onwards, but out of place here, although adopted in both AV. and RV. text. Its classical meaning is to join fitly, compound, combine (RV. marg.). In the LXX it has the meaning to interpret, but only in the case of dreams (Gen 40:8, Gen 40:16, Gen 40:22, 41:12, Gen 40:15; Jdg 7:15; Dan 5:12, Dan 5:7:15, Dan 5:16). We have, therefore, the following possibilities to consider:-
(1). Taking as neuter;-either,
() Combining spiritual things (the words) with spiritual things (the subject matter); or,
() Interpreting (explaining) spiritual things by spiritual things.
This () may be understood in a variety of ways-
Interpreting O.T. types by N.T. doctrines.
Interpreting spiritual truths by spiritual language.
Interpreting spiritual truths by spiritual faculties.
Of these three, the first is very improbable; the third is substantially the explanation adopted by Luther; und richten geistliche Sachen geistlich.
(2). Taking as masculine;-either,
() Suiting (matching) spiritual matter to spiritual hearers; or,
() Interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual hearers.
In favour of taking as neuter may be urged the superior epigrammatic point of keeping the same gender for both terms, and the naturalness of being brought into close relation with the – in . These considerations are of weight, and the resultant sense is good and relevant, whether we adopt () or the third form of (). As Theodore of Mopsuestia puts it, .
On the other hand, in favour of taking as masculine, there is its markedly emphatic position, as if to prepare the way for the contrast with which immediately follows, and which now becomes the Apostles main thought. This consideration perhaps turns the scale in favour of taking as spiritual persons. Of the two explanations under this head, one would unhesitatingly prefer (), were not the use of in the sense of interpret confined elsewhere to the case of dreams. This objection is not fatal, but it is enough to leave us in doubt whether St Paul had this meaning in his mind. The other alternative () has the advantage of being a little less remote from the Apostles only other use of the word. In either case, taking , as masculine, we have the Apostle coming back full circle to the thought of v. 6, , which now receives its necessary justification.
Before concluding the discussion of the true wisdom, the Apostle glances at those who are, and those who are not, fitted to receive it.
After , D 3 E L P, Aeth. AV. add . A B C D* F G 17, Vulg. RV. omit.
2:14-3:4. THE SPIRITUAL AND THE ANIMAL CHARACTERS
Only the spiritual man can receive the true wisdom. You Corinthians cannot receive it, for your dissensions show that you are not spiritual.
14 Now the man whose interests are purely material has no mind to receive what the Spirit of God has to impart to him: it is all foolishness to him, and he is incapable of understanding it, because it requires a spiritual eye to see its true value. 15 But the spiritual man sees the true value of everything, yet his own true value is seen by no one who is not spiritual like himself. 16 For what human being ever knew the thoughts of the Lord God, so as to be able to instruct and guide Him? But those of us who are spiritual do share the thoughts of Christ.
3. 1 And I, Brothers, acting on this principle, have not been able to treat you as spiritual persons, but as mere creatures of flesh and blood, as still only babes in the Christian course. 2 I gave you quite elementary teaching, and not the more solid truths of the Gospel, for these ye were not yet strong enough to digest. 3 So far from being so then, not even now are ye strong enough, for ye are still mere beginners. For so long as jealousy and contention prevail among you, are you not mere tyros, behaving no better than the mass of mankind? 4 For when one cries, I for my part stand by Paul, and another, I by Apollos, are you anything better than men who are still uninfluenced by the Spirit of God?
14. . This is in sharpest contrast to (v. 13), for means animal (animalis homo, Vulg.) in the etymological sense, and nearly so in the ordinary sense: see 15:44, 46; Jam 3:15; Jud 1:19 ( ).* The term is not necessarily based upon a supposed trichotomous psychology, as inferred by Apollinaris and others from in Thess. 5:23 (see Lightfoots note). It is based rather upon the conception of as the mere correlative of organic life. Aristotle defines it as . In man, this comprises in the merely psychological sense (note on v. 2), but not necessarily in the sense referred to above (note on v. 12). See, however, 5:5; Php 1:27; Eph 6:17; Col 3:23; 1Pe 4:6. In Luk 1:46, and seem to be synonymous. The ranges with (Rom 7:23, 35; Col 2:18), in one sense contrasted with , but like in its inability to rise to practical godliness, unless aided by the . We may say that is the energy or correlative of .
Although, therefore, is not used in N.T. in a bad sense, to distinguish the animal from the spiritual principle in the human soul, yet is used of a man whose motives do not rise above the level of merely human needs and aspirations. The is the unrenewed man, the natural man (AV., RV.), as distinct from the man who is actuated by the Spirit. The word is thus practically another name for the (3:1, 3). See J. A. F. Gregg on Wisd. 9:15.
. Not is incapable of receiving, but does not accept, i.e. he rejects, refuses. = to accept, to take willingly (2Co 8:17; 1Th 1:6, etc.).
. The nature of the process is beyond him; it requires characteristics which he does not possess. The verb is used frequently by St Paul in this Epistle, but not elsewhere. It is one of the 103 N.T. words which are found only in Paul and Luke (Hawkins, Hor. Syn. p. 190). Here it means judge of, sift, as in Act 17:11 of the liberal-minded Beroeans, who sifted the Scriptures, to get at the truth: Dan. Sus. 13, 48, 51.
15. . The man in whom has its rightful predominance, which it gains by being informed by, and united with, the Spirit of God, and in no other way. Man as man is a spiritual being, but only some men are actually spiritual; just as man is a rational being, but only some men are actually rational. Natural capacity and actual realization are not the same thing.
. He judges of everything sifts every thing,1Th 5:21; Php 1:10; contrast Rom 2:18. The whole Epistle exemplifies this principle in St Pauls person (7:25, 8:1, 10:14, 11:1, etc.). Aristotle, in defining virtue, comes back to the judgment formed by the mature character: (Eth. Nic. 11. 6:15). Judgeth (AV., RV.) does not quite give the meaning of what is expressed here: examines is nearer to it.
. This perhaps means by no non-spiritual person (cf. 1Jn 4:1). It does not mean that the spiritual man is above criticism (4:3, 4, 14:32; Rom 14:4). St Paul is not asserting the principle of Protagoras, that the individual judgment is for each man the criterion of truth; , . He is asserting, with Bishop Butler, the supremacy of conscience, and the right and duty of personal judgment. But it is the spiritual man who has this vantageground. The text has been perverted in more than one direction; on the one hand, as an excuse for the licence of persons whose conduct has stamped them as unspiritual, e.g. the Anabaptists of Mnster; on the other, as a ground for the irresponsibility of ecclesiastical despotism in the medival Papacy, e.g. by Boniface viii. in the Bull Unam sanctam, and by Cornelius Lapide on this passage. The principle laid down by St Paul gives no support to either anarchy or tyranny; it is the very basis of lawful authority, both civil and religious; all the more so, because it supplies the principle of authority with the necessary corrective.
. Is judged of, subjected to examination. See on 4:3, 4, 5, 9:3, 10:25, 27; also on Luk 23:14. (Act 25:26) was a legal term at Athens for a preliminary investigation, preparatory to the actual , which for St Paul would have its analogue in the day (4:5). Lightfoot gives examples of the way in which the Apostle delights to accumulate compounds of (4:3, 6:1-6, 11:29-32; 2Co 10:12; Rom 2:1). By playing on words he sometimes illuminates great truths or important personal experiences.
* omits the whole of this verse. A C D* F G omit after (1 B D2 E F G L) is to be preferred to (A C D* P).
16. . Proof of what has just been claimed for the : he has direct converse with a source of light which is not to be superseded by any merely external norm. The quotation ( ) is from the LXX of Isa 40:13, adapted by the omission of the middle clause, ; This clause is retained in Rom 11:34, while is omitted. The aorist () belongs to the quotation, and must not be pressed as having any special force here; hath known (AV., RV.). On the other hand, the immediate transition from to as equivalent is full of deep significance. Cf. Wisd. 9:13; Ecclus. 1:6; Job 36:22, Job 36:23, Job 36:26; and see on Rom 10:12, Rom 10:13.
. The (LXX) corresponds to the Hebrew for in the original. In God, and are identical (see, as to man, on v. 14), but not in aspect, being suitable to denote the Divine knowledge or counsel, the Divine action, either in creation or in grace.
. The relative refers to in Isa 40:13. As St Paul omits the clause containing , the is left without any proper construction. But it finds a kind of antecedent in ; Who hath known that he should instruct (RV.). occurs several times in N.T. in its classical meanings of join together, conclude, prove; but in Biblical Greek, though not in classical, it has also the meaning of instruct. Thus in Act 19:33, where the true reading ( A B E) seems to be , Alexander is primed with a defence of the Jews, for which he cannot get a hearing. This meaning of instruct is frequent in LXX. In class. Grk. we should have .
. We have this by the agency of the Spirit of God; and the mind of the Spirit of God is known to the Searcher of hearts (Rom 8:27). The mind of Christ is the correlative of His Spirit, which is the Spirit of God (Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6), and this mind belongs to those who are His by virtue of their vital union with Him (Gal 2:20, Gal 2:21, Gal 2:3:27; Php 1:8; Rom 13:14). The thought is that of v. 12 in another form: see also 7:40; and 2Co 13:3, . The emphatic (see on 1:18, 23, 30, 2:10, 12) serves to associate all with the Apostle, and also all his readers, so far as they are, as they ought to be, among (1:18).
We ought probably to prefer ( A C D3 E L P, Vulg. Syrr. Copt. Arm., Orig.) to (B D* F G, Aug. Ambrst.). would be likely to be altered to conform with the previous .
(Fourth century.) The Sinaitic MS., now at St Petersburg, the only MS. containing the whole N.T.
B B (Fourth century.) The Vatican MS.
D D (Sixth century.) Codex Clarmontanus; now at Paris. A Graeco-Latin MS. 14:13 -22 is supplied by a later but ancient hand. Many subsequent hands (sixth to ninth centuries) have corrected the MS. (See Gregory, Prolegomena , pp. 418-422).
E E (Ninth century). At Petrograd. A copy of D, and unimportant
F F (Late ninth century). Codex Augiensis (from Reichenau); now at Trin. Coll. Cambr. Probably a copy of G in any case, secondary to G, from which it very rarely varies (see Gregory, p. 429).
G G (Late ninth century). Codex Boernerianus; at Dresden. Interlined with the Latin (in minluscules). Lacks 1Co 3:8-16, 1Co 6:7-14 (F).
L L (Ninth century). Codex Angelicus; At Rome.
P P (Ninth century). Porfirianus Chiovensis. A palimpsest acquired in the East by Porphyrius Bishop of Kiew. Lacks 7:15 -17 : 12:23 -13:5 -: 14:23 . A good type of text in St Pauls Epistles.
A A (Fifth century.) The Codex Alexandrinus; now at the British Museum.
C C (Fifth century). The Codex Ephraem, a Palimpsest; now at Paris. Lacks 7:18 -9:6 : 13:8 -14:40 .
17 17. (Ev. 33, Act_13. Ninth century.) At Paris (Nat. Gr. 14). See Westcott and Hort., Introd. 211, 212.
* ,Three times in Acts (18:9, 28:11, 27:24) St Paul receives encouragement from the Lord. There was something in his temperament which needed this. In Corinth the vision assured him that his work was approved and would sncceed. He not only might work, he must do so (9:16.)
It is remarkable that the word has not been adopted by ecclesiastical writers.
* In papyri, is used of official evidence or proof. Bachmann quotes; (Tebt. Pap. ii. 291, 41).
* See ch. x. in Chadwick, Pastoral Teaching, pp. 356 f., and note the emphatic position of .
This sense is frequent in papyri and elsewhere. Initiated would be .
* Crux servorum supplicium. Eo Dominum gloriae affecerunt (Beng.). The levity of philosophers in rejecting the cross was only surpassed by the stupidity of politicians in inflicting it (Findlay). The placing of … between and the verb throws emphasis on the words; they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory cf, Heb 4:8, Heb 8:7 (Abbot, Johannine Gr., 2566).
d d The Latin text of D
e e The Latin text of E
f f The Latin text of F
g g The Latin text of G
r r (Sixth century.) The Freisingen MS., now at Munich. The two last named contain fragments only.
* Lightfoot, S. Clement of Rome I. pp. 389 f., II. pp. 106 f.; Hammond, liturgies Eastern and western, p. x. Neither Origen nor Jerome know of any liturgical source.
* Is it true that revelation is distinguished from oridinary spiritual influences by its suddenness? May there not be a gradual unveitling? Revelation implies that, without special aid from God, the truth in question would not have been discovered. Human ability and research would not have sufficed.
* Clem. Rom. (Cor. 40) has , .
* Cf. Juvenal (xv. 147f.), Mundi Principio indulsit communis conditor illis Tantum animas, nobis animum quoque. See Chadwick, Pastoral Teaching, p. 153.
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
Gods Glory in Mens Weakness
1Co 1:26-31; 1Co 2:1-5
Like the sons of Jesse before Samuel, so do the successive regiments on which the world relies pass before Christ. The wise, the mighty, the noble, the great, the things that are! And the King says, I have not chosen these. The warriors with whom He will win the world to Himself are the nobodies, the ciphers, the people who in the worlds estimate do not count. Do not depreciate yourself, but give yourself to Him; He will find a niche for you and make your life worth living. Notice that God has put you into union with Christ Jesus. Everything we need for life and godliness is in Him; only let us make all that we can of our wonderful position and possessions.
Paul came to Corinth from Athens, where he had sought to win his hearers by a studied and philosophical discourse as best adapted to their needs. But as he entered Corinth, he appears to have deliberately determined that his theme would be the crucified Lord, and expressed in the simplest phrases. When we speak the truth as it is in Jesus, the Spirit is ever at hand to enforce our testimony by His demonstration and power.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Lecture 6
Jesus Christ And Him Crucified
1Co 2:1-8
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (vv. 1-8)
In the book of Acts we have the account of Pauls entry into Corinth where after a year and a half of earnest work he left a church that came behind, we are told, in no gift. Going into that brilliant but godless city where they gloried in human ability and in human attainment, where they made much of the various arts and where they deified human lust and knew nothing of the true God, the apostles soul was deeply stirred. He had been but a few days before in Athens and there, we read, had gone by invitation to the place where the philosophers, the intelligentsia, gathered to hear and to tell some new thing, and where at their own request he undertook to explain the message of the gospel. However, they did not permit him to come to the crucial point, for they interrupted him as soon as he spoke of a Savior who died and was raised again, and refused to listen further. Probably never was a more eloquent sermon preached than that which the apostle delivered that day on Mars Hill, and yet the results were somewhat meager. There were a few who clave to him, but the great majority turned away, rejecting him and his proclamation.
From Athens he went to Corinth. I do not believe there is any reason to think that he felt he had made a mistake in preaching as he did at Athens. His rule was this: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. There he realized that he was addressing men of the highest culture and had to present the message in a way that he hoped would appeal to them; but upon going to Corinth he put aside everything, as far as he possibly could, that was merely human and went in absolute dependence upon the Spirit of God with one great message, Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He says, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. He realized it was quite possible by the flowers of rhetoric to cover up, to obscure the shame of the cross, and so he did not permit himself any flights of fancy or of the imagination in presenting the glad tidings; but seriously, earnestly, solemnly, as became a man who stood between the living and the dead, he preached the message of the cross in all simplicity, for he determined, he said, not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And that should still be the method of the servant of God; for after all, there is no other message that will avail for the salvation of sinners or the edification of Gods beloved people. Everything centers in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, and him crucified. That is the Person and the Work. Always Christ personal was presented in apostolic preaching. Men were not asked to believe a creed, they were not asked to subscribe to a system of doctrine, but they were asked to receive a Person, and that Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think we make a mistake in supposing that just pinning our faith to a verse of Scripture is salvation. I wonder whether many have not been deceived in that way. I hear people speak of knowing they are saved, and when asked why, they reply, Because I believe Joh 3:16 or Joh 5:24, and you look for some evidence of a new life in them and do not find it. They never appear at a prayer meeting, but if there is a social affair, or something like that, they are present. Apparently they have no real interest in the study of the Word of God; you never see them at a Bible lecture. They have time for anything that ministers to the flesh, but very little time for spiritual food, and it makes one tremble for them. I cannot think of anything more dreadful than to have gone through life thinking that one was really saved, and then at last to be suddenly ushered into eternity and wake up forever lost. You see, believing a text does not save anybody. Believing in Christ saves all who trust Him. I believed every text in the Bible before I was converted. I never thought of doubting one of them until after I was converted. That may seem like a strange thing to say, but as a lad I believed all that I was told, that the Bible was the Word of the living God. I accepted it all. Some years after I was converted I became perplexed over certain things and began to doubt, and it led me to a deeper investigation, and then my faith was confirmed. But in all those years that I believed everything in the Bible I was not saved. I had never been regenerated, I had never received a new nature. I was lost. And if I had died in my sins, I could have quoted hundreds of Bible texts, I could have repeated chapter after chapter of Holy Scripture in the flames of hell while bewailing the fact that I had never been acquainted with the Person that these passages of Scripture glorified. Do not make any mistake here, for it is one that can never be remedied if you go into eternity resting on a false hope. Examine your foundation, ask yourselves, Is Christ Himself precious to me? If He is, why do I not enjoy His Word more? Why do I not love to spend more time with Him in prayer? Why is there so much frivolity and levity and carelessness in my life? Why do I do so many things that I know the Lord Jesus would never do and cannot approve in me if I really love Him? He has said, If a man love me, he will keep my words (Joh 14:23). If ye love me, keep my commandments (Joh 14:15).
What is the use of professing to be a Christian if there is no evidence of it in the life? What is the use of speaking of the new birth, of talking about having eternal life if I live the same kind of a life that tens of thousands of respectable Christless men and women live all around me? What is the difference between my life and theirs? If this change has ever taken place in me, when did it take place? When did I open my hearts door to Christ and receive Him? If I have received Him, then He has come to dwell in me and that changes everything for me. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the [children] of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Joh 1:12-13).
Now observe, it is Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Some say, We preach Christ, but the Christ who lived on earth for those thirty-three wonderful years could never save one poor sinner apart from His death. Jesus Christ was crucified? Why? The crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ throws into relief several tremendous facts. First of all, it emphasizes the wickedness, the corruption, the vileness of the human heart. Who was Jesus Christ? He was God manifest in the flesh. He was here in the world His hands had made, and His own creatures cried, Away with him, away with him; crucify him! Could we have any worse commentary on the iniquity of the human heart than that? Man, as far as he was capable, was guilty of the awful crime of deicide, he would murder God, drive Him out of His own universe. The fool hath said in his heart,no God (Psa 14:1). It is not exactly as in our King James Version, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Many a man admits there is a God who says, No God, and that is what that verse really tells us, in the Hebrew. The fool hath said in his heart,no God. No God for me. He has said, I do not want God to come into my life, I do not want to be troubled about God, I want to take my own way, to do my own will. And because men were set on that, they nailed the Christ of God to a cross. If there is anything that tells out what man is, this does.
Stand in faith by that cross, see the blessed Savior suffering, dying there; see the nails upon which He hangs and the blood dripping from those awful wounds; see the thorns crushed upon His sacred brow and the blood enwrapping His naked body as with a crimson shroud. That is what sin has done, the sin that is in your heart and in mine. That tells out the story of the wickedness, the deceit-fulness of our hearts. The men who thronged about that cross and cried out in derision, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross (Mat 27:40), were no different from ourselves; their hearts were like our hearts. They were representative men. We may see ourselves there. The cross brought out, declared all the malignity that was in the heart of man, but it also told out the infinite love that was in the heart of God. One might well have understood it if God looking down upon that scene had let loose the thunders of His wrath and the lightnings of His judgment and had destroyed that throng in a moment; if He had said, as He did so long ago, My Spirit shall not always strive with manI will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth (Gen 6:3, 7). But no, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Joh 3:16). When man cast Him out and nailed Him to a tree, God in infinite love for sinners made His soul an offering for sin. It was as though He said, That cross, the symbol of shame and agony, shall become the great altar upon which will be offered the one supreme Sacrifice which atones for the sin of the world-Jesus Christ and him crucified. What wonderful evidence of Gods love for sinners is seen in that cross!
In the light of that cross how can men still go on doing the things, living in the sins, that led to it? The cross of Christ is that which casts light on everything that men glory in this world and stains all its glory, so that the apostle could say elsewhere, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Gal 6:14). Did you ever think of it in this way? You profess to be a Christian, you say that you owe everything for eternity to the One whom the world rejected. What effect does that have upon your life? Do you still have fellowship with that world that cast Him out? Do you still participate in the things that characterize that world?
A Christian walked down the street one day intending to go to the theater. Something was on that he thought he would be interested in. He came to the very entrance, even stepped up and bought his ticket, and the next moment there came flashing into his mind, If I go in there, I crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. He tore the ticket up, and ran from the place, thankful to be delivered. If you as a Christian go back into the things of the world from which the death of Christ has separated you, you are denying the cross of Christ. That is what it means. If we understood this, what a separated people we would be, how it would do away with all this dilly-dallying with the world and its folly. How we would realize that we owe too much to the One whom the world rejected to go on with that system which has thus treated the Eternal Lover of our souls-Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. I think every servant of Christ knows a little of that. How often as one thinks of facing an audience, the heart fails and the spirit cries out, O Lord, what can I do, what can I say? Suppose I should make a mistake, suppose I should give the wrong message, how dire the effect might be on some! I can never undo it for eternity! I can see Paul bowing before God every time he contemplated going out to preach the Word, and crying out, O Lord, keep me from mistakes, let me have just the right word, give me to be Your messenger, save me from trying to attract attention to myself, save me from glorifying man.
My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Paul recognized the fact that there is such a thing as meeting man on the soul-plane instead of the spiritual. A man may preach the gospel and yet do it soulishly, on the soul-plane, depending upon that which simply appeals to the human mind, and finding perhaps, that at the psychological moment he had gotten a grip on the audience by a tender story, ask for decisions. And when the people respond, he says, There now, what a lot of people have come to Christ, and perhaps not one in the crowd has had the conscience reached or has had to do with God about his sins. Paul was afraid of that. He said, I do not want to preach things in such a way that my human effort will persuade them. I am depending upon the Holy Spirit of God and divine power to do the work.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Because, you see, if I make a profession of salvation on the strength of a discourse that has stirred simply my emotions and made me feel that I ought to do something about it, and also because of my admiration for the preacher; then, when the preacher is gone and my emotions are no longer stirred, I will find myself wondering whether I am converted or not, whether there is any reality in this thing or not. I felt so differently under the spell of that emotion; now I do not feel that way at all. If the Holy Spirit of God has presented Christ to me and I have received Him, never mind about my feelings, I am saved and saved for eternity. My faith stands, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I rest upon His sure testimony.
We do not mean by this, the apostle says, that we have nothing but the simplicity of the gospel message to give to men; we seek also to lead believers into the deep things of God. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect. What does that mean? Did you ever see a perfect Christian? Surely not in the absolute sense, but it means perfect in the sense of well-developed. When he talked to the unsaved or to young believers, he had one message, and when he talked to mature saints, he sought to lead them on into the deeper things of God. He does that in this epistle and elsewhere.
We speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world. Christianity is a divine revelation, not a human theory. Not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery-something that is hidden from the Christless, that which the Spirit of God reveals to believers-even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. There are rich treasures of wisdom, wonderful truths to make known; for in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And as we go on with Him we enter into a depth of understanding that the world knows nothing about.
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If they had only known that the Man who stood in Pilates judgment hall that day, so meek, so lowly, answering never a word as He was vehemently accused, was God manifest in the flesh, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And so God takes mankind up on the ground of ignorance and says, I am going to excuse your ignorance, but there is one thing I will never excuse. After I enlighten you and present My Son to you, if you do not receive Him, I will never excuse that. Men are excused because the light has not come, but not excused when the light has come. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (Joh 3:19).
This is not to say that God will not judge sin wherever it is found. But simply that He holds men responsible for what knowledge of His truth they have, and not for what has never come to them. All have sinned and all are guilty before God, but judgment will be according to works and in perfect righteousness.
But when one trusts the Lord Jesus he is delivered forever from judgment. What a wonderful thing it is to know Him-Jesus Christ, and him crucified!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
1Co 2:2
I. Apart from the crucifixion of our Lord, there was much in Jesus Christ to commend Him both to the Jew and to the Gentile. There was no need for the introduction of that which was such a stumblingblock to the one and such foolishness to the other. The Apostle preaching Christ to the Jews might have dwelt upon the fact that He was one of their own nation, that this certainly very great and wonderful man, this worker of miracles, evidently sent from God, was one of themselves, a “Hebrew of the Hebrews,” and a great honour to their race. He might further have told the Jews how Jesus had reverenced the law of Moses; how religiously He had observed the Sabbaths and the feasts; how He had referred to the Scriptures and told people to search them; and how He had said, “I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil.” And speaking about Jesus Christ to Greeks and other Gentiles, the Apostle might have pointed to the fact that our Lord was Himself a very loyal subject of the Gentile government then existing in His country. With so much else to testify concerning our Lord, why should the apostles speak so much of His crucifixion?
II. Now, I think we may answer thus: that as men of common sense-to claim for them nothing more-the apostles would never have adopted this course unless they had been convinced that there was something of special and extraordinary importance in the death of their Master; something really more important in His death than in anything that had taken place during the whole course of His life. They believed-and their Master had told them to believe-that His death was to be the life of the world; and on this account, and this account only, can we understand or reconcile with good sense the immense predominance which is everywhere given to the sufferings and death of our Lord.
III. If the apostles had not preached the doctrine of the Cross, and had not made Christ crucified the great theme of their ministry, you and I would never have heard of Christianity at all. They might have preached Christ’s noble example, they might have referred much to His discourses and the beauty of His character; but if they had not preached the Cross, and salvation through the sacrifice of the Cross, their preaching would have been forgotten on the road. Christ crucified is a truth that never can come amiss, and of which too much never can be said.
H. Stowell Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. p. 289.
The Exaltation of the Cross.
I. The great truth which the Apostle had to impress on the Corinthians was, that in spite of their sinfulness and alienation they were still beloved by the one true God. And how better could he do this than by displaying the Cross? The greater the humiliation to which the Son of God submitted, the greater is the demonstration of the Divine love to man. This it is which, as an immortal being and yet a sinful, I have most interest in ascertaining, and this it is in which, if once ascertained, I have most cause to exult. Come, then, a teacher to those sunk in heathenism, and what shall he teach? One may go and tell them of their being objects of God’s providence, fed by His bounty, guided by His light, and curtained by His shadows. Another may tell them of their having been made after His image, endowed with immortality, illuminated by reason. I would not be insensible to the excellence of such teaching, to the beauty of these proofs of the love of the Creator; but feeling that these heathen are in danger of eternal destruction, and knowing that the sacrifice made on their behalf is such as irresistibly proves that God so loved them as to do everything to save them except to dishonour Himself, give me a teacher who would exclaim with the Apostle, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
II. Although to the eye of sense there is nothing but shame about the Cross, yet spiritual discernment proves it to be hung with the very richest trophies. Christ triumphed by being apparently defeated, He vanquished in the act of yielding to the enemy, and therefore was His death glorious, aye, unspeakably more glorious than life, array it how you will with circumstances of honour.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1745.
References: 1Co 2:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1264; A. Barry, Cheltenham College Sermons, p. 1; A. Saphir, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 385; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 42; F. W. Aveling, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 100; E. W. Shalders, Ibid., vol. xxv. p. 219; Cartwright, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 117; E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons, p. 374; Deems, American Pulpit of Today, p. 161. 1Co 2:2-5.-H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 1. 1Co 2:4.-J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 359. 1Co 2:5.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 340; Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 340; J. Van Dyke, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 156.
1Co 2:6-16
Mystery Revealed.
I. The redemption of Jesus Christ is a great mystery of the Divine thought and heart. The Apostle uses a singular term to designate those to whom the revelation is made. “We speak wisdom,” he says, “among them that are perfect,”-among those who have qualifications for receiving the wisdom. Spiritual religion is utterly incomprehensible to many intelligent people. They can understand theology as a science of God; they can understand religion as a theory, but they have no conception of its spiritual character; they have no conception of it as a spiritual sentiment, as a passionate affection, as a fellowship with God, a yearning and joy of the man’s whole consciousness. This is what St. Paul means when he says-“The natural man discerneth not the things of the spirit”; they are discerned only by a spiritual faculty. This, then, is what is meant when it is said that the gospel of Christ is wisdom unto the perfect-that is, to the spiritual, to the susceptible, to the spiritual man with spiritual faculties.
II. The mission of Christ and the purpose of Christian teaching are to reveal this mystery to men-to men of spiritual faculty, to men whom the Spirit of God touches and teaches. Our poor human thoughts cannot compass infinite things. All religion runs up into the mysterious, and must do so. Apart from Christianity, the mystery of the Divine Being is just as inscrutable as the revelation of Jesus Christ. Instead of adding to the mystery of God, Jesus Christ gives us our highest understanding of God. We understand more of God through Jesus Christ than we can on any other theory. And yet even so, how much remains that is impenetrable! Who can fathom the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the atonement, the mystery of the quickening of spiritual life in men, the mystery even of moral feeling, moral principle, the working of moral life, the mystery of conscience, which is the consciousness of God? In the love of Christ, in the love of God, there are heights and depths that pass knowledge.
H. Allon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 97.
Reference: 1Co 2:6, 1Co 2:7.-W. C. Magee, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 257.
1Co 2:6-16
The Gospel and the Intellect.
I. The natural man in Paul’s eyes is like an undeveloped organism. A man as he grows, in the true sense of growing, as he attains his full stature or perfection, becomes spiritual. The natural man is stunted; growth has been in some abnormal way arrested. The natural man only exists to become the spiritual man, just as a chrysalis only exists to become a butterfly. Who are the natural men nowadays? (1) Those who tell us that matter can explain spirit-the people whom we call Materialists. They cannot apprehend the wisdom of the gospel. (2) Those who speak as of the understanding could answer all the questions and meet all the needs of the human spirit.
II. The wisdom which Paul speaks among the perfect is nothing less than the indwelling of the Spirit of God in the spirit of the Christian man. Just as consciousness alone can be aware of our own inward life, so God’s consciousness alone can understand the depths of God; and only by being made partakers of God’s consciousness can we search those depths. But we, as believers in Christ, are partakers of that consciousness. A Spirit of God given to a man through faith in the incarnate Son of God takes all the things of the revealing Christ-His person, His word, His work-and slowly unveils them to the amazed and enraptured heart. He who is the Saviour is also the key to creation.
III. Paul found in the good news of the gospel a wisdom far surpassing the wisdom of this world. Many Christians do not exercise the reason, and have no special desire for its satisfaction. But those who dare not in honesty suppress or violate that master-faculty are permitted to have the thirst quenched, the reason satisfied. In Christ, the manifestation of God, they find certain things which are revealed, they find a clue to God, a clue to life, a clue to the world. The mystery is an open mystery, though losing none of its charm.
R. F. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 317.
References: 1Co 2:9.-G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons, 2nd series, p. 23; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 249; Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 143.
1Co 2:9-10
I. In the text we have the revelation given us as to the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. There seems to be wonderful beauty and expressiveness in this thought of the preparation God makes for His children, showing the Divine forethought, and the infinite fulness and carefulness of the love that has them in its regard, and that prepares for them things that are yet to come in the blessings that are bestowed upon them now; to remember how in the creation the world was prepared before man came upon it, and all its beauty and grandeur were ready to receive the crowning illustration of God’s creative power that was found in man, whose brow bore the image of the Divine presence.
II. But now we turn for a moment to the revelation of the Spirit in which these things are made manifest to us. “God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit.” Let the ministry of God the Holy Spirit be acknowledged and honoured. It is in proportion as individuals or as churches honour the Holy Spirit that we shall be prospered in the Divine work, that we shall be made strong for labour, wise for difficulty, comforted in sorrow, triumphant in all endeavour, and rejoicing in all things in the grace and glory of our Lord.
III. But then there is the third point of the condition that is essential to this, in the character of those who are to be the recipients of the blessing which God hath prepared for them that love Him. If we are children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ we ought to seek after the love that shall put the lovely into the unlovable, as the grace of God does with us. It is one of the most grievous mistakes about Christian fellowship that people are ever expecting to be loved, instead of seeking to love. We shall never have true Christian fellowship in the Church except as every one seeks to love the rest, and then all are sure to be loved and every one to be loved by all, because all realise the blessing of the indwelling Christ, of the Spirit of God, and the love that is imparted thereby.
J. P. Chown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 273.
The Story of the Cross.
I. It is true of all the great tragedies which affect mankind that they owe their power to the spiritual element in them, to the depth and truth of the ideas which they bring in living substance before our eyes. And the story of the Cross is the supreme tragedy of life, the sorrow which is like no other sorrow, but yet is the type of all sorrows; the victory in which all victory is contained, in which all the agonies, hopes, aspirations of human nature find their explanation, fulfilment, and relief. The spiritual element in it is the whole of it. The outer story is necessary to the inward truth; but without the key it would be futile, meaningless. Who invented that key? Who invented the ideas which lie at the bottom of that story, which, if they are true, make it intelligible, credible, the source of life and peace, hope and renovation without end, but which, if they are baseless, a figment of the human brain, make it an idle tale, a purposeless fragment from the story of human cruelty and human credulity?
II. We may distinguish three ideas on which, beyond others, the truth of that story rests. These are immortality, sin, the fatherhood of God. Can we believe that any of these is the baseless creation of the human fancy? What a picture to have been imagined!-a picture of which not merely the special combinations are due to human fancy, but of which the materials must in that case be due also-a picture too beautiful, infinitely too beautiful, to be true. Is it not more reasonable to believe with the Apostle that as in the world of sense, so in the things which touch our life more closely, our imagination instead of exceeding, falls far short of the wonders of Divine provision; that God has prepared for them that love Him not less, but infinitely more, than eye hath seen, or ear heard, or than has entered into the heart of man?
E. C. Wickham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 360.
References: 1Co 2:9, 1Co 2:10.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 56; Bishop Westcott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 193; D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life, p. 183. 1Co 2:10.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 292.
1Co 2:11
I. To give the adequate history of a religion you must first have believed it. This is our primary datum, and this means surely that the elements of that rational intelligibility, which comes to the surface under the action of the critical reason, are to be found within the living material of the belief itself. Reason does not find its ground, its justification, its credibility, its evidence in itself, in its own separate and distinct working; it goes for these to that on which it works. There lies all its intelligibility. The gain achieved by the reason is simply the disclosure that the belief was already rational. All that it discloses was already the life and substance of that effort which we call faith.
II. What an immense task has reason undertaken when it attempts the critical portrayal of a spiritual faith. Yet if religion is the expression, the act of the entire man, and not merely of some peculiar and isolated organ in his being, it is inevitable that reason which is part and parcel of that wholeness which is the man, should have its say about that action in which it itself in its corporate capacity, as bound up with the unity of spirit, has already borne its share. “To write the history of a religion a man must have believed it once.” Yes, and if it be needful once, then if the criticism is ever to be other than fragmentary, if it is ever to be vital and fruitful and entire, it cannot but be needful always; for to have lost the belief is, as the formula confesses, to have lost the key to its history. It is surely only in sad irony, bitter mistrust, that it is added, “he must have believed it once, but he must have believed it no longer.”
H. Scott Holland, Logic and Life, p. 41.
References: 1Co 2:11.-J. Vaughan, Sermons, 7th series, p. 191. 1Co 2:12.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 264; T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 125; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascensiontide to Trinity, p. 209. 1Co 2:13.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 94.
1Co 2:14
The Spiritual Life.
I. If we cast our eyes over the world of human things, it cannot fail to strike us that there are certain inevitable classifications of mankind depending immediately upon the constitution of human nature. Thus you may classify men by their bodily gifts and graces, distinguishing them as the strong and vigorous, on the one hand, who scarcely know the meaning of pain or bodily weakness, who would scorn to ask if this present life, which is to them so glad a thing, be worth the living; and on the other hand, after many gradations of health or sickness, others whose cheek is pale and whose frame is wan and feeble from disease, whose life is a pain to them, who have little experience of earthly happiness, who, if they could, would flee away and be at rest. Or, again, you may classify men by their intellectual endowments, according as some men seem to grasp the truth of things by lightning flashes, and others cannot see the light at all despite their efforts, or, if they see it, are only dazzled by its brilliancy. Is there not yet another classification, that of the spirit? Is not the spiritual side of human nature as true as the intellectual or the physical? God made man in His own image; and human nature (be it reverently spoken), like the Divine nature, is a trinity in unity. It is to the spiritual side of man that religion appeals. For the natural man, as St. Paul says-i.e., the psychical man, the man of physical and intellectual culture-receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
II. I plead, then, for a frank recognition of the spiritual side or aspect of human nature. It is man’s necessity to look beyond himself and the world of which he is a part, and to feel, however feebly, after the God who made him. And as the spiritual faculty is supreme in human nature, so is it essentially most delicate. It is hard to preserve in its sensitiveness; it is soon and easily blighted. Do not neglect, then, your own spirituality. You are responsible for it; your character depends on it. It is possible so to live, in such an atmosphere of clear and holy light, that you can as little doubt of God’s Being as of your own. But it is possible also so to live that the primary elemental facts of human nature, upon which religion finally depends, shall seem to you as you reflect on them no better than the unsubstantial fabric of a dream. There is a faith which is stronger than reason, and which abides in the hour when human reason fails.
J. E. C. Welldon, The Spiritual Life and Other Sermons, p. 1.
References:-ii. 14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 407; J. Burton, Christian Life and Truth, p. 225; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 152; E. White, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 360; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 98. 1Co 2:14, 1Co 2:15.-H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 348.
1Co 2:15
(with 1Ti 3:15)
The religious or spiritual man, then, is characterised not by taking his judgment from other men, not by living on a decision formed by others, but by a personal private judgment of his own. Religious truth, like other truth, nay, much more than other truth, is a personal conviction, and not merely a conviction, but a judgment, part of the man’s own rational being-the very life of his rational being-that in which he looks out upon and judges of men and things, when he is most conscious of exercising his own faculties. Nay, more than this, he holds this truth, not merely on his personal private judgment, but with a certain strenuous insistance upon its independence in the face of other men, even within the Church.
I. What is the antithesis to this tenure in conscious personal and rational judgment of religious truth? It cannot be, what is impossible, that we should hold a body of truth on the external authority of the Church, while it does not commend itself to our own individual judgment. To refuse to exercise our own faculties of judgment, to take things generally, and merely passively on the external authority whether of science or of the Church, is not to be humble, but to be ignorant and to ignore a primary duty.
II. But it is only in our shallowest moments that we shall suppose this repudiation of absolute and unconditional authority which leaves room for an exercise of our judgment, to involve in any sense the repudiation of authority at all, or the denial that truth should be held finally, on mere external authority, to involve the rejection of external authority from its proper place in the formation of our minds. Indeed, those portions of the truth which do not come under the verification of our own faculties must permanently be held on external authority, but the authority itself must then come under verification. It is, for example, only reason to take on the authority of Christ truths about the future which cannot come under our present cognisance, if we have reason to believe that they come under His. The place of authority, then, is primarily and mainly in helping us to form our judgment. Our judgment ought not to be formed in an isolated individualistic manner. It is out of committing ourselves to authority that right reason normally and naturally grows. Each man is not meant to start afresh. Reverence as well as thought must go to the making of a true judgment. To receive in the Church of Christ in earliest years-in education, at the time of our confirmation-a body of truth, and a system of practice emphasising and embodying holiness of life, to receive it on her loving authority, and to grow up, as our faculty develops, into the intellectual recognition of her truths and practices on our own judgment-this is the normal growth of man.
III. The scheme of Christian truth coheres. To a Christian believer who has advanced to any measure of understanding the whole is one and indissoluble. He recognises that it would be unreasonable to pick and choose; he recognises the coherence of the same sort of means by which we recognise the similar connection, far beyond our personal knowledge, in the department of science. Thus he abides under the shelter of the whole creed. He takes it on trust as a whole. The Christian Church seems to his spiritual faculties eminently trustworthy. He waits while the Spirit leads him into all the truth. That is, he waits while, in the growing experience of life, in the vicissitudes of failure and success, of joy and suffering, of growth and manhood, point by point, the truth becomes realised to his experience and his understanding. We teach children a language greater than childhood’s wants will justify, the language of grown men, knowing that they will grow up to want it; and God deals with us thus in His Church in that sphere of our life where experience is slow in coming, where indeed all life is childhood in relation to immortal manhood.
C. Gore, Oxford Review, Jan. 28th, 1885.
1Co 2:16
I. What is the mind of Christ? Is it some high intellectual attainment? Or is it some great moral victory over the affections? The expression is evidently a very full one; for you may take the words of a man and you may take the actions of a man, and still fall short of the mind of that man. For the mind of a man is the spirit of a man. It is the motive which actuates him; it is the feeling which is unconsciously moulding his conduct every moment; it is the inner life which is continually giving the tone and the character to his outer being.
II. The believer is always striving after the mind of Christ. Nothing less will satisfy him, because nothing less will satisfy God. The soul of Jesus, infinitely stored with the Holy Spirit, becomes a fountain from whence again that Spirit is always pouring out into His own people; so that if ever we receive any grace of the Spirit, we are actually receiving a portion, however small, of the mind of Jesus Christ.
III. See, then, the way by which you are to obtain the mind of Christ. Every way you can, live close to Him, think of Him, meditate upon Him, hold communion with Him, lie at His feet, do constantly acts for His sake, suffer for Him, laud Him; talk of Him, lean upon Him, realise communion with Him, and invariably as you do this you are catching His mind.
IV. Note some of the advantages which belong to those who really have the mind of Christ. (1) No man can really understand the Bible who does not bring to the study of it the mind of Christ. (2) The possession of the mind of Christ is a wonderful clue to bear with us in the intricate windings of the daily labyrinth of life. (3) They have the benefit of the mind of Christ who wish to pray rightly. Those who bring Christ in them to their knees, having the mind of Christian asking, know what is the mind of Christ in giving.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 144.
References: 1Co 2:16.-Homilist, vol. ii., p. 274. 1Cor 2-W. Simpson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 28. 1Cor 2-F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 197. 1Co 3:1.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 293. 1Co 3:1-10.-F. W. Robertson, Lectures on Corinthians, p. 39. 1Co 3:3.-T. Binney, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 341. 1Co 3:6.-J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 383; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 409. 1Co 3:6-8.-Homilist, new series, vol. iii., p. 208. 1Co 3:6-9.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1662. 1Co 3:8.-G. D. MacGregor, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 269. 1Co 3:9.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, p. 339; F. H. Marling, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 255; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 329; Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 132; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 71; J. Stalker, The New Song, p. 38. 1Co 3:9-11.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 80. 1Co 3:9-17.-R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness p. 322. 1Co 3:10-13.-W. Morley Punshon, Good Words, vol. ii., p. 355.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 2
1. The Apostles Preaching. (1Co 2:1-5).
2. The Revelation of the Spirit. (1Co 2:6-13).
3. The Helplessness and Ignorance of the Natural Man. (1Co 2:14-16).
The Apostle had been among them and declared unto them the testimony of God. This he had not done with excellency of speech or wisdom. He preached unto them the Person of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He, who is the wisdom of God, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3), was his one theme; he determined not to know anything among them but the Person and Work of Christ. He had not come with a system of philosophy, to tickle their ears, but with the highest wisdom made known by revelation. He well knew that in Christ, His blessed Person and in His Cross all their unanswered questions, seeking for light, were answered, and more than that, the power of God through His Spirit would be active in their salvation. When he was with them he had a sense of weakness; he was in fear and much trembling. It shows the deep exercise of his soul. But he also had the special encouragement from the Lord, who spoke to him by a vision (Act 18:9-10). He avoided all human eloquence, to which the Corinthians were specially given and attracted, so as not to flatter them. And therefore the Spirit of God manifested power; his preaching was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Their faith, as a result, rested not on the beautiful, persuasive and eloquent words of a man, but on the power of God. Here is the pattern for every preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What unworthy methods are used in our day by some professional evangelists! What sentimental trash is preached by those who are men-pleasers and under the guise of Gospel-preaching aim at their own popularity! For just so far as preachers fill men with admiration for their peculiar style of thought or language, is it evident they are weak in the Spirit, and attract to themselves instead of clearing and establishing souls in the truth whereby the Spirit works in power.–W. Kelly.
Among them that are perfect he spoke wisdom. The perfect are those who have believed the Gospel, experienced its power and are in Christ, accepted in the perfect One; they know the truth as it is in Christ. But the wisdom Paul spoke was not the wisdom of the world (literally: age), but Gods wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom ordained by God before the world unto our glory. And what is this hidden wisdom, Gods wisdom in a mystery which Paul preached to those who had accepted Christ? It is more than Christ crucified. It is Christ glorified, seated at the right hand of God, given as head over all things to the church which is His body. This wisdom of God in a mystery (but now made known) is fully revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians. It was unrevealed in the Old Testament. The rulers of this age did not know it, for had they known the wonderful wisdom of God they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But the very deed they committed (ignorantly as Peter declared, Act 3:17) fulfilled the Scriptures, and the Lord of Glory whom they crucified is now the glorified Man filling the throne of God, and believers are one with Him. This is the manifold wisdom of God which is made known by the church (Christ as glorified head and the church His body) to the principalities and powers in heavenly places (Eph 3:10).
Interesting is the quotation from Isa 64:4. The prophet speaks of the inability of man to know what God hath prepared in His infinite grace and love for them that love Him. It was hidden from the Prophet. None of them beheld the great truths of the Church as the body of Christ nor the glory connected with it. But now this is changed. God hath revealed it through His Spirit. The Spirit has come and He has made known the hidden wisdom of God. Through Him and His blessed testimony in the Word we know the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. And these things are in Christ. The church is going to share with Him the glory which He has received. And the Spirit in the believer is searching all things, yea, the deep things of God. So the Spirit of God Himself leads the child of God deeper and deeper into this wisdom of God. The more we learn of it, the more we enter into the deep things in blessed fellowship with the Father and the Son, the more we desire to know. This should be for the child of God, the greatest thing–the Spirit in him searching out the deep things of God. The excuse some Christians make of their inability to grasp certain truths, when they say it is too deep for me, dishonors the indwelling Spirit. For our poor, little minds all is too deep; but not for the Spirit of God.
The things of God cannot be known, save by the Spirit of God. This blessed gift is bestowed upon the believer, so that he can know the things which are freely given to him of God. And these deep and spiritual revelations were transmitted by chosen instruments. Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing (or communicating) spiritual things with spiritual ((1Co 2:13). Here is a definition of verbal inspiration. The thoughts and revelations of God have been given to us through human instruments, in the words which the Spirit teacheth. We have therefore an inerrant Bible.
A contrast between the natural (psychical) man and the spiritual man concludes this chapter. The natural man, no matter what his mental attainments are, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He must be born again and receive the Spirit before he can discern spiritual things. Why do men criticize the Bible, reject its great Truths, ignorant in spiritual things, though learned in the wisdom of the world? They are natural men, not having the Spirit (Jud 1:19).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Lord
Jehovah. Jer 9:24
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
when: Act 18:1-4
with: 1Co 2:4, 1Co 2:13, 1Co 1:17, Exo 4:10, Jer 1:6, Jer 1:7, Rom 16:18, 2Co 10:10, 2Co 11:6
the testimony: 1Co 1:6, Isa 8:20, Act 20:21, Act 22:18, 2Th 1:10, 1Ti 1:11, 2Ti 1:8, 1Jo 4:14, 1Jo 5:11-13, Rev 1:2, Rev 1:9, Rev 19:10
Reciprocal: Act 18:24 – an Act 24:1 – orator 1Co 2:6 – not 2Co 6:6 – knowledge 2Ti 4:3 – having 2Pe 1:16 – we have Rev 7:5 – tribe of Juda Rev 12:17 – and have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
WHEN PAUL WAS commissioned to preach the Gospel he was instructed to do so in a way that would endorse the message he preached. This he stated in 1Co 1:17. Had he as a matter of fact done as he was told? He had. And in the opening verses of chapter 2 he reminds the Corinthians of the spirit that had marked him in his approach to them, and the character of his preaching. Verse 1Co 2:1 gives us the style of his preaching. Verse 1Co 2:2 the Subject of his message. Verse 1Co 2:3 the spirit that characterized him. Verse 1Co 2:4 reverts to the style of his preaching, but adding where his positive power lay. Verse 1Co 2:5 shows us the end he had in view.
As to style, he was no orator well versed in the arts of moving men by excellent or enticing speech. All that he eschewed, relying only upon the Spirit of God and His power.
For theme he had Christ and His cross only. Emphasize in your mind the two words, among you. He knew the tendencies of the Corinthians, with their great ideas as to philosophy and the human intellect. He would not meet them on their ground and be enticed into philosophic discussions of their choosing. He determined that among them he would know nothing but Christ crucified. Paul started his career with Christ glorified, yet he knew well that except they believed on, and laid hold of, Christ crucified, nothing of a divine sort, would be done. The truth of a crucified Christ was that which laid in the dust all their pride and glory; and until man comes down into the dust he cannot begin with God.
And Pauls own spirit was in keeping with this. He did not arrive in their midst with a great flourish of trumpets, announcing himself as Palestines most powerful Preacher, or something of that sort, as is customary in this twentieth century. The very reverse. Weakness, fear, trembling, are the things he alludes to. He was acutely conscious that the flesh was still in him, that he might easily be seduced from single-eyed fidelity to his Master, and betrayed into something which was not of God. He knew the mighty power of the devil, entrenched in Corinthian hearts. Hence his fear and trembling. And hence again the room for the demonstrated power of the Spirit of God, and the casting down of the devils strongholds in human hearts. Would to God that there was more room made for the working of that power today!
Then we might see more of converts who really have their faith standing not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Up to the end of this fifth verse the Apostle has mentioned human wisdom eight times, in every case to utterly discredit it. From this some might imagine that wisdom of every kind is to be discounted. Others again might suppose that the Christian faith only appeals to the feelings and emotions, and hence has in it nothing worthy of the attention of a thinking man.
So, in verse 1Co 2:6, Paul reminds the Corinthians that the faith abounds in wisdom, only it is the wisdom of God, and not of the great ones of the earth. Moreover it is wisdom of a character that only appeals to the perfect, to those who have graduated, or are full-grown. We may be believers, but as long as we are in any uncertainty as to how we stand before God, as long as we are in the throes of self-occupation over questions of deliverance from the power of sin, we have neither heart nor leisure to learn the wisdom of God as expressed in His counsels and purposes, which were once a secret but now are made known.
The word, world, in verse 1Co 2:6 is really, age. In another scripture Satan is spoken of as the god of this age. The god of this age uses the princes of this age to propound the wisdom of this age, while blinding their minds so that they have no knowledge of Gods wisdom which was ordained before all the ages. When the Lord of glory was here he so blinded their minds that they crucified Him.
This really is a tremendous indictment! The supreme Lord of glory was condemned to a death of supreme degradation and shame, and that not so much by the ignorant rabble as by the princes of this age. The very superscription on His cross was written in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. The Greeks were incontestably the intellectual princes of the age. The Romans were the princes in matters of military prowess and the arts of government. The Hebrews were princes without a rival in matters of religion. Yet all were involved in the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. All thereby revealed their complete ignorance of God and all brought themselves beneath His judgment.
The princes of this age come to nought. Very humiliating this! Not only is the understanding of the prudent coming to nothing, (1Co 1:19.) but the princes of this age themselves come to nothing. The final result, the sum total, of all the clever doings is NOTHING. The clever men themselves come to NOTHING. In contrast with this we are told by the Apostle John that he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever and again we have the Lords words to His disciples that, your fruit should remain. The believer, and the believer only, has power to engage in that which will abide to eternity. Let us consider this very attentively, and may our lives be governed by our meditations!
It is a marvellous thought that the wisdom of God, once hidden, but now made known, was ordained before the ages unto our glory. Not only were we ourselves chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, but Gods wisdom had our glory in view before the ages began, and all was then ordained. And what God ordains never fails of consummation when Gods hour is reached. Our glory then is certain, and is connected with, and subsidiary to, Christs glory. Christs glory is the supreme thing, but our glory is as certain as His, and equally ordained of God.
That which has been ordained, according to verse 1Co 2:7, has also been prepared (verse 1Co 2:9), and the things prepared are altogether beyond mans reach, either by eye, ear or heart. We apprehend many things by using our eyes-that is, by observation. Many others we apprehend by using our ears, listening to what is handed down to us-that is, by tradition. Other things we apprehend by the heart instinctively-that is, by intuition. We apprehend the things of God in none of these ways; but by revelation, as verse 1Co 2:10 shows.
The things prepared have been revealed by the Spirit. The us of that verse is primarily the apostles and prophets to whom the truth was first made known. The truth has reached the general body of saints through them, as we shall see in a moment. But in verse 1Co 2:11 we are made to think of the competency of the Spirit to reveal, since He is the Spirit of God. Only the human spirit can really know human things. Just so, only the Spirit of God knows the things of God and is competent to make them known.
But believers have received the Spirit of God as verse 1Co 2:12 states. Thus it is that we have competency to apprehend the things of God. No research, no experiment, no learning, no intellectual powers, can give us that competency; only the Spirit of God.
Let us take this very much to heart, for we live in an age marked by research and experiment and intellectual activity and it is commonly supposed that the human mind is capable of dealing with the things of God just as it deals with the things of man. IT IS NOT. Hence the fearful spiritual blunders perpetrated by otherwise learned men. Highly qualified are they in human things: yet pitiably blind and ignorant of the Divine.
Are we all keen to know the things of God? We certainly should be. We have a personal interest in them. The things ordained, prepared, and revealed have been given to us of God. Are we possessing ourselves, in spiritual understanding and enjoyment, of our possessions?
We may be, since the things revealed to Gods holy apostles and prophets have been communicated to us in divinely ordered words. This verse 1Co 2:13 tells us. The words comparing spiritual things with spiritual, may be rendered communicating spiritual [things] by spiritual [means] (N. Tr.). Here the apostle definitely claims inspiration, and verbal inspiration at that, for his spoken utterances. Even more so then, if that were possible, for his written utterances. The inspiration claimed definitely relates to words. If we have not got in the Scriptures (as originally written) Gods thoughts clothed in God-chosen words, we have no inspiration of any real value at all.
The last link in this wonderful chain is discerned. If we today do not discern Gods things through Gods word it will not avail us much that they have been ordained, prepared, revealed, given and communicated. They may be ours: are ours, if indeed we are Christians; but for practical blessing today, we must discern them. And the discerning on our part is by the same Spirit, by whom they were revealed and communicated.
For discerning, we need the right spiritual condition. The natural man, i.e., man in his natural or unconverted condition, does not discern them at all. The spiritual, i.e., the converted man, not only indwelt but also governed and characterized by the Spirit of God, alone can take them in. Possessing the Spirit we have the mind of Christ. Governed by the Spirit the eyes of our hearts are opened to understand.
The word judgeth, occurring twice in verse 1Co 2:15, is just the word discerneth, as the margin of a reference bible shows. Read discerneth and the sense is clearer. It is only the spiritual believer who has spiritual eyesight to see all things clearly.
Long ago someone was complaining: I cant see it. I want more light! It was said in reply, It is not more light you want; it is windows! That was doubtless true. If we allowed the Spirit of God to clean up the windows of our souls we should soon see clearly.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Paul the Preacher
1Co 2:1-16
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The Apostle, Paul, now is speaking of the kind of an entrance he had among the Corinthians. He had been very happy to move among them and preach Christ Now he is presenting to them his own ideals as a preacher. It is not alone to the Corinthians that Paul discusses his message and his ministry.
To the Thessalonians he wrote, “Ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” Again he says, “For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain.” He goes on to say, “We were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with much contention.” Then he adds, “For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.”
When we come to Paul’s message to the Corinthians, there is much of the same tenor. Let us tabulate some things that are in the opening verses of chapter 2.
1. Paul was not an orator. He said, “I came to you, * * not with excellency of speech.” We received a letter of inquiry some time ago about a young minister. One of the questions was, “Is he an orator?” They wanted some one who could sway the crowds, and draw in the people by his powers of speech. Paul flatly said, “I came * * not with excellency of speech.”
2. Paul did not boast his scholarship. He says, “I came * * not with excellency * * of wisdom.” We do not mean that Paul was not educated at the feet of Gamaliel: we mean that that scholarship received there, was not the scholarship which he used in preaching the Gospel. He was taught of God. During his years in Arabia, the Lord spoke unto him. He had somewhat to say because there was somewhat given him of God.
3. Paul was a preacher of the truth as it is in Christ. He says he came declaring the testimony of God. We all know-where he received this testimony. Let me quote from the Book of Galatians: “I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is for this reason that we find that Paul added, “We preach * * Christ.”
When we are preaching a message from Heaven, we can preach with authority and with assurance.
4. Paul preached Christ and Him crucified. Among stronger saints Paul preached many other things. He preached Christ risen, ascended, seated, coming again, and all of the great verities of the faith. Among the Corinthians, he majored in Christ, and Him crucified.
5. Paul preached in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. This is found in 1Co 2:3. The verse plainly shows us that the Apostle had no self-confidence. He did not think of himself as some great one. He certainly did not preach himself, as the noble leader and dictator to saints.
6. Paul preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. He did not use enticing words of man’s wisdom, with which to inveigle sinners into sainthood. His trust was in the power of God, made manifest in the Spirit. Would that we had more ministers, Sunday school teachers, and young people who knew what it was to be filled with the Spirit and endued with power from on high!
I. THE OBJECTIVE IN PAUL’S LIFE (1Co 2:5)
“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
1. Paul did not draw men unto himself. There is always a danger with public speakers to attract their audiences unto themselves. The difficulty in it all is that if we build men upon the arm of flesh, we cause our hearers to trust in man, and their faith may be shaken and wrecked. Paul could say, “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ”; but he never went out to make Paul-ites.
2. Paul did not draw men to the wisdom of man. He said, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men.” If we are going to follow human wisdom, we are certain to collapse, because God will bring the scholarship of men to nought. The house that was builded upon the sand fell, but the house that was builded against the destructive rains and winds and floods, stood.
3. Paul sought to glorify and magnify Christ as God. This to Paul was the magnet by which all men should be drawn, and to which all men should be united. It is a shame when any of us want ourselves displayed as some great one. Would that our ambition always was to magnify the Lord, and to glorify the Son of God!
II. TWO KINDS OF WISDOM (1Co 2:6-7)
We have in these 2 verses a comparison between the wisdom of the world and the princes of the world, and the wisdom of God spoken in a mystery. The former is wisdom which comes to nought. The latter is a wisdom which is called “the hidden wisdom”; and which was ordained of God before the world unto our glory.
1. The human kind of wisdom. The word, “wisdom,” here refers to scholarship. It is the highest reach of man’s searchings and findings; that is, of man in his searchings apart from any Divine Revelation. We know that both in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs wisdom is put on the highest pinnacle of human accomplishment, and yet the wisdom which Paul knew and which he spoke was not a wisdom of the world, nor of the princes of the world.
2. The wisdom which Paul gave was the wisdom of God. It was wisdom which went far back of the wisdom of men, because it entered into the things which were ordained of God before the world was. It was a wisdom impossible to the flesh, because it is spoken of as “the hidden wisdom,” “the wisdom of God in a mystery.”
The philosophers of this world have, during the ages, sought to discover the first cause of all things. They see the earth filled with good things. They try to get back of those things, and to discover by the human intellect, and by searching, that from which all things sprang. The result of such a quest brought a man-centered law of transmutation of species.
In evolution they think they have found the secret of the Universe, not only of our earth, but of all worlds and planets.
All we can know of such things, are the things which God Himself has revealed. The greatest mystery of all mysteries, the greatest wisdom of all wisdom, is the wisdom of God which He wrought out in Christ upon the Cross, and which was prepared and planned by God, before the foundation of the world.
III. IGNORANCE OF DIVINE WISDOM ACCLAIMED THE CAUSE FOR THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST (1Co 2:8)
Concerning Divine Wisdom, God said, “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
1. The ignorance of the Jewish rulers led them to deliver Christ to be crucified. In the 13th chapter of Acts we read, “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath Day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the Tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.”
The Apostle, Peter, at Pentecost did not hesitate to say, “Him, * * ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” Then he said in another address, “And killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead,” Then Peter added, “I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.”
Had the Children of Israel known the wisdom of God as set forth in the Prophets, they never would have crucified the Lord of glory. May we not likewise charge much that is done today to the ignorance of the people? Ignorance does not excuse them; however, if men were taught of God and had their spiritual eyes open to the Christ of God, they could do no less than crown Him Lord of All.
2. The present call is to repent. After the Holy Spirit spoke of Israel’s former ignorance, He said: “But now commandeth all men every where to repent.” If men are now ignorant, they are needlessly so. The Bible is printed in the languages of the world and scattered everywhere. Holy men of God throughout every nation are preaching Christ as the power of God unto salvation.
3. Satan still blinds eyes, but for the most part, they are the eyes of men who hold not the love of the truth.
IV. THE SHORTSIGHTEDNESS OF HUMAN WISDOM (1Co 2:9)
1. Think for a moment of what eye hath not seen. The things of God are past finding out. Job was a wise man, and in the Book that bears his name, we read, who “by searching [can] find out God”? When God came on the scene and began to talk to Job, he thrust upon him certain questions which we would like to present to every scholar in every university of the land.
God said unto Job, “Gird up now thy loins like a man; * * and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. * * Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?”
God asked Job again, “Where wast thou * * when I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it? * * Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? * * Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof? * * Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it? * * Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”
When God got through with Job, Job was ready to acknowledge that he had spoken of things which he knew not. Today God is calling men to repent and turn unto the Lord. Let them renounce the wisdom which is of the flesh, the wisdom which knows not God, and let them bow before the Spirit, who teacheth them all things.
2. Think for a moment of what the heart hath not conceived. Heaven lies ahead of us with unannounced glories.
Millions of years our eyes may wander over the things which He has prepared for those who love Him; while other millions of years, and aeons upon aeons, will be required to glimpse the revelations of the exceeding riches of His grace.
V. THE REVEALING SPIRIT (1Co 2:10)
Too frequently Christians quote the 9th verse, and stop with it. They neglect to read the next verse.
1. The promise was: the Spirit will teach you all things. The Spirit preeminently is the Revealer and the Teacher of the things of God. He reaches into the far past, before the world was, and He tells us much of the purposes, and of the determined counsels of the eternal God.
He describes unto us the day when Christ lived with the Father in the beginning, as well as the days when Christ was on earth. The same Spirit reaches on into the things to come, and He opens up unto us everything which God wants us to know about the things which God hath prepared for those who love Him. What a matchless pen picture found in Rev 21:1-27 and Rev 22:1-21! What a far-flung vision! And yet how real, how literal and how glorious is it all!
2. The Spirit shows us things to come. There are some who think the preacher should never proclaim the Bible’s prophetic message. This is wrong. Paul said: “These things teach and exhort.” Prophecy is the light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn. Yea, prophecy is the “more sure word,” to which all do well to take heed.
VI. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE SOULISH AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN (1Co 2:11-12)
God now begins to elucidate the realm of the intellect and the realm of the Spirit, Let us notice them one at a time.
1. The realm in which the intellect may move. This is in 1Co 2:11 : “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” In other words, there is a sphere in which the soulish man may operate. He may know the things of men. He may know the things done under the sun.
There is therefore a place where philosophy may revel in self-content. In this realm the five senses, smelling, hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, all have their place and part.
2. The realm in which the spiritual may move. The last statement in 1Co 2:11, is, “Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” These things are the things which are freely given us of God that we may know. We, therefore, who are of God have received not the wisdom of the world, or the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.
These are the things which belong to the pulpit, to the preacher. Of these things Paul said, “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,” This may not be acceptable with many, but it is acceptable with God, because it is of God. Here is the Divine statement: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
VII. THE MIND OF CHRIST (1Co 2:16)
1. The Lord knew what was in man. So we also, if we have the mind of Christ, will know what is in man.
2. The Lord knew the Father. So, if we have the mind of Christ, we may also know the Father. Jesus Christ said, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.”
3. The Lord knew the way to God. So may we also know the way to God. The Lord said, “The way ye know.” Philip said, “We know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way?” Christ said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” There is a glory about the Christian’s life into which many of us never enter. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to bring Himself, all He is, and all that He has, and make these a vital part in our lives.
We saw a young woman who was a skeptic, and she plainly told us that while she believed there was a God, she did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. We asked her if she were an honest skeptic. She said she was. We then requested that she should pray this prayer: “O God, I am a sinner, and if Jesus Christ is my Saviour, I confess my need, and I ask Him to come into my heart.” The next day she told us that Jesus Christ did enter into her life, as plainly as we entered the front door of her home. She said, “You do not think me fanatic, do you?” I said, “Far from it. A woman teaching mathematics in college is hardly a fanatic.” Then, with a plaintive look, she said, “Mr. Neighbour, I believe in Jesus Christ, as my Saviour, but I do not believe the Bible is inspired.” We said, “Will you tell God that you reject your mind, your intellect?” She demurred at first. She said, “God gave me intellect, that with it I might think.” We said, “Reject it, and ask God to think His thoughts through your mind.” A day or two later she said to us, “Oh, it is so different! Everything that we couldn’t understand in the Bible seems plain and clear. That which was impossible is possible.” God had renewed her in the spirit of her mind. She had given her intellect to God, and He had quickened it with a knowledge Divine, and gave it back to her.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Paul’s effacement of himself is thus beautifully set forth:-They tell us a beautiful story of Turner, one of the world’s master-painters. The incident happened at an exhibition in 1826. Turner’s picture of Cologne far outshone anything else in the great hall, but on the morning of the opening of the exhibition when a friend of the great artist led a group of expectant critics up to look upon it in all its glorious wonder he was amazed to find that somebody had tampered with the canvas. The golden skies that had given it much of its splendor had been covered with a dull, dead color, and the picture was seemingly ruined. He ran in consternation to his friend and said, “Turner, what in the world has happened to your picture!” and the story is this:
The painting had been hung between two portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence but with an injurious effect upon them by reason of the exceeding brightness of the sky as painted by Turner on his canvas. Lawrence quite naturally complained, but for some reason it was impossible to make any change in the position, although the rules of the Academy gave to the artists the privilege of making any finishing touches on their pictures before the exhibition opened. In reply to the excited question by his friend, Turner whispered, “Oh, poor Lawrence was so unhappy. It’s only lampblack. It’ll all wash off after the exposition.” The great artist had actually ruined his picture for the time of the exhibition by passing a wash of lampblack over the splendor of the whole sky and thus made his competitor’s painting stand out in advantageous contrast with his own. “There is,” said George Sands, “but one sole virtue in all the world, the eternal sacrifice of self,” and the really great souls of the world are the unselfish ones.
-W. E. B.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
1Co 2:1. The vanity of worldly wisdom is still the main subject of this part of Paul’s epistle. He verifies his attitude on the matter by referring to the work which he did when he brought the Gospel to them, recorded in Act 18:1-11. Speech and wisdom mean the same as “utterance” and “knowledge” in chapter 1:5.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 2:1. And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech (as a rhetorician), or of wisdom (as a philosopher), proclaiming to you the testimony of God[1]that concerns His Son.
[1] Or, according to another reading, which has striking support, the mystery of God. But the evidence for the received reading, given above, appears to us stronger, and with Meyer we think the word mystery crept in here from 1Co 2:7.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Section 3. (1Co 2:1-16.)
The revelation by the Spirit, of things beyond mere human knowledge.
Having thus shown Christ to be the fulness of divine wisdom, the apostle goes on to speak of the Spirit as the only revealer of Christ, and of spiritual things, as well as the only capacity for the apprehension of them. A very clear statement is given of inspiration, such as we find it in Scripture, the fullest assertion of it to be found: not even the words used are taught by human wisdom, but by the Spirit of God; an assertion, certainly, although questioned, of an inspiration that is, in some sense, “verbal.”
1. The testimony of God committed to the apostle was, then, as to the whole matter of it, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He was determined to “know” nothing else: here was his sole occupation and delight. He does not say or mean that he knew nothing but the Cross. The crucified One is a theme wider than the Cross; though that indeed is to every eye divinely opened the display of an infinite glory. But Christ in His full reality is, in fact, the Centre of light, the full revelation of God, the Truth, by which every thing passing for truth is to be tested. The mind that is wholly filled with Christ is not contracted, but enlarged to its uttermost capacity. If He is the wisdom of God, it must of course be so.
Nevertheless He was the Crucified; and the apprehension of this gave peculiar character to the apostle’s ministry. He had come among the Corinthians in the consciousness of his own impotence, along with the sense of the gravity and importance of such a message. He was with them, therefore, in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. Instead of trusting to persuasive words such as human wisdom would have taught him, he relied entirely upon Him who was come to glorify Christ in the world, so that his preaching was in the demonstrative power of the Holy Spirit. Thus he would have their faith to stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How blessed a result, when this is indeed so! How impregnable must be the faith that stands in the power of God! This was no question, as is plain, of the truth itself -of their getting that; but of how they got it; whether from God Himself by having to do directly with Him about it, or from man merely, apostle though the man might be. This has been already spoken of; but how necessary that it should be insisted on! With all the care that such an one as Paul had manifested in this way, yet how much was coming in now that was swaying them from the truth! Can we wonder then at what we find to be the condition of things today? But shall we therefore hopelessly give way to it? or steadfastly resist it, as we know that he did?
2. The wisdom that was in his message was “wisdom among the perfect.” He means to say that the maturest spirituality knew it as such: it stood all tests of heart and conscience with those who knew it best; while yet it was not the wisdom of this age, nor even of the highest, the rulers of this age, who pass and perish. They could not penetrate to the Source from which this emanated, which was also indeed a mystery, a secret now revealed, but hidden formerly, though predetermined by God before the ages, filled so much since with these perishing human thoughts. The thoughts perish, but the predetermination of God has appointed to us a glory which will not pass away. But the rulers of this age have demonstrated their ignorance of it all: they have crucified the Lord of it. Isaiah too has borne witness that the things which God has prepared for them that love Him are outside the knowledge of man naturally; strange as they are to eye and ear and even mental conception. Revelation alone can give them to us.
3. It is not meant by this then, as so many strangely quote it, that such things are still beyond our ken. The apostle immediately goes on to assure us of the very opposite of this, and of the perfect competency of the Teacher to whom now we are committed: “But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.”
It seems at first sight a singular expression to be used of a divine Person. We might ask with surprise, How can the Spirit of God need to “search” the things of God? Is He not necessarily participant with the Father and the Son in all divine knowledge? Surely, and absolutely so; but it is the Spirit in us that is spoken of in this way, in that blessed, mysterious working in the people of God which is at once so unfathomable a profundity and so clear a reality. It is He who works in the working of our minds as led of Him; and thus He brings us into ever fuller communion with the Father and the Son.
Are we conscious, every one of us, of this impulse within us, ever to reach out after that which is still before us, -things which, the more we learn of them, fill us with an unutterable longing to know more? It is strange that with even the mass of Christians, there seems to be little known of it. How often you hear the value of such things discounted just by reason of their “depth”! How often “too deep for me” is said with what one may call a kind of earnest levity which reveals the heart, or want of heart, behind it! Are not the revelations of Christ’s love and glory of necessity attractive to those whom He has redeemed to Himself? Are any of the communications of God to His people dull and uninteresting to those who are thus recipients of His grace? Has He told out His heart with so profuse an expression as to be only tedious and unprofitable to those upon whom all this wealth of tenderness is lavished? Can Christians think slightly of communion proffered with Himself? What less or else than this is meant by the practical contentment to remain with but the slenderest knowledge of that which the Spirit of God is, if this scripture be true, continually leading us on after? We may have grieved Him indeed until His voice is well nigh silenced within us; but was it always so? Have we never realized such invitations to possess ourselves of what Christ has made our own? never longed to know better what, just as beyond our fullest knowledge, is ever beckoning us to enjoy it? or been aware that, if once we did so, and do so no more, this is only the unmistakable evidence of first love gone from us -of decline in our souls which it would startle us to begin to measure?
But this Spirit -indefatigable, wondrous Searcher of the deep things of God -we all of us have if Christians: for “if any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” And here is indeed for us -for the feeblest babes -an unlimited capacity of acquisition which it is impossible to overrate, impossible even to estimate at its full value. Well, surely, will it be to ask ourselves how far it is realized by us in practice that we have dwelling in us a Divine Person, the perfect Judge of all doctrine, the Teacher of all teachers, whose presence with us it can never be humility to forget; whom if we listen to we shall never be deceived or go astray. In this respect it becomes no question of cleverness, or in the semi-materialistic phrase of the day, of “brains,” nor of mental capacity. The question is of eagerness of desire for, and earnestness to obey without reserve the voice of the Revealer. This it is which, if fully apprehended, brings the conscience into exercise before God, and delivers at once from all indifference as to teachers, (for the Spirit uses His instruments with us as He will,) and at the same time from all exaggerated deference to them. “Let the prophets speak, and let the rest judge.” The true teacher will be the first to desire to have everything searched out as before God, and judged by those Scriptures which the living Spirit has Himself indited. Thus alone will the truth taught become living truth in the soul.
“For who among men hath known the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? So also the things of God has no one known, save the Spirit of God.” How worse than empty then the speculations of the wisest men as to the things of God! The spirit of man is indeed a wonderful and most important gift of the Creator, and which, therefore, God who has given it will not set aside or minimise in its own sphere. It is that by which man is distinguished from the beast, and made in the image of God. He is by it according to his creation place a son of God, as the beast is not; for God is “the Father of spirits” only (Heb 12:9). Thus he can recognize God, and has a God, in a way wholly different from the unknowing, and therefore unmoral, and so never immoral, beast. God never dishonors or degrades the creature He has made, as some wild modern theorists do. He never speaks of the mind of man as an evolution from bestial instincts or faculties. He appeals to reason, even with the wicked: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord” (Isa 1:18). And the unbeliever, to refuse faith, has to refuse reason also. God never advocates credulity, or applauds the man who “believes because it is impossible,” and thereby puts God in contradiction to the faculties that He has made. But there are two things which reason itself should make him aware of, and which fully recognized would set him on the path of divine wisdom. Neither of these can he possibly discredit, however much he may ignore them, or evade the consequences.
First, he is a sinner; which if he denies, all his neighbors at least will acknowledge for him. Sin has morally damaged him, to an extent which it is hardly possible for him to estimate; and this must be a hindrance in the way of all right understanding, until he has found a remedy for it. The gospel is thus truly logical in treating him first of all as a sinner and inviting him to accept at the outset a remedy for this condition. This done, he will be brought into that right attitude toward God, which will alone enable him to make progress in the things of God.
The next thing is of no more difficulty than the first, that, as far as God is beyond man, so far must the things of God be, except as he is taught of God. The confused and contradictory efforts of man in this direction only illustrate and confirm the saying of Zophar, “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?” (Job 11:7-8). But though the things that are thus in the special sense God’s things, need to be revealed to man, yet in the revelation of these also God is careful not to confound his faculties: the wisdom of God is ever “wisdom” to the perfect, and not something that is “impossible,” but has to be revealed none the less. He does not even, as men profess for Him, use wafer in a magical way to do what water was never designed to do, or change bread into a divinity for men’s adoration, or justify the fetishism of superstition in any other way. He does not baffle the common instincts, perceptions, understanding of the being He has created.
But thus how marvelous a gift is that of the Spirit who searcheth the deep things of God! What dishonor must we do to such a guest when His presence is ignored or scarcely realized! when Aristarchus is but a passenger on board the vessel, of which He is the rightful supreme Ruler! (See Act 27:2, notes) Yet “we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are graciously given us of God.”
The apostle is going on to speak of what was peculiar to the vessels of inspiration; but what he speaks of in these words is, as we know, common to us all; and by and by, he will insist upon this. But there was with such as these a special apprehension of the things of God, which the Spirit furnished. This also was for us, to whom they ministered. The apostle adds that the transmission also of what was revealed was perfectly secured: “which things also we speak, not in the words taught of man’s wisdom, but in those taught of the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means.”
The latter clause is sometimes translated as “explaining spiritual things to spiritual men;” this introducing to what follows, that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; and looking back to the statement that “we speak wisdom among the perfect.” But the apostle seems here rather to be speaking of the character of the communication itself; and this is supported by the primary meaning of the word for communicating or expounding, which is “mixing,” combining.” He seems evidently to be showing us how perfectly the revelation has been secured to us; the fallibility of the human instrument not being permitted to affect that which was conveyed. The very words were guarded, as well as the matter given. How suitable is it that this should be so, when divine love and wisdom were bent upon the effectual enlightenment and salvation of men! How could we imagine that these should after all be made dependent upon an imperfect and unstable medium! that the mind of man, feeble and limited as it is, should be left to give the best expression that it could to such amazing and transcendent thoughts as are enunciated in Scripture.
But, of course, it is answered to this that, nevertheless, we find in fact the individuality of the different writers manifesting itself in their several writings; and thus an undeniable “human element” in them which needs to be accounted for. And this is continually urged as involving their being suffered to fall into such slight mistakes -or shall we say, awkwardnesses of expression? -as would prevent our arguing from the mere words used, and shut us up to insistence only upon the general idea of the thought meant to be conveyed. It has been urged that “the term here is logos, which denotes rather propositions than mere words.” But we need not contend for its applying to “mere” words. There is never absent from logos the idea of reason in the words, or, as Trench says, “The orderly linking and connecting together in connected discourse of the inward thoughts and feelings of the mind.” This is no loss, but gain to the apostle’s statement, to find that it claims the whole rational utterance of the divine revelation by the inspired writers to be taught not of human wisdom, but of the Spirit. It should be plain that this involves no less than the choice of words, wherever the words are not most perfectly synonymous. It is as plain that we may as much insist upon the actual words as if they were given (as it is not necessary to hold) by direct dictation. God certainly used the “human element,” as He used the humanity of the Lord Jesus, not to be further from us, but to be nearer to us; we need not shrink from the full acknowledgment of it in this way. He fitted for His purpose the vessel that He used, and used it frankly for all for which He had fitted it. He uses man, therefore, as man, not as a mere pen in His hand, -not as something passive as that might be, but rather quickened to fullest activity; all faculties in fullest exercise, as well as in perfect freedom, energized, not crippled, by that which lifted the Spirit-moved man beyond his common self, often without the consciousness of what was moving him, or that anything was. An apostle might even for a time “repent” of having written what was nevertheless an inspired letter (2Co 7:8). Who can doubt that thus the divine Maker can use the being He has made; not to the injury or repression of any part of it but the reverse; yet so as to make it entirely His own? “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
This, then, is what is meant by an inspired utterance. We may debate with very little result the manner of God’s working. The finished product is that which very much more concerns us, although that which we can learn as to His ways has unfailing interest and profit for us. But the great matter for us now is, have we in inspired Scripture, as God gave it to us, something that we can wholly trust and build upon as that which will never fail us? If the human element confessedly in it is to assume such character and proportions as to make it necessary to be constantly sifting the chaff from the wheat, -if we are to sit over it as judges before we can bow to it as judging us, -if we need specialists to point out to us how many hands were at work in every document, how much patching and revision and modification of various kinds has taken place in that which has come down to us as the work of Moses, or of Isaiah, or of Paul, -if it can be proved that the writers made mistakes upon most subjects that are not directly moral or religious in their character, -if in short they are not wholly to be trusted on any point as to which we can test their knowledge, -how can we confide our whole spiritual interests with rest and assurance of heart to those who have so failed, with all their manifest claim to more than human equipment, to establish their credibility as to what this enlightened and scientific age claims to have made common knowledge?
Thank God that our Bible is not the thing of shreds and tatters which this folly asserts; and that those who have in truth of heart listened to its lessons of holy and lofty wisdom, -who know the unique glory of the Christ that it has made their own, -know that it is not. It is not by looking deeply into it that the vulture-critics, who would rend its sacred form, have discovered the disfigurements which they so eagerly point out. It is shallowness and unspirituality only that has deceived them. Still He taketh the wise in their own craftiness;” but it will not be those who have most diligently and with heart-exercise searched the Scripture who will be persuaded that they are not, with the wisdom they have found in it, “wiser,” as one of old says, “than all their teachers.” The more they have examined it, the more critically they have studied even its minutiae, the more the awe of a divine Presence has been upon them, the more the sweetness of divine love has drawn and enwrapped them. And as to the mere understanding of them, the less we are content with mere generalization, the more we look with reverent care into every detail, and weigh the import of every word, the more we attain to an apprehension of a perfection everywhere which manifests in whatever human guise the glory of the divine.
4. A warning follows here which enables us to understand the mystery of much of the so-called “higher criticism,” as well as other abundant forms of unbelief in every age: “Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
The word translated “natural,” and for which we have, as far as I am aware, no satisfactory substitute, is psychikos, “psychical:” It is an adjective formed from psyche, “soul,” and for which some would propose a word which we have not, soulual.” We might render it freely as “soul-governed;” this is, at any rate, the force of it: the spirit of man (as that which truly makes him man and by which he is constituted naturally in the image of God) is of necessity that which should govern him. The spirit is the seat of the mind proper -of the mental and moral faculties; the soul is that of the emotions and instincts, which should be under the guidance and control of these. It is the sign of a fallen condition that the spirit has given way to the soul: the senses, passions, bodily appetites rule over the judgment, and darken it. The man is sensual, therefore carnal, though not necessarily in the grossest forms, the things of time and sense shut out God and all that is beyond the earth.
This is truly now the natural condition of man as fallen; and with this understanding of it, we may speak here of the natural man. As such the things of the Spirit are alien to him, the new-creative power of God must work in him before he can discern them. They are too remote, make too much demand upon him, stir too much his apathetic conscience. The light shines, but amid the darkness; men love the darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil: the darkness is real, but it is the soul’s choice for itself, not God’s choice for it. He cometh not to the light, because he will not submit to the condemnation of his evil deeds. The acceptance of this condemnation is the way out of his condition, through the ready grace which is at hand to meet him.
The Spirit of God is alone able to lift man out of this ruin, and restore God and the conscience to their rightful supremacy. The spiritual man is therefore in the light, and discerns all things. That does not, of course, mean that he is omniscient, or that he has not to grow in knowledge; but he has his eyes open, and is in the light. In this condition he necessarily now becomes an enigma to the natural man. He has now the mind of the Lord, -a mind all-competent; for who shall instruct Him? We are brought into fellowship with Him, though learning but gradually things which surpass all man’s powers to attain full knowledge of; still it can be said already, we have the mind of Christ. But the world crucified Him.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Our apostle had, in the foregoing chapter, declared how Christ had sent him to preach the gospel in the plainness and simplicity of it, not with the wisdom of words, ver. 17, that is, not in a pompous and flourishing way and manner of preaching, mingling the simplicity of the gospel with human wisdom: accordingly in this verse he tells them, that when, pursuant to his commission, he came and preached to them at Corinth, he came not with excellency of speech; that is, he studied not to gratify their curiosity with rhetorical strains or philosophical niceties, to please their wanton wits, but solidly to inform their judgments with the great and necessary duties of the gospel, and to furnish them with the strongest arguments and motives for a good life.
This is preaching: but had he come with human wisdom, this would have detracted,
1. From the excellency of the gospel, which, like the sun, shines best with its own beams, scripture eloquence is most piercing and demonstrative, and convinceth a man by its own evidence; human wisdom charms the ear, but this strikes the conscience.
2. It would have detracted from the glory of God, which is more honoured by the plainness and simplicity of the gospel, than by the luxuriance of wit, or the most admired oratory in the world; all human wisdom must be denied when it comes in competition with, or stands in opposition to, the doctrine of the gospel.
Observe farther, The title given to the gospel, which he preached amongst them in so much plainness and simplicity; he styles it the testimony of God.
Where note, That the testimony of the apostles concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, is called the testimony of God, because God testified and bare witness to the truth of these doctrines by signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Preaching the Crucified Christ
Paul did not go to Corinth as an orator or philosopher. Instead, he preached Jesus as the Anointed, or Christ, who was crucified. The apostle admitted his appearance and speech did not impress others ( 2Co 10:10 ). This would not have mattered to Paul as he put Christ first ( Gal 2:20 ; 2Co 5:15 ; Php 3:8 ) and called for others to do likewise ( Rom 12:1-2 ; Col 3:17 ). Paul only wanted to preach the good news, or gospel ( 1Co 2:1-2 ; Rom 1:16 ).
After his failure at Athens ( Act 17:22-34 ), Paul showed concern that he may not have been getting his important message across. He refused to use man’s wisdom and relied totally on God’s power and message. Then, he had the assurance his hearers’ faith was based solely on God’s power ( 1Co 2:3-5 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Co 2:1. And I, brethren, &c. As if he had said, I have been showing that God is wont to call and convert persons to himself by unlikely and contemptible means; and that his design in the gospel is of a very humbling nature, and admirably calculated to stain human pride, and bring men to glory in him alone; therefore, in perfect harmony with this wise and excellent scheme, when I came to you To preach the gospel; I came not with excellency of speech, &c. I did not affect either deep wisdom, or commanding eloquence; declaring the testimony of God What God gave me to testify concerning his Son, namely, concerning his incarnation, his doctrine, his miracles, his life, his death, his resurrection and exaltation to be a Prince and a Saviour. This is called the testimony of God, 1Jn 5:9, because God bore witness to the truth of these things by signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and distributions of the Holy Ghost, Heb 2:4. The expression implies that the evidence of the great facts of Christianity, and of the truth and importance of the doctrines of the gospel, is not founded on proofs drawn from human reason, but on the authority of God, who hath revealed them by his Spirit, and confirmed them by miracles, and by the extraordinary influence which they had on the hearts and lives of multitudes.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:1-5.
St. Paul applies to his own ministry at Corinth the principle which he has just laid down, and shows that he has been faithful to it. This is the conclusion of the whole passage.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
[In chapter 1 Paul showed that it was God’s plan to overthrow the vain wisdom of the world by those weak and lowly ones whom the world despised. He now proceeds to show that the church at Corinth was founded by him as a weak and lowly one, in accordance with God’s plan.] And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech [as an orator] or of wisdom [as a philosopher], proclaiming to you the testimony of [about] God. [Though Paul was educated at Tarsus, which Strabo preferred as a school of learning to Athens or Alexandria, yet he made no display of his learning, and hence his enemies spoke of his speech as contemptible or no account (2Co 10:10). He quotes from Aratus at Act 17:28; and Epimenides at Tit 1:12; and Menander at 1 Cor 15:33 . But Paul counted all such polite learning as mere dross in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ– Phi 3:8]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
1 Corinthians Chapter 2
It was in this spirit that Paul had come among them at first; he would know nothing but Christ,[2] and Christ in His humiliation and abasement, object of contempt to senseless men. His speech was not attractive with the carnal persuasiveness of a factitious eloquence: but it was the expression of the presence and action of the Spirit, and of the power which accompanied that presence. Thus their faith rested, not on the fair words of man, which another more eloquent or more subtle might upset, but on the power of God-a solid foundation for our feeble souls-blessed be His name for it!
Nevertheless, when once the soul was taught and established in the doctrine of salvation in Christ, there was a wisdom of which the apostle spoke; not the wisdom of this present age, nor of the princes of this age, which perish, wisdom and all; but the wisdom of God in a mystery, a secret counsel of God (revealed now by the Spirit), ordained in His settled purpose unto our glory before the world was-a counsel which, with all their wisdom, none of the princes of this world knew. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the One in whose Person it was all to be accomplished.
The apostle does not touch the subject of the mystery, because he had to feed them as babes, and only in order to put it in contrast with the false wisdom of the world; but the way in which this wisdom was communicated is important. That which had never entered into the heart of man [3] God had revealed by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. It is only the spirit of a man which is in him that knows the things which he has not communicated. So no one knows the things of God save the Spirit of God. Now it is the Spirit of God which the apostle and the other vessels of revelation had received, that they might know the things which are freely given of God. This is the knowledge of the things themselves in the vessels of revelation. Afterwards this instrument of God was to communicate them. He did so, not in words which the art of man taught, but which the Spirit-which God-taught, communicating spiritual things by a spiritual medium.(4) The communication was by the Spirit as well as the thing communicated. There was yet one thing wanting that this revelation might be possessed by others-the reception of these communications. This also required the action of the Spirit. The natural man did not receive them; and they are spiritually discerned.
The source, the medium of communication, the reception, all was of the Spirit. Thus the spiritual man judges all things; he is judged of no man. The power of the Spirit in him makes his judgment true and just, but gives him motives and a walk that are unintelligible to one who has not the Spirit. Very simple as to that which is said-nothing can be more important than that which is here taught. Alas! the Corinthians, whether when the apostle was at Corinth, or at the time of writing this letter, were not in a condition to have the mystery communicated to them-a grievous humiliation to their philosophic pride, but therefore a good remedy for it.
Footnotes for 1 Corinthians Chapter 2
2: Take notice here, that Paul does not say he would know nothing but the cross, as some persons-and even Christians-wrongly apply it. He would know nothing but Christ in contrast with philosophy among these Pagans, and Christ in the most humbled form, in order to overturn the pride of man. He goes on to inform us, that among those who were initiated into Christianity he taught wisdom, but it was the wisdom of God, revealed by Him who searches the deep things of God Himself. It is a very grievous abuse that is often made of this passage (incorrectly quoted besides).
3: The passage is often quoted to shew the things are so great one cannot know them. Whereas it is a quotation from Isaiah to shew that what could not then be known (when the evil was there, and man was dealt with according to what he was) is now revealed, now that man is in glory in the Person of Christ, and the Holy Ghost come down to shew us what is there. Christianity is not Judaism.
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
1. Indeed having come unto you, brethren, I came not unto you in the excellency of speech or wisdom, proclaiming unto you the testimony of God. Paul was a double graduate, having graduated in the Greek colleges of Tarsus and the Hebrew universities of Jerusalem, a member of the Sanhedrin, standing at the front of the world, both literary and ecclesiastical. Yet he died to all the majesty and splendor of his former self, coming down to the level of the illiterate fishermen of Galilee. He appears before the people simply proclaiming the testimony of God.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1Co 2:2. I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is, to know him in the glory of his person, as revealed in the oracles of truth. I and the Father are one, says our blessed Lord; having unity of essence, and harmony of will. To know him in his mysterious incarnation, as the WORD made flesh, Joh 1:14; and to know him as crucified for us. Leviticus 16. Isaiah 53. Hebrews 9. The tragic cross is the school of angels, and the study of men. To know him and the power of his resurrection, confounding all his foes, and putting death beneath his feet. To know him, so as to die in his death, and rise in the likeness of his resurrection, comprises renovation of heart, and all the christian temper. To know him, and nothing else. What can the wounded want in the hospital but a cure? All things compared with salvation are only the obtrusive buzzings of the age.
1Co 2:3. I was with you in weakness: , without strength. The word is mostly used for infirmities and diseases of the body, but is here used for depression and discouragement on account of persecutions. The sense then will be, as in Erasmus, Though my word took effect in your conversion, yet I disclaim all merit; it was the Spirit of power that operated in your hearts. It was, as in 1Co 2:5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:4. My speech, my word, discourse, and my manner of preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisdom. The two words, , enticing or persuasive words, refer to the beauties of diction, Attic phrases, elegant periods, and ingenious insinuations, decorated with simile and metaphor. He left all that to juvenile rhetors. Full of his subject, the fountains of eloquence flowed from all the avenues of his soul. His doctrine was evangelical, the manifestation of the truth commending itself to every mans conscience in the sight of God.
1Co 2:6. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, who have a perfect knowledge and understanding of the truth. Even the hidden wisdom of God, the glorious plan of our redemption, concealed in the eternal mind; and though it may appear as foolishness to the princes and doctors of the age, it nevertheless transports the minds of angels and men who contemplate it with devout affections.
1Co 2:7. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Socinians are almost the only persons who pretend to a religion without mystery, yet even deism itself has its mysteries, such as are inexplicable. The doctrines of divine revelation especially bear this character, this impress of the deity, or they would not correspond with the works of creation and providence, which all the efforts of human science have been unable to explore. The incarnation of the eternal WORD, God manifest in the flesh, is declared to be preminently a mystery, the mystery of godliness. On any other hypothesis however than that of his true and proper divinity, there would be nothing mysterious or wonderful in his advent, and the language of the apostle would be overcharged and incorrect. The resurrection of the dead is mentioned as a mystery incapable of explanation. 1Co 15:51. Such also is the nature of Christs sufferings in the garden and on the cross, together with the whole scheme of mans redemption, in which the supreme Being has overwhelmed with astonishment the whole intelligent universe, and left all created minds at an infinite distance in their research. Even the inspired and seraphic apostle, standing on the borders of this abyss, could only exclaim, Oh the depths! Men pretending therefore to preach a gospel destitute of mystery, can never be considered as preaching the gospel of Christ.
1Co 2:8. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The jews being blinded, knew neither Christ nor the Father. Joh 16:3. And when Pilate asked, whence art thou? He knew not that Christ was the Lord of glory; and that dwelling in his ancient cloud, he had inhabited the praises of Israel. Exodus 24, 40:34. Ezekiel 1. Eze 43:2. The apostle adds, but the wisdom of the princes, the jewish priests, come to nought, and even their temple and their worship shall be utterly abolished.
1Co 2:9. It is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. Though the princes of this world knew not Christ, nor his glory, the prophets had all foreseen it, as in Isa 64:4, and in the last chapters of Ezekiel, and of Daniel. The glorious gospel of the blessed God shall shine out into all the dark corners of the earth, and righteousness shall be rained down from heaven. Ministers shall preach like angels, and wars and discords cease from the earth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Zechariah 14.
The apostle next gives the glory to God, who had revealed those things to them by his Spirit. We are not sufficient of ourselves to reason out, or to collect such glorious things. It is Christ who hath made us able ministers of the new testament, and we are bound to preach and publish those things for the joy and salvation of others.
1Co 2:12. We have received, not the spirit of the world. No: this gospel which we have received from heaven, makes us heavenly-minded. The world seek their own, we seek the glory of Christ; the one makes us wise for time, the other for eternity.
1Co 2:13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth, but with the ingenuousness of little children. Our prayers and sermons are copies of the heart. The studied discourse of Tertullus produced no effect on the court, while the honest eloquence of Paul made Felix tremble. Meanwhile, we are not ignorant of the art of speaking, the refinements of logic, and the figures of rhetoric, but we lay them all aside to save souls, and speak the truth in love.
1Co 2:14. But the natural man: , the animal man, whose sensual soul, affectus sequens humanos, following human affection, says Erasmus, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Above he calls them princes of this world; but here, the groveling state of their appetites merits a lower name. They live not for intellectual pleasure, but for animal delight. Therefore God cannot shine on their minds with his emanations of peace and joy.
1Co 2:16. Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Isa 40:13. Rom 11:34. Or, being his counsellor, hath taught him all these glorious plans of creation and providence, especially the glorious things laid up for those who love him. Of the latter phrase, St. Paul gives here, it would seem, a version of his own, adapted to the scribe, to the wise, to the disputer or rhetor of this world. If by his wisdom he has been a tutor to the deity, let him put in his claim, and he shall have a full reward.
But we have the mind, the wisdom, of Christ; and the mind of the Lord is the mind of the Saviour. This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Joh 17:3.
REFLECTIONS.
On looking back through the preseding doctrines, we are struck with the glorious visions which opened on the minds of the prophets and apostles respecting the grandeur of God in his counsels, and the unsearchable riches of the gospel. Oh what is this expansion of soul, this exuberance of thought bursting on men so holy? Assuredly it was to raise our poor groveling minds to things of transcendant excellence. It was to support us, poor abject ministers, with the hopes of better times, and martyrs and confessors with the crown of righteousness, laid up for those who love his appearing.
By consequence, if the glorious things spoken of the kingdom of God, and of our future hope, afford us unspeakable consolation and joy, we are bound the more to preach them to others, and give a reason of our hope. Nay more; we are bound to speak to them in spontaneous words, for the true sublime of thought is always uttered in the plainest words. Above all, we are bound to speak as do the oracles of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, explaining one text of scripture by another, that all the rays of light may be converged in the hearers breast.
How deplorable then is the state of thy soul, oh man of the world, that receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Is reason thy tutor? Is philosophy thy guide? Is a library of elementary knowledge, and amusing books, the productions of profane men, your sole treasure? Pause a moment, and ask, what can these do for you in a dying hour? Is not all time comparatively lost, which is not employed in thinking of God, and living in conformity to his pleasure? It is true, you cannot know the things of God without regeneration; it is the inner man of the heart which tastes and sees that he is good. But ask, and you shall receive.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 1:18 to 1Co 2:5. The Cross, Folly to the World, is the Power and Wisdom of God.Paul now explains and justifies 1Co 1:17 b, which to Greek readers must have sounded strange, almost a defiant paradox. The story of the Cross is folly to those who are in the way of ruin, but it attests itself in our experience to us, who are in the way of salvation, as the power of God. And this is in harmony with Scripture. For Gods wise purpose ordained that the worlds wisdom should be unable to know Him. There is an effective contrast between Divine and human wisdom. The world seeks through its wisdom to know God, but Gods wisdom checkmates the worlds wisdom and thwarts its aspirations, since He has planned that man shall know Him through the Gospel, which seems arrant folly to human wisdom. It is here precisely as with the quest for righteousness. God shut up all unto disobedience that through the Cross He might have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). He shut up all to ignorance that through the Cross He might illuminate all. The intellectual was as signal as the moral defeat, Gods sovereign grace rescues mans bankrupt wisdom (Findlay). For it is a characteristic of Jews to seek after signs, of Greeks to seek after wisdom. Our preaching of Christ crucified, Paul says, is to Jews a stumbling-block for the Law pronounces a curse on him who is hanged (Deu 21:23), and thus the mode of death negatives for the Jew the claim of Jesus to Messiahship, while to Greeks it is just mad. But we know them to be wrong, we who are called of God; for our experience proves that this message embodies both the power and the wisdom of God. Folly and weakness, yes; but that folly of God which is wiser, that weakness of His which is stronger than men. Among the called are his readers, who form an excellent illustration, an illustration all the more welcome to Paul that it serves to abate their unwholesome conceit. They number very few wise according to the worlds estimate, or people with civic standing, or high birth. The folly of the Gospel is clear from this that God proclaimed it to fools, people of no account, belonging to the lower orders, such as most of themselves. He deliberately chose the foolish, the weak, the base, the contemptible, the things that count for nothing, to bring to nought the worlds substantial realities, so that no flesh should boast before Him. But from Him they derive their being in Christ, who became in His Incarnation Divine Wisdom for us, manifesting itself as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that He alone deserves the glory. And when he came to Corinth Paul acted on the same principle. It was with no eloquence or philosophy that he unfolded the mystery of redemption. He had decided not to know anything beyond Jesus Christ, and Him as crucified. And corresponding to the folly of the matter was the weakness of the manner, ineffective, timid, anxious, without persuasive power or philosophical presentation. Yet his preaching was endowed with convincing force, because God imparted His Divine Spirit and energy to it, with the intent that their faith should repose not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
1Co 1:19. The quotation is from Isa 29:14, where the politicians who are planning an Egyptian alliance are denounced; reject is substituted for conceal under the influence of Psa 32:10.
1Co 1:20. From Isa 33:18 and perhaps Isa 19:12.
1Co 1:23. Probably no doctrine of a suffering Messiah had been developed in Judaism so early as Pauls day; the doctrine of a crucified Messiah could not possibly have been. That such a doctrine was formulated, and such a fact as the crucifixion asserted, is a decisive proof of the historical existence and crucifixion of Jesus (p. 814.).
1Co 1:30. Read mg.
1Co 2:1. mystery: i.e. Gods eternal counsel of redemption, long concealed but now revealed. Many prefer mg. testimony, which is better attested, especially as mystery may have been suggested by 1Co 2:7. It is, however, neither clear nor very satisfactory in sense, and may have been suggested by 1Co 1:6.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
It was through Paul that the Corinthians had been brought to God; and he here reminds them that when he first came there, he had avoided the use of high-sounding speech and intellectual arguments: it was not through these things that they had been converted, nor did the testimony of God require any such thing. And certainly the whole Christian course should be consistent with its beginning.
For Paul had been thoroughly purposed in coming there not to be turned aside in any way from the one vital object of his message, “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Let us be careful to note here that it is first of the Person of Christ he speaks; but it must not stop there, as though Christ had come to add His voice to the wisdom of this world. No, He has been crucified by the world, rejected by the wise and powerful, cut off in the midst of His days, leaving everything behind that would exalt man in the flesh.
Therefore Paul was with them “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” This was not in any way subservience to men, but a realization of God’s own hand upon him; weakness as merely the instrument dependent upon the superior power of God; fear and trembling, the sober realization of the greatness and reality of the revelation of God with which he had been entrusted. For he was simply a servant of the Living God, responsible to communicate only what God had made known to him; and certainly not to add any human philosophy to it. He used no adroit salesmanship, no psychological persuasion; for he sought a real response of faith, faith that would have solid root in the power of God, not in the wisdom of men.
However, it is not by any means that the apostle despised or ignored wisdom; for among “them that are perfect,” those brought to a proper knowledge of God, they did indeed speak wisdom. But it was not wisdom in the way the world regards it, not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world; for however prominent such men may be for a brief moment, both they and their wisdom are very soon reduced to nothing.
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” This does not have the sense of a mysterious, strange type of thing, but of something previously unrevealed, that is, “hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world.” It was hidden from the understanding of men, who could not possibly understand it until Christ Himself was manifested to take away our sins. God’s wisdom had long antedated the wisdom of men, being simple in its grandeur and grand in its simplicity, yet not discoverable by the highest exercise of man’s wisdom. Nor was this simply to display the superior wisdom of God, but was designed “unto our glory,” that is, for the bringing of sinful mankind into a place of dignity and glory before unimagined.
None of the rulers of this world had known, nor could have known this. If they had previously known what marvelous results in glory to God and to the Person of the Lord Jesus would issue from the death of the cross, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. They had no idea that what they considered their victory over Christ was their actual defeat.
Verse 9 is a quotation from Isa 64:4, showing how totally obscure to man are the counsels of God, apart from a direct revelation of God. “Eye hath not seen:” human observation could find nothing here. It was this to which Eliphaz appealed in his reproving Job (Job 4:8); but he was wrong. “Nor ear heard.” Never had the ear received this from all the combined wisdom of ages past, – the tradition to which Bildad appealed in his judgment of Job (Job 8:8-10). He was just as wrong. “Neither have entered into the heart of man.” No man’s intuition could have imagined any such wisdom as was God’s; though Zophar (Job 11:6) considered that his own intuition was authoritative. This is the most foolish of all, and of course false.
“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.” The answer then is exclusively a revelation from God. After Job’s three friends had been proven wrong, and silenced, then Elihu approached the subject on this solid basis: “There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them wisdom” (Job 32:8). It is the Spirit of God who has communicated this divine wisdom, and of course by the direct inspiration of those whom He chose to give us the written word of God. These writers all write with a wisdom manifestly higher than their own, though each one has a manner and style distinctive of himself: each was not merely an automaton, but the Spirit of God exercised each one to write in full personal liberty, yet every word guarded and guided by His sovereign power.
For the Spirit of God penetrates the deep things of God, as no creature could ever do; and it is He therefore who is capable of revealing these. This is illustrated in verse 11 by the analogy as to the spirit of a man. It is a man’s spirit that knows the things of a man. Knowledge, intellect, understanding is connected with the spirit, not with the soul, which is more characterized by desire and feeling.
As to the things of God therefore, it is the Spirit of God who knows them: man naturally knows nothing whatever as to these.
But believers have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, with the object of our knowing the things freely given to us of God. This does not mean that the conscious knowledge of all believers is therefore the same, but all have the same Spirit, who is able to communicate the things of God, so that we shall know them in proportion as we are willingly taught and led by the Spirit.
There is however, special emphasis put upon the fact of the apostles having the Spirit of God, by whom they communicate the truth of God to others. They spoke in words, not of man’s wisdom, but as taught by the Holy Spirit, “communicating spiritual things by spiritual means” (J. N. Darby Trans.). It should be evident that spiritual things can be no more communicated by natural means than that they could be understood by natural intellect. Therefore, it must be by the power of the Spirit of God that they are both understood and communicated to others. Let us closely observe too, that it is not merely the thoughts or concepts involved that are inspired of God, but the “words.” Every word as it was given was precisely right, exactly expressing (in the original languages) the mind of God. Translators are not at liberty therefore to merely translate what they conceive to be the meaning of any given passage. An honest translation must translate the words as faithfully as they can possibly be translated, in strict consistency with the meaning of the words in the original language.
The original writers of Scripture then were fully and absolutely guided by the Spirit of God in their writing, and preserved totally from any human error, though in many cases, if not all, they were unaware at the time that they were actually writing Scripture that would endure for eternity. It is important that we too who may minister the Word of God to others, should learn to depend on the leading of the Spirit of God, and not on any human intellect, in so speaking; though we know absolutely that our speaking now cannot ever result in being actual Scripture, for the Word of God is complete.
Verse 14 insists that the natural man cannot receive or know the things of the Spirit of God; for he has not been born again, and is dependent upon his own natural senses in regard to what he understands. Spiritual things are outside the realm of his experience and of his knowledge, and he considers them only foolishness, because they are discerned only spiritually, not by his natural senses.
Verse 15 is the total opposite of this. “He that is spiritual” does not describe every believer, for some of these are “carnal, even though they have the Spirit of God (ch. 3:1). It refers to those who in practice depend upon the leading of the Spirit, as every believer ought to. A carnal believer will not discern all things, because, while some of his thoughts may be spiritual, yet fleshiness is so mixed with these that his outlook will be confused. But one who is spiritual discerns all things. Indeed, he not only discerns spiritual things, but will discern the true import of natural things in a way the natural man cannot. “Yet he himself is discerned of no man.” He is an enigma to men, for he thinks and acts on a different level, not energized by self-centeredness, but by a genuine regard for the glory of God.
“For,” it is questioned, “who hath known the mind of the Lord: who shall instruct Him.” This is knowledge inscrutable, because high above any creature level. “But we have the mind of Christ.” Marvelous, precious declaration of fact! Having the Spirit of God, this is the revelation of the mind of Christ. The believer has this. Then he should certainly seek to make use of it in daily experience. If not, he is not “spiritual.”
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 1
When I came to you; meaning when he first, went, to Corinth, and commenced preaching the gospel there, as related Acts 18:1-10.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1Co 2:1-5. Paul has now proved his statement in 1Co 1:18 that the Gospel does not commend itself to human wisdom but is nevertheless a vehicle of God’s power, a statement explaining and justifying Christ’s motive in committing to him a Gospel not clothed in such language as human wisdom would have chosen. He then goes on to show that his own conduct among his readers was in exact agreement with Christ’s commission.
Not according to etc.] He was not moved to preach, nor was his mode of preaching determined, by any supposed superiority of speech, or superior acquaintance with the unseen causes of things around.
Mystery of God: a forerunner of the important teaching of 1Co 2:6 ff. Cp. Rom 6:14 with Rom. vii., and 1Co 5:5 with Rom. viii. The reading is quite uncertain. See Appendix B. 1Co 2:2 accounts for 1Co 2:1.
Not to know among you: not to be influenced in my intercourse with you by knowledge of anything else. For only in this sense could he resolve to know or not to know among men.
Judge-fit: or judge: same word in 1Co 5:3; 2Co 2:1; see Rom 14:13. Paul presented himself to the Corinthians as a man who knew something but what he professed to know was only that Jesus was the Messiah, and that the Messiah had been crucified. And this was his deliberate purpose when coming to them. Consequently, his preaching to them was not prompted or directed by supposed superiority of word or wisdom. For, to human wisdom, a crucified saviour (1Co 1:23) was ridiculous.
1Co 2:3-5. And I; again directs attention to the writer.
Fear and trembling: Psa 2:11; 2Co 7:15; Php 2:12; Eph 6:5 : strong eastern hyperbole, for anxious care to do right in something difficult and serious.
Weakness: any kind of inability, including bodily weakness caused by sickness. This latter sense is very common, and is suggested in Gal 4:13. But there is no hint of it here. Notice the slowly rising climax. In his intercourse with the Corinthians Paul was conscious of his own utter powerlessness to do the work he had in hand: this moved him to fear lest he should fail: and his fear became so great that he trembled while he preached. 1Co 2:4 gives further particulars about his preaching.
Word: any kind of verbal intercourse: proclamation, the formal announcement of the Gospel. Persuasive words of wisdom.
In men’s wisdom: that you may believe the good news not because of the preacher’s skill but because of the manifested power of God proving the message to be from God. This proof made persuasion needless.
What was the proof afforded by the Spirit and power of God? Not the effect of the Gospel in the heart and life. For this can be appreciated only by those who experience it, i.e. by those who have already accepted the Gospel. It therefore cannot be the ground of their first acceptance of it. The effect of the Gospel in earlier converts may influence us: cp. 1Co 9:2. But this would not affect the founding of a church like that at Corinth. In Rom 15:19 Paul speaks of the power of signs and wonders, power of the Spirit of God, with which Christ wrought among the Corinthians as signs of his apostleship. And the proof appealed to here can be no other than the miracles wrought by the power of God through the agency of the Holy Spirit in proof that Paul’s proclamation is true. Such proof would, as his words imply, supersede all persuasion.
Our ignorance of details prevents us from distinguishing exactly between the signs which Paul actually wrought and those which the Jews (1Co 1:22) vainly asked for. But this difficulty is, by its close coincidence with Mat 12:38; Mat 16:1; Joh 4:48, a mark of genuineness. And these passages remove any objection, based on 1Co 1:22, to my exposition of 1Co 2:4. For Christ, while refusing the signs asked for by the Jews, wrought miracles in proof of His words: Joh 5:36; Joh 10:25.
Notice that 1Co 2:4 and 2Co 12:12 confirm Rom 15:19. For Paul appeals in these passages to miracles wrought among those to whom he writes, and from whose midst he writes to the Romans, in proof of his teaching. His appeal is confirmed by the independent authority of Act 14:3; Act 14:10; Act 19:11; Act 3:7; Act 4:16, etc; and by the Gospels which attribute to Christ similar miracles with the same purpose.
We do not wonder now that Paul abstained carefully from all appearance of rhetorical art. The visible proofs of the power and presence of God made persuasion needless. An attempt to persuade would rather obscure the sufficiency of the divine credentials.
Although the underlying principles of this section are valid for all ages, the absence of miracles now warns us to be careful in applying to our own day Paul’s words to the Corinthians.
Paul’s appeal to God’s power in proof of his teaching, and his description of it (certainly in 1Co 1:6) as a testimony, agree remarkably with his assumption, without any proof, of the five great foundation doctrines of the Epistle to the Romans. See my Romans, Dissertation i. 3. In 1Co 1:21 b we have Doctrine 1: and the prominence given to the cross of Christ in 1Co 1:17 f, 1Co 1:23; 1Co 2:2 as the matter of Paul’s preaching, finds its only explanation in Doctrine 2. And, that the success of the Gospel chiefly among the humbler ranks was by God’s deliberate choice, accords exactly with the doctrine of election taught in Rom 9:12. Thus on the threshold of this Epistle we recognize the voice of the author of the Epistle to the Romans.
SECTION 3 is throughout a proof that mere human wisdom is powerless to save. The good news was not clothed in such forms as human wisdom would select, lest the clothing should obscure and thus impede the divine power which operates through the death of Christ and through its announcement to men. This agrees with an ancient prophecy touching the statesmen of Judah at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion and the deliverance then wrought by God. And it is confirmed by the facts of Paul’s own day. For it is evident that all the wisdom of the world has not revealed to men a saving knowledge of God; while, by an announcement which the wisdom of the world condemned as foolish and which actually led many Jews to reject Christ, God’s people have experienced the power, and have looked into the mind, of God. This is also confirmed, not only by the different effect of the Gospel on different men, but also by the kind of men whom by the Gospel God has drawn to Himself: for these are such as seem least likely to do His great work. These unlikely agents He has joined to Christ, who has become to them all they need.
With this method of God’s procedure Paul’s conduct at Corinth was in exact agreement. The human wisdom which God refused to employ, Paul also refused. As a preacher he was a monument of weakness: but his word was accompanied by the manifestations of divine power, in order that on the manifest power of God the faith of his converts might rest securely.
The word WISDOM denotes sometimes an artist’s skill: e.g. Exo 28:3, All that are wise of heart, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom: and they shall make Aaron’s garments; Exo 35:25-35; Exo 36:1-8. Such skill was looked upon (Exo 36:3; Exo 36:6) as a result of intelligence and knowledge; just as we say He knows how to do it. In this sense the wise man is one who knows what others do not know, and who can therefore do special work. Similarly, men who have had a special training are called wise, Gen 41:8; Exo 7:11. For it was supposed that they knew what others did not, and that their knowledge was of practical use. Men able to direct well matters of practical life were called wise, Gen 41:33; Gen 41:39; 2Sa 20:16; 2Sa 20:22; Eze 28:3-5. In 2Sa 13:3 the word wise (A.V. subtle) denotes mere cleverness in selecting means without thought of the quality of the aim. But it was early seen that right choice of an aim is even more important than choice of the means to attain it, and needs a still deeper knowledge. Consequently, the word wisdom denotes also that knowledge which enables men to choose rightly both objects of pursuit and the path to reach them. And, since all sin injures the sinner, all pursuit of sinful objects is folly, arising from ignorance of the objects pursued. Consequently, the highest wisdom includes a moral element. Cp. Deu 4:6; Deu 32:6; Deu 32:29; Pro 1:2, Pro 1:20 ff; Pro 2:2; Pro 2:6-7.
King Solomon was an embodiment of human wisdom, in its unity and in its variety: 1Ki 3:9-28; 1Ki 4:29-34. His wisdom included a wide acquaintance with natural objects, the practical counsel embodied in his 3000 proverbs, the poetry of his 5000 songs, and a discernment of men’s characters which fitted him to be a king and judge. The noblest element of the wisdom of Solomon and his followers is permanently embodied in the Book of Proverbs and in the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon and Wisdom of the son of Sirach. It is a knowledge of that which is most worth knowing, a knowledge which fits men to choose the best aims and means in life.
The wisdom of God is the attribute manifested in His eternal choice of His purposes and of the means to attain them. It is specially seen in the various works of Creation: Psa 104:24; Pro 3:19; Pro 8:22 ff; Job 9:4; Job 12:13; Job 12:16; Job 28:20, Wis 9:9 f.
The common Greek conception of wisdom was similar to that of the Jews. In Plato’s Apology, pp. 21-23, Socrates speaks of the wisdom of statesmen, poets, and artisans; and considers himself wiser than they because they knew not the limits of their own wisdom. He says truly (Apology p. 23a) that Human wisdom is worth little or nothing; and (Phaedrus 278d) that God only is fitly called wise. See quotation under 2Co 4:2. Aristotle speaks (Ethics bk. vi. 7) of wise stonecutters and sculptors; and of some men as wise, not in some specialty, but generally. He denies, however, that the statesman’s prudence is wisdom; and defines the word to mean an acquaintance with first principles, a kind of knowledge which he declares to be profitless for matters of common life. In this he is supported by the Definitions which go under Plato’s name, which define wisdom to be An understanding of the things which exist always; a contemplative understanding of the causes of existing things. Cicero (De Officiis bk. ii. 2) says: Wisdom, as it has been defined by old philosophers, is a knowledge of things divine and human and of the causes by which these things are held together. Cp. 4Ma 1:16, Wisdom then is a knowledge of divine and human matters and of the causes of these. But the common Greek use of the word differs little from the lower use of its Hebrew equivalent. Jews and Greeks alike conceived of wisdom as a knowledge of something worth knowing, and especially of that which is most worth knowing. But the Greeks valued most a knowledge of the underlying and eternal realities, as being the most worthy matter of human knowledge and as most fully satisfying the intelligence whereas the Jews ever remembered that knowledge is of real worth only so far as it enables a man to choose the best steps in life. And these collateral ideas were more or less embodied in the Greek and in the Hebrew conceptions of wisdom. Thus, their use of this one word reflected in no small measure the distinctive genius of the two nations.
The New Testament conception of wisdom agrees exactly with, and develops, that of the Old Testament. We have a wise builder, 1Co 3:10. The wisdom of the Egyptians (Act 7:22) was whatever knowledge the nation had of things not generally known. So Rom 1:14. The wisdom of the world (1Co 1:20) is a knowledge embracing only things around, whether it be looked upon as satisfying the intelligence or as guiding the life. A life thus guided has necessarily to do (Jas 3:15) only with things of this world; and is closely associated (1Co 3:19) with craftiness. The wisdom of God is the attribute by which He selects purposes suited to His Nature, and the best means of attaining them. It is manifested (1Co 1:21) in creation; and more wonderfully (1Co 1:24) in redemption. Since the means chosen are various, it is the manifold wisdom of God, Eph 3:10. Since the purpose, and the means, of salvation were matters of divine forethought, we are told (1Co 2:7) that this wisdom of God was foreordained before time began. These divine purposes and the means for their accomplishment are made known to us (Eph 1:17) by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that thus they may become in ever increasing degree objects of human intelligence and the guide of human life. Cp. Jas 3:17.
In this divinely-given wisdom are realized whatever conceptions of wisdom were formed by Jews or Greeks. The believer possesses, by God’s gift, a knowledge of that which is most worth knowing, even of God Himself and His purposes, a knowledge which satisfies the highest human intelligence, reveals the eternal realities, and explains to some extent the mysteries of life. But this knowledge, instead of being, like that of Anaxagoras and Thales, (Aristotle, Ethics vi. 7,) merely speculative and of no practical use, enables its possessor to choose the best aim in life and the best means of attaining it. Thus is Christ to us wisdom from God.
On The wisdom of the Hebrews, see excellent papers in the Expositor vol. xi. p. 321, vol. xii. pp. 381, 436 by Dr. A. B. Davidson.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
1 Corinthians 2.
In the first chapter the apostle has shown that Christ crucified, the preaching of the Cross, and the calling of God, entirely set aside the flesh, leaving no room for man to glory in himself. In this chapter the apostle applies the teaching of 1 Corinthians 1 to himself and his manner of presenting the testimony of God. In accord with his own teaching he refused the flesh in himself in order to be true to the Cross, and that there might be no hindrance to the work of the Spirit. In the first five verses the apostle tells us how he preached the gospel to sinners. The latter part of the chapter tells us how he ministered the deep things of God to the saints. In either case it was in the power of the Spirit. This leads the apostle to present the Holy Spirit Who, in His gracious work, entirely sets aside the flesh and instructs us in the mind of Christ.
(Vv. 1, 2). When Paul came to Corinth he made no appeal to the natural man by attempting to use excellency of speech or by a display of human wisdom. He came to announce the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The great subject of his preaching was a Person – Jesus Christ – but that Person on a Cross, the lowest and most degraded position in which a man can be found. Paul tells these intellectual Corinthians that, in order that sinners be saved, Christ must go to the Cross. To give believers His place before God, He had to take their place before God. The Cross sets forth our true place before God as sinners. There is nothing dignified, or heroic, or noble about a cross. It is a place of shame and reproach, of judgment and death. To tell a man that this is his true place before God makes nothing of all his wisdom and greatness and grandeur. However wise, however rich, however well-born a man may be, the Cross tells him that, in spite of all that he may be before his fellow-men, in the sight of God he is a guilty sinner under the sentence of death and judgment. The preaching of the Cross thus makes nothing of all man’s pride.
(V. 3). Moreover, the preacher himself was among them in a condition that was humiliating to the pride of man. He did not come as a self-confident orator. Conscious of his own weakness, realising the deep need of those to whom he preached, and the gravity of his message, he was amongst them in fear and much trembling.
(Vv. 4, 5). Furthermore, in the manner of his preaching he refused every fleshly method in order to leave room for God to work. He did not seek to win his audience by a display of his own wisdom or natural ability. He did not set forth the testimony of God in eloquent language, which might have appealed to their refined ears and attracted to himself.
In the subject preached, in the condition of the preacher, and in the manner of preaching, there was no allowance of flesh with the apostle, and no appeal to the flesh in his hearers.
This entire refusal to use fleshly means, or appeal to the flesh, left room for the Spirit to work in mighty power. If under such preaching there is faith – if any believe in that which is so humiliating to man, which ends man in judgment – then obviously it is not the wisdom of man that leads them to believe, but the power of the Spirit of God working with them. Under such preaching the Spirit is able to demonstrate to sinners their deep need, and to work in unhindered power, leading them to faith which rests not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. It is not only a question of the truth they believed, but of the way in which they received it. It was received not from a man, even though that man was an apostle, but from God.
(V. 6). From this verse the apostle begins to speak of the attitude he took towards those who were the subjects of the power of God, and thus had accepted the gospel. He speaks of them as the perfect. By this term he does not mean that which some speak of as sinless perfection, or that they were already conformed to the image of Christ; this will only be in glory. The term perfect implies that such had accepted the new position before God that belongs to the believer in Christ, and thus were full-grown Christians. The term does not simply designate a believer in contrast to a sinner; it is used rather to describe a full-grown believer in contrast to some believers of whom the apostle speaks as babes (1Co 3:1).
(V. 7). Amongst such Paul did indeed speak wisdom. The apostle then proceeds to give us some very definite instruction as to this wisdom, in order that we may not confuse it with the wisdom of man.
First, he tells us that it is not the wisdom of this age, nor even the wisdom of the few intellectual giants who mould the thoughts of the world. These intellectual princes, in spite of all their wisdom, come to nought, in contrast to the believer who comes to glory (verse 7), in company with the Lord of glory (verse 8). Those who shine in the glory of this world come to nought, while those who are nought in this world come to glory.
Secondly, this wisdom is the wisdom of God. If it were the wisdom of man, it could be acquired in the schools of men. Being God’s wisdom it is outside the programme of the schools, and beyond the attainment of the human mind.
Thirdly, it is God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, words that by no means imply that it is obscure or mysterious, but that it is a wisdom that cannot be discovered by the wit of man. Moreover, throughout the ages it has been hidden, and therefore is not to be found in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Fourthly, this wisdom, which throughout the ages has been hidden, was predetermined before the ages for our glory in the ages yet to come. This wisdom embraced the secret counsel of God, settled before the ages, for the glory of His people. We might have thought that the apostle would have said for the glory of God and of Christ. We know indeed it will be for the glory of Christ. Here, however, the apostle is pressing upon us the fact that, if our calling makes manifest that believers are the weak and despised of the world, nonetheless they are predestined to glory. We may not be wise, or mighty, or noble in this world, but we are called to glory.
(V. 8). Fifthly, of this wisdom, settled before the ages, and of this glory, to which we are predestined for the ages yet to come, the princes of this world knew nothing. They proved their ignorance by crucifying the Lord of glory. They wholly rejected the One Who is the wisdom of God, and by Whom all the counsels of God are brought to pass. This wisdom of God in a mystery tells believers that they are predestined to glory, and the One Who has been crucified is the Lord of glory. This glory exceeds the glory of Christ as the Messiah, in connection with Israel, reigning over the earth. The earthly reign is no mystery. The Prophets are full of glorious predictions concerning the kingdom glories. The Lord of glory speaks of a wider scene than this earth; it speaks of a universal dominion embracing every created thing and being, over which the crucified One is made Lord.
(V. 9). Sixthly, this scene of glory, to which the wisdom of God has destined His people, lies outside the range of the natural man. The apostle thus quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that God has secrets, into which man as such cannot enter. His eye, aided by marvellous instruments, can see far into the depths of space and into the minute wonders of nature; his ear can be trained to hear and appreciate wonderful combinations of melodious sounds; his mind is capable of marvellous conceptions and emotions; but there are things which God has prepared for them that love Him that the natural man has neither seen nor heard, and which are beyond the range of the highest flights of his imagination.
(V. 10). Seventhly, the fact that the wisdom of God lies outside the comprehension of the natural man does not imply that the things of wisdom cannot be seen, cannot be heard, and cannot be known, for at once the apostle says, God hath revealed them. The things that God has prepared God has revealed. If, however, God has revealed these things, it is by His Spirit. The Spirit alone is competent to reveal these things, for nothing is beyond the range of the divine knowledge and power of the Spirit. He searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. We may seek to excuse our lack of spiritual energy by saying that these things are too deep for us; but let us remember that they are not too deep for the Spirit, for He searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
(V. 11). What is in man’s mind is not known to any but the spirit of the man himself who has the thoughts. No one knows the uncommunicated thought of my mind except my own spirit; so no one knows the uncommunicated thoughts and counsels of God save the Spirit of God.
(V. 12). The apostle and other vessels of revelation received the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things that are freely given to us of God. This is the knowledge of the things themselves in the vessels of revelation. In the primary sense the truth of these verses, 10 to 12, is limited to the apostles; it is revelation that is the subject.
(V. 13). Furthermore, the things which were made known to the apostles by the revelation of the Spirit have been passed on to us by the inspiration of the Spirit. In the communication of these things the apostle is careful to shut out any possible error of man by saying that these things are not communicated in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. This is the apostolic claim for verbal inspiration. The very words used are inspired by the Holy Ghost. Spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means. The instruments were not made infallible, but were perfectly guided in their communications. This is inspiration.
(Vv. 14, 15). Thus we learn that the wisdom of God is made known by revelation and communicated to others by inspiration. Now we learn that the reception of the truth is also by the Spirit of God. The natural man cannot receive the things of God; they are foolishness to him; they can only be spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual discerneth all things. We do well to remember that it is the spiritual, not simply he that has the Spirit, that discerneth all things. A man must, indeed, have the Spirit to be spiritual; but being spiritual implies a condition in which a man is under the control of the Spirit. Such discern all things, yet they themselves are not discerned of any. The spiritual man can discern the motives that govern the world, though the world cannot discern the motives and principles that govern the spiritual man.
In verse 14 the apostle speaks of the natural man, in verse 15 of the spiritual man, and in 1 Corinthians 3 of the carnal, or fleshly, man. The natural man is the unconverted man, without the Spirit; the carnal man is the believer, having the Spirit, but walking like the natural man; the spiritual man is the believer walking in the Spirit.
(V. 16). In verse 15 the apostle tells us that the spiritual discerns all things. It is not indeed that such naturally know the mind of the Lord, or can instruct Him; but the Lord has given to believers His Spirit and instructs them; such can therefore say, We have the mind of Christ.
If the first chapter shuts out the flesh in its pride of birth and power and position, so that he that will glory glories in the Lord, this chapter shuts out the mind of man, so that believers may be let into the privilege of having the mind of Christ through the Spirit.
The Spirit is the great theme of the chapter. If Paul brings the testimony of God to sinners, it is in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (verse 4). If God has prepared great blessings for those who love Him, they are revealed unto the apostles by the Spirit (verse 10). The things that are revealed by the Spirit are fully known to the Spirit (verses 10 and 11). The things revealed and known to the apostles are, through them, communicated to others by the Spirit (verse 13). The things communicated by the apostles are received by the Spirit (verse 14), the result being that believers are, through the Spirit, instructed in the mind of Christ (verse 16).
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
CHAPTER II.
SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER
He proceeds to exalt the spiritual wisdom of Christ above all natural and animal wisdom. Therefore he says:-
i. That he knew and preached nothing but Christ crucified; and that not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
ii. Nevertheless in ver. 5 he says that he speaks wisdom among them that are perfect, wisdom hidden from the world, which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, but which the Spirit of God alone has revealed.
iii. He shows in ver. 14 that the natural man does not perceive the things which are of God, but the spiritual man perceives and judges all things.
Ver. 1.-And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. The Apostle here descends from the general to the particular. In other words: I said in the preceding chapter that God in preaching the Gospel willed not to use the wisdom of the wise in this world, but rejected it and scorned it, but willed by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; and therefore He chose not many noble or wise to spread the Gospel, but the low-born and untaught Apostles. From this I infer and say “And I” i.e., and so I as one of the number of the Apostles, who, according to the election and will of God, did not use eloquence and worldly wisdom, was unwilling to use those means, and I came to you not in excellency but in simplicity of speech and wisdom.
Ver. 2.-For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Mark the word determined: it is as if he said, I did not think of, I did not value any knowledge save that which is of Jesus crucified, our Saviour, and, therefore, I so bore myself among you, as if I knew nothing of human wisdom, although I have much acquaintance with it, for on other occasions I can quote the Greek poets; but with you I kept it back, that like the others I might merely preach with all simplicity Christ crucified. Not that I did not preach the other mysteries of the faith, but I especially taught you and impressed on you that we must glory in the Cross of Christ only, and hope from it for our righteousness and salvation, and, as Anselm says, must imitate the cross and crucify our vices. For in Christ crucified it is easy to see, besides other things, that Christ chose and embraced these three, viz., utmost pain, the greatest poverty or nakedness, and the lowest depths of shame. Christ by His pains crucified and taught us to crucify the lust of the flesh; by His poverty He crucified the lust of the eyes or avarice; and by His shame He crucified the pride of life. These are the three heads of the world’s sin, and the sources of all sins. (See 1 S. John ii. 16, and what was said about the Cross in c. i. 23).
Ver. 3.-And I was with you in weakness: that is, in anxieties, tribulation, and persecution; and in fear and much trembling, because of the hostility of the persecuting Jews and Gentiles. S. Chrysostom and Anselm remark that the Apostle in his Second Epistle (xi. 30 and xii. 5, 9, 10), and elsewhere, gives the name of weakness to the anxiety he suffered from dangers, plots, exile, daily terrors, calumnies, and hatreds. And also, that Paul suffered great anxieties and persecutions at Corinth, is evident in that he needed to be strengthened against them by Christ in a vision (Acts xviii. 9). Moreover, shortly afterwards the Jews there stirred up a tumult against Paul, and dragged him to the judgment-seat of Gallio, the deputy of Achaia, and publicly beat Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, before him.
Ver. 4.-And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom,, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Speech () denotes his private and familiar conversation as contrasted with his public preaching. S. Thomas and the Glossa distinguished the two words in this way; so does Seneca, who, in Ep. 38, says: “Conversation, because it makes an impression on the mind by little and little, is of immense force. Speeches prepared and delivered to a large assembly have more vehemence but less familiarity.” S. Paul’s conversation, then, as well as his preaching, was not with enticing words (i.e., apt to persuade) of man’s wisdom. In such the orators and philosophers at Corinth surpassed Paul. Paul, however, had to make the Corinthians believe a new philosophy by a new mode of speech and action, and in this he excelled all orators and philosophers, viz., in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So Sulpicius testifies that S. Martin once said that “the kingdom is not founded on eloquence but on faith.” S, Augustine, too, in his Sermon 1, about those coming to grace, says: “We do not try to persuade you with thundering words and flowery phrases, nor by any rhetorical skill, nor by eloquence darkened by set speeches such as the world uses, but we preach Christ crucified.” And in lib. ii. c. ii., against Felicianus, he says: “I will never rely on wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ be shorn of its power; but I am content to rely on the authority of the Scriptures, and I am more anxious to obey simplicity than presumption.”
This, then, was the demonstration of the Apostles, viz., to show (1.) burning zeal and a spirit giving forth wisdom and revealing secrets, not human but Divine, so that the hearers might perceive plainly that the Holy Spirit was speaking by their mouth; (2.) great powers, that is prodigies and miracles. Therefore Origen (lib. i. contra Celsum) says: “Our mode of teaching has its own proper demonstration, which is more Divine than that of the Greeks, and which is called by the Apostle, ‘the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’ The Spirit lends faith to those things which are said about Christ in the Prophets; and the power is seen in the miracles which we believe to have been wrought.” Origen here understands the work of the Spirit somewhat differently, but his explanation is not so much to the point as the one given above. For, as cumenius says, “The demonstration which comes by works and signs is surer than that which depends on words.” This was the Apostolical mode of preaching, and a far more effectual way than that which modern preachers put before themselves for imitation. Their style was not adorned, clouded over, and tainted with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So will Apostolic men go forth, and their words, like fiery arrows, will pierce men’s hearts, and like hammers break in pieces the rocks. Listen to S. Jerome (Ep. ii. to Nepotianus): “Let not the applause of the congregation be aroused by your teaching in church, but their groanings. Let the tears of the hearers be the proofs of your success.” This spirit, as well as the fruit of preaching, must be obtained by prayer to God. Hence Origen (contra Celsum, lib. vi.), in quoting these same words of the Apostle, says “What else is the meaning of these words but that it is not enough that what we say is true and fit to stir the hearts of men? the teacher must have a certain power given him from above, and his words require the energy of Divine grace, as David says, ‘The Lord shall give the word to those that preach with much power'” (Ps. lxvii. Vulg.).
Ver. 5.-That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Our preaching is to be of the kind just mentioned, so that your faith, i.e., your conversion to the faith of Christ, may not be attributed to human wisdom and eloquence but to the power and working of God. Your faith must be based on God’s wisdom not on man’s. (Anselm and others.)
Ver. 6.-Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. This wisdom that he speaks among the perfect, that is, the faithful, is Christian wisdom, and is concerned with the Cross of Christ, with grace, salvation, and the eternal glory won for us by Christ. And although the “faithful” are simple, yet in the things which belong to salvation they are wiser than Aristotle or any other philosopher. So S. Chrysostom and Anselm. Moreover, those who have not only been born again by baptism, but also confirmed by the Sacrament of Confirmation, have obtained the Christian perfection, and are perfectly made Christians. For this reason S. Dionysius and others call the Sacrament of Confirmation “the perfecting,” and they call those confirmed “the perfected.” Irenus implies the same (lib. v. c. 6), when he says: “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, that is, those who have received the Holy Spirit, and by that Spirit speak all tongues just as S. Paul did.”
Secondly and more simply, wisdom here denotes the more hidden and deeper mysteries of the faith, such as the Resurrection, Anti-Christ, Reprobation, Predestination; or a more profound and thorough explanation of the things of faith, such as the mode, counsel, and end of the Incarnation, Passion, and Redemption of Christ; for so S. Paul explains wisdom in the verses immediately following. He does not speak and discourse of this wisdom to beginners, but to those who have advanced and are perfected. Hence in ver. 15, he calls the perfect “spiritual,” and contrasts them with the natural man, with children and carnal men. He is here impressing on them that, though he may seem to have no human wisdom, yet he has Divine; that although he has given to them, as to children, milk, that is, simple and easy teaching (iii. 2), yet amongst the perfect he speaks of hidden and Divine wisdom.
The Apostle by these words defends his authority over the Corinthians, who, after hearing Apollos, an eloquent and learned speaker, seemed to hold S. Paul in little esteem, as a speaker without eloquence or skill.
Yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world. Anselm, Ambrose, Cajetan, and others understand the devils by the princes of this world, inasmuch as they have their power over the air, the ungodly, and the children of this world. And they prove from here that the devil, before the Passion of Christ, although he knew that Christ was God, yet did not know that by His death his own empire was to be destroyed, and men redeemed (ver. 8). This is true, but it is truer still when understood of men.
Secondly, S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm, Tertullian (contra Marcion, lib. iii. c. 6), Origen (Song Nom. 2) understand by the princes of this world the leaders who excel their fellows in wisdom, wealth, or power. And therefore S. Paul adds, that come to nought, i.e., are done away with, pass by, disappear. These, too, crucified Christ (ver. 8). Such were Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas, and other princes of the Jews and Gentiles.
Ver. 7.-But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. (1.) This is a Hebraism for “the wisdom of the mystery.” that great secret of the Divine counsel, about the Incarnation of the Word, and the redemption of man by Christ, which cannot be attained to by man by any effort of reason-no, nor yet by the angels, as is clear from Eph. v. 4, 5. Hence, in 1 Tim. iii. 16, this wisdom of the mystery is called the great mystery of godliness. So Theophylact, Ambrose, cumenius, commenting on this verse, and Jerome and Leo Castrius on Isa. lxiv; also S. Leo. (2.) We may understand this wisdom to be concerned with the greatness of the glory of the Blessed, for this was the end of the Incarnation and suffering of the Word.
Secondly, it is simpler to connect the words “in a mystery” with “we speak” rather than with “wisdom.” Then the meaning is, we speak secretly and to a few, viz., those who are perfect, the spiritual, of this deeper and more hidden wisdom. Hence Ephrem and Tertullian render the passage: “We speak of the wisdom of God in secret.” Hence also S. Dionysius and others have written books on mystic theology.
Ver. 8.-Which none of the princes of this world knew. The pronoun is better referred to glory than to wisdom, and the sense is: if this wisdom, or rather this glory and its being predestined in Christ, had been known by Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas, and the other princes of the world, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory, viz., Christ, by whose merits this eternal glory was predestined and prepared for us from eternity. Gabriel Vasquez comments well on this passage (lib. i. disp. 2, c. 3). The Apostle tacitly implies that none other of the princes of this world knew this glory and wisdom of Christ. For, fortiori, the Jews were wiser than the Gentiles, especially in Divine things; if, therefore, they did not know it, much more were the others ignorant of it.
Ver. 9.-But, as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. After “but” there is an ecthlipsis, and we must supply, “this wisdom and the glory which was its end were hidden from them,” as it is written, &c. He then quotes Isa 64:4.
1. Isaiah, in the passage quoted, is speaking of the Incarnation of Christ and of this present life. And hence Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact, cumenius take this verse of the miracles of Christ, and of the wisdom, virtues, and grace which Christ by living here on earth has imparted to us.
2. It is more agreeable to the context to say that Isaiah seems to fly away in admiration from the Incarnation and manhood of Christ to the celestial glory, which is the fruit and end of the Incarnation of Christ; for such flights and sudden changes are common with the Prophets, because of the sublime and ample light if prophecy which they enjoyed.
This appears from the words used; as, e.g., “Him that waiteth for him,” and “Thou meetest him that worketh righteousness.” He is speaking then of the fruit of the works of the just, viz., the eternal life which we wait for; for the fruit of the Incarnation and faith does not meet them that work righteousness, but those that are sitting in darkness and sin. So says S. Jerome (in Isa. lxiv.), S. Dionysius (De Clest. Hierarch. 12), and Vasquez, in the passage above quoted. Hence S. Bernard (Serm. 4 on the Vigil of the Nativity) says: “Eye hath not seen that unapproachable light, ear hath not heard that incomprehensible peace . . . And why is it that it has not ascended into the heart of man? Surely because it is a spring and cannot ascend. For we know that the nature of springs is to seek the rivers in the valleys, and to shun the tops of the mountains; for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”
S. Augustine, in his “Meditations,” ch. 22 et seqq., and “Soliloquies,” ch. 35 and 36, discourses most beautifully about the greatness of this bliss. The author too of the book on “The Spirit and the Soul” (which is found in vol. iii. ch. 36 of S. Augustine’s works), very appropriately says on this passage of the Apostle: “As the outward man is affected by temporal things through his five senses, so the inward man, in the life of bliss, is affected by the five ineffable attributes of God through his ineffable love for Him. For when he shall love his God, He will know him as a certain light, a voice, a sweet odour, a food, and an inward embrace. For there shines the light which no place can contain; there sounds the music which no time steals away; there is the sweet odour which no wind can scatter; there is the food which is eaten and yet undiminished; there clings to us the good which knows no satiety; there is God seen without intermission, known without error, loved without disgust, and praised without wearying.”
These words of the Apostle were once the occasion of the conversion of S. Adrian, and made him a martyr. He was a soldier and in the flower of his age, viz., twenty eight yeas old, and when he beheld the constancy of the Christian martyrs in the tortures they had to endure for the faith of Christ, he asked them what they expected in return for such sufferings, what enabled them to overcome such tortures. They replied, “We hope for those good things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” By these words Adrian was touched and converted, and he hastened to get himself enrolled in the list of martyrs, and eagerly bore a cruel death at Nicomedia, with his wife Natalia looking on and encouraging him. This was A.D. 306, under Diocletian.
3. The meaning of this passage will be complete if you combine the two interpretations given above thus: Those good things which Thou, God, through Christ, hast prepared for them that wait for Thee, surpass all our senses, experience, natural understanding, and all human desire, not only in this life in the case of those who have already caught some sounds of Thee, but also chiefly and most properly in the future glory. There will God, who is Himself all that good is, give Himself to the blessed, and will be as all in all, as Anselm says. For by these words of Isaiah, the Apostle proves what he has said, viz., that the wisdom as well as the glory of Christ was secret and hidden, as we saw above.
Neither have entered into the heart of man. Has not come into the mind of man: no man can by nature think of or understand them. The heart with the Hebrews stands for the mind. For what the heart is to the body-its chief and noblest part, the source and principle of life-that is the mind to the soul. Moreover, the heart supplies the brain with its vigour, and so is a kind of handmaid to the imagination and consequently the understanding. Hence Aristotle, though against Galen and all other physicians, placed the apprehension of external objects not in the brain but in the heart. He distinguished the vital organs of man by their functions on these verses:
The spleen is the cause of laughter, and live comes from the liver.” “The heart gives wisdom, the lung speech, and anger comes from the bile,
Where Isaiah has “them that wait for Thee,” S. Paul has “them that love Thee.” The sense is the same, for love is one cause of expectation.
Ver. 10.-But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. S. Paul here anticipates an objection. It might be said, “If eye hath not seen, neither have entered into the heart of man, the wisdom and the glory that Christ has prepared for His friends, how is it that you boast yourself of its possession?” Paul replies that he knows them not by sight, sensation, or by the understanding, but by the inspiration and revelation of God. Hence, Clement of Alexandria (Pdag. lib. i. c. 6) interprets the phrase, “ear hath not heard,” by adding, “except that ear which was taken up into the third heaven,” viz., Paul’s, who heard with the ear in Paradise mystic words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Paul means, then, that God has revealed these things to us His Apostles and Prophets filled with His Spirit, in order that we may teach you and others. It appears from this that not only is our longing for bliss and glory supernatural, but that our knowledge of them is also, whether that knowledge be of them in their essence, or merely the obscure and fragmentary knowledge of the Apostles and of all others who are still “in the way.” Consequently there is not naturally in man any perfect and effectual desire, or appetite, for this bliss.
The Spirit searcheth all things, the deep things of God. That is, penetrates into and perceives everything. For when men want to learn something of which they are ignorant, they are wont to search and inquire about it. But God, without any such searching, knows everything at a glance, and as it were by a single application of His mind. (S. Thomas, Theodoret, Theophylact.)
The deep things of God are all the most secret and inward counsels of God. Amongst them the chiefest is this mystery of man’s glory and redemption by Christ. All these the Holy Spirit penetrates into and clearly views, because He is of one essence and knowledge with God, and therefore He so “searches the deep things of God,” that nothing in God remains unknown t Him. His knowledge and sight equal their object, and He knows God as he can be known; i.e., the Holy Spirit, because He is God, comprehends God and His Divinity as completely as He comprehends Himself. (Molina part i. qu. 14, a. 3, Theodoret, S. Thomas.) From this passage Ambrose and other Fathers prove the Godhead of the Holy Ghost against the Macedonians. To sum up S. Paul’s meaning: The Holy Spirit has revealed to us these mysteries and secrets of God: He knows all the secrets of God, and therefore He searches and clearly views the deep things of God.
Ver. 11.-What man knoweth the things of a man? Those in the inner recesses if his being, which are buried in his heart and mind, as, e.g., his thoughts, resolutions, and intentions, and the foundation of the character itself.
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit knows them as well as Himself. For the Holy Spirit is internal to God, just as the spirit of a man is internal to him; and as the spirit of a man is a sharer of his humanity, so the Spirit of God is a partaker of Godhead, and of the Divine omni-science and power. “The things of God” are those which are hidden in the mind of God-the thoughts, counsels and determinations of the Divine Will.
After “knoweth no man, but the Spirit” must be understood, “and He to whom the Spirit has willed to reveal them, as to me and the other Apostles,” as was said in ver. 10.
“No man, but the Spirit” foes not exclude the Son. For since He is he Word, he knows the deep things of God. For in Divine things, when as exclusive or exceptive word is applied to one Person in respect of the Divine attributes, it does not exclude the other Divine Persons, but only all other essences from the Divine, i.e., it only excludes those whose nature differs from that of God. The meaning then is: No one knows the secret things of God, save the Spirit of God, and they who have the dame nature with the Spirit, the same intellectual and cognitive powers, viz., the Father and the Son. These alone know the deep things of God.
Ver. 12.-Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God. He contrasts the spirit of the world with the Spirit which is of God, claims the latter for himself and the Apostles, and assigns the other to the wise men of this world. The spirit of the world, therefore, is that which id infused by the world, by worldly and carnal wisdom, which aspires after worldly, earthly, and carnal goods, and makes men worldly and carnal. In the other hand the Spirit of God is that which is infused by God and Divine Wisdom, which makes us pursue heavenly and Divine goods, and makes men spiritual and heavenly. Therefore the Apostle adds-
That we might know the things that are freely given to us by God. On this passage the heretics found their peculiar belief that each Christian knows for a certainty that he ought by heavenly faith to believe that he has through Christ had given to him by God the forgiveness of his sins, with grace and righteousness, and as Calvin says, that he has been chosen to eternal glory. But this is not faith, but a foolish and false presumption, not to say blindness; because we do not certainly know that we have been duly disposed for righteousness, and whether we surely believe, and as we ought; nor is it anywhere said or revealed in Holy Scripture that I believe as I ought to do, or that I am righteous or one of the elect. The best answer to them is the sense of the passage, which is this: The Holy Spirit shows and reveals to us what and how great are the gifts given to us, the Apostles, by God, and to others who love God-so great indeed that eye has not seen them, nor have they entered into the heart of man; for the Apostle looks back to ver. 9.
I say, then, that the Apostle is speaking in general terms of the gifts which were given to the Apostles and the Church, and of those gifts alone. He says in effect: “We received this Spirit that we, i.e., the Apostles, might know with what gifts and good things in general Christ has enriched us, i.e., His Church, viz., with what grace of the Spirit, what redemption, what virtues, and especially with how great glory;” for these were the things alluded to in ver. 9; and these things are, as he says in ver. 11, in God, i.e., by the free-will and predestination of God. “We know, too, through the Holy Spirit the Revelation, that these things have been given by God to the Church; for we speak of and teach these things as part of the faith. But that I am possessed of them, or a sharer in them, is not a matter of faith, but of conjecture: it is not to be publicly preached, but secretly hoped for.”
Again, the word know may be taken in a twofold sense: (1.) Objectively; (2.) Subjectively.
1. Objectively, the Apostle knew, and all the faithful knew, from the prophecies, miracles, and from other signs from God, that He had promised to His congregation (i.e., His Church, which had been called together by the Apostles, and was afterwards to be called together), and that, according to His promises, He had given His grace, and lastly a sure hope of eternal life. But all this was to His Church in common, not to this or that individual in it; for we cannot know in a particular case whether this one or that us faithful. In this sense the word know is the same as believe. For we believe that the Catholic Church is holy, and that in her there is forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. God, therefore, has only revealed that His Church is holy, but not that I am holy. For although he has revealed and has promised to all in the Church, who rightly believe and repent, forgiveness of sins and righteousness, yet He has not revealed that I believe truly repent; and therefore He has not revealed that my sins are forgiven, and that I am justified.
2. The word know may be taken subjectively: we Apostles know by experience what wisdom and grace God has given us; and in this way the word know is the same as experience. For no one of the Apostles believed by faith from above that he had wisdom and grace; but he experienced the acts and effects of grace in himself so vehemently frequently, clearly, and surely, that he felt morally certain that he had true wisdom, and it behoved them to teach others the same, and wholly to long to bring the world to Christ. Although, then, the Apostles knew by experience that they had been justified and sanctified, still the rest of the faithful did not know it, nor do they know it now. They can only hope so, and conjecture it from the signs of an upright and good life. Yet neither the Apostles, nor they, believe it on the testimony of infused faith; for experience of every kind merely generates human faith, not Divine: that springs from and depends on the revelation of God alone.
Ver. 13.-Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. I.e., not in words taught by Cicero, Demosthenes, or Aristotle, such as human wisdom teaches, but in words inspired by the Holy Ghost.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. In other words, we teach this spiritual wisdom from the Scriptures and other spiritual writings, and do not base it on philosophical, rhetorical, or earthly reasons, ideas, or speeches, as S. Chrysostom says. cumenius says: “If we are asked whether Christ rose on the third day, we bring forward testimony and proofs from Jonah. If we are asked whether the Lord was born of a Virgin, we compare His mother in her virginity to Anna and Elizabeth in their sterility, and thence rove it.” The Apostle here gives priori the cause and reason why, at God’s command, he refrained from using eloquence and human wisdom in his preaching. The reason is that Divine and human wisdom so widely differ. Since, then, speech should be fitted to the subject-matter, it was evidently right that that speech, by which Divine wisdom was published, should be adapted to it, and should differ from the words of human wisdom-that is to say, that it should be simple, grave, efficacious, and Divine, as proceeding from the Holy Spirit, who would reject all rhetorical ornamentation. In this matter we are bidden to learn, forbidden to use ornament. For as words of human wisdom carry with them the wisdom and the spirit of the speaker, so do the words of the Holy Spirit bring into the soul the wisdom of God, and of his Spirit speaking by the Apostles.
Ver. 14.-The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Natural or animal is here applied to one who is concerned with this life only, and thinks after the way of this life, who follows the objects of his sensations and the thoughts of his heart. Such were the Apostles before they received the Holy Spirit, and such were the Corinthians at this time, as they sought after eloquence. Now, too, there are many of the faithful, not bad men, who do not seek after higher things.
The word animal here comes from “anima,” and has a threefold application. (1.) It is applied to one who grows, takes nourishment, and needs food, as all animals do. So Adam, though created in grace, is called animal [natural] (1Co 15:45-46). (2.) Secondly, to one who follows his nature, i.e., his lusts and desires. So the Jews are called animal or natural, as not having the Spirit. (3.) To one who follows after knowledge that is not spiritual and sublime, but open and easy to the mind and senses. This is the meaning here. Bernard, or whoever is the author of the treatise on the solitary life, says, a little after the beginning of it: “The natural state is a mode of life subservient to the senses of the body, viz., when the soul, as though going outside herself, pursues, by means of the bodily senses, the pleasure she finds in the bodies she loves, feeds on the enjoyment they give, and nourishes her own sensual disposition; or when, as though returning to herself, on finding that she is unable to bring to the place where her incorporeal nature is the bodies to which she has joined herself by the powerful bonds of love and habit, she brings with her images of them, and holds friendly conversation with them. And when she has accustomed herself to them, she thinks that there is nothing save what she left behind her without, or herself brought within. Thenceforward, as long as she remains here, she finds her pleasure in living according to the pleasures of the body; but when she is prevented from enjoying them, she has no thought but such as are images of bodily things.”
So he is called spiritual who lives in the Spirit:
1. As a spirit not needing food, so Christ lived after His resurrection (1Co 15:45).
2. As following the inspiration, direction, and movements of the Spirit.
3. As drinking in the heavenly teaching of the Spirit. Such a one is called spiritual by S. Chrysostom, S. Thomas, and others. S. Bernard, in the place just quoted, writes: “The state of beginners may be called natural, of those who are advancing rational, of those who are perfect spiritual. For they are natural who by themselves are neither led by reason nor drawn by affection, and yet are influenced by authority, or touched by doctrine, or provoked by example to approve, and strive to imitate the good. They are rational who through the judgment of reason have some knowledge and desire of good, but have not yet any love of it. They are perfect who are led by the Spirit, who are illuminated by the Holy Spirit more fully, and derive their name of ‘the spiritual’ from this. And since they know the taste of the good, and are led by their love for it, they are called the wise, or those who know.” Then in comparing these three, and forming of them steps, and a ladder of virtues, he goes on to say: “The first state has to do with the body, the second with the soul, the third finds no rest but in God. The beginning of good in conversion is perfect obedience, its advancement is the subjection of the body, its perfection is to have turned through continued good actions custom into love. The beginning of the rational is to understand those things which are put before it in the teaching of faith, its advancement is marked by the providing of those things which are enjoined, its perfection is seen in the judgment of the reason becoming the live of the heart. The perfection of the rational is the beginning of the spiritual; its advancement consists in seeing the glory of God with unveiled face; its perfection is to be changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Because they are spiritually discerned, i.e., according to the rules given by the Holy Spirit and the canons of faith. Some read, he is spiritually discerned, which would mean that he is invited, by being examined, to spiritual and heavenly wisdom. When he is being instructed in spiritual matters, or when spiritual things are put before the natural man, and when the natural man is questioned about spiritual things, he cannot understand them.
Ver. 15.-But he that is spiritual judgeth all things. He is called spiritual, as we have seen, who follows faith and wisdom and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, who has the Holy Spirit as the ruler of his soul. So Chrysostom, Anselm, S. Thomas.
Judgeth all things. 1. Hence Calvin and the Anabaptists make the private and fanatical spirit of each spiritual man, i.e., each one of the faithful, the arbiter of controversies of faith, and the interpreter of Scripture; but wrongly, for all Christians are not spiritual, but only the perfect, as was said at ver. 14.
2. Others cannot know whether a man has this spirit, whether he is spiritual, nay, whether he is even faithful. Therefore this private and secret spirit cannot be the public judge of all things; but this is the province of Councils and the Pope. For it is known that these are spiritual, that they are governed by the Holy See, who appointed them teachers, and by them governs and teaches the Church.
3. The Fathers were spiritual to a high degree, and yet they sometimes erred.
4. It is evident that the simple need the pastors and teachers whom God has placed in the Church to teach others (Eph 4:11).
I answer, then, that this passage means that the spiritual man judges things in general, spiritual things, Divine and heavenly things, natural, earthly, and easy things; while the natural man judges natural things only. This is that there may be a distribution proportioned to classes of individuals, and not to individuals of different classes. So we say, “I live on every kind of food,” i.e., on any kind.
In the second place, to “judge all things” is to examine, confute, and sift questions, according to the rules of the faith, and of the Divine wisdom which the spiritual man has. Of course this is in questions in which he has been sufficiently instructed from above, as, e.g., in clear and ascertained matters of faith he judges everything according to the articles of the faith. But if any new question in faith or morals should arise, and it is obscure or doubtful, wisdom itself dictated to the spiritual man, who in this question is not yet spiritual, or sufficiently taught by the Spirit, to have recourse to his superiors, as the same Spirit teaches him, to the doctors, to his mother, the Roman Church, that she may decide and define this question for him. For she, according to the teaching of the Apostle, is plainly spiritual, and judges all things by the direction and assistance of the Spirit. For Christ promised this to Peter, and in him to his successors (S. Matt. xviii. 18; S. Luke xxii. 32). They, then, are highly spiritual, and they judge all things, It is different with those beneath them, who, though they be spiritual, yet should often seek the judgment of their superiors. Otherwise he who is spiritual would never have to obey the decision of his father, or his teacher or his bishop. In so far, then, as the spiritual man follows the leading of the Spirit, either teaching him directly, or sending him to the doctors of the Church, he cannot err. In the same way S. John says that he that is born of God cannot sin (1Jo 3:9); i.e., so far as he that is born of God abides in Him. So S. Thomas, Ambrose, Anselm, Theophylact, Chrysostom. S. Paul’s meaning, then, is that the spiritual man judges well about the hidden mysteries of the faith, and about things in general, and if he doubts, he knows what to do, whom he ought to consult, so as to receive instruction. So Aristotle (Ethics iii. 4) says. “A good man rightly judges in all cases, and the virtuous man is the rule and measure of all human things,” i.e., says S. Thomas, because he has a will ordered judgment and good desires, obedient to law and reason, Still, in difficult cases he ought to consult those who are wiser and more skilled in the law.
Yet he himself is judged of no man, i.e., is confuted or condemned by to one, in so far as he judges spiritually, as S. Chrysostom says. For if otherwise, he is reproved as S. Peter was by S. Paul (Gal 2:11). On the other hand the natural man is spiritually examined and judged by the spiritual, even though he does not know it or understand it. For in this passage the whole endeavour of the Apostle is to exclude human and worldly wisdom by spiritual, and to contrast the spiritual with the natural, and to put it first, since the Corinthians did the opposite and therefore put Apollos before Paul. He implies, therefore, that the Corinthians are natural, because they sought after “enticing words of man’s wisdom,” such as they admired in the eloquence of Apollos; and he says that they cannot judge about spiritual things, and the spiritual wisdom of Paul, but that he and men like him ought to judge both spiritual and natural wisdom. This and nothing else is what the Apostle is aiming at.
Ver. 16.-Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Since the spiritual man has been taught by God and follows His rules, so far as he is such, he can be judged by no one; for one who should judge him ought to be wiser or greater than the Spirit of God, so as to be able to penetrate and measure that Spirit. But who can do this? So Chrysostom. Nevertheless, the spiritual man often can be and ought to be judged, because he is not known to be spiritual in a given matter. Hence, in cxiv. 29, he says, “Let the others speak two or three, and let the others judge.” Moreover, many boast themselves to be spiritual who are merely natural, as, e.g., the Anabaptists. But S. Paul was confessedly spiritual, hence he adds, We have the mind of Christ-the wisdom of Christ which is spiritual and Divine, not natural and human. Our wisdom is not that of Plato or Pythagoras, but of Christ, who has infused His truths into our minds. So Chrysostom.
Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary
2:1 And {1} I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the {a} testimony of God.
(1) He returns to 1Co 1:17 , that is to say, to his own example: confessing that he did not use among them either excellency of words or enticing speech of man’s wisdom, but with great simplicity of speech both knew and preached Jesus Christ crucified, humbled and abject, with regard to the flesh.
(a) The Gospel.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The folly of Paul’s preaching 2:1-5
Paul offered the example of his preaching among the Corinthians as a further illustration of what the wisdom of God can do in contrast to what the words that humans regard as wisdom can do.
"The matters of literary context and the continuity of the argument are all important in understanding 1 Corinthians 2. Otherwise, much of the chapter reads like pure gnosticism, and Paul is made the advocate of a private religion reserved for the spiritual elite (1Co 2:6-16)." [Note: Charles B. Cousar, "Expository Articles: 1 Corinthians 2:1-13," Interpretation 44:2 (April 1990):169.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Some early texts have "mystery" (Gr. mysterion) instead of "testimony" (martyrion). The difference is not very significant. The gospel was both the message that God had previously not revealed, which the apostles made known, and the message to which they bore witness. The apostle’s preaching in Corinth was "not in excellence of rhetorical display or of philosophical subtlety." [Note: J. B. Lightfoot, Notes on the Epistles of St Paul, p. 170.]
"When a speaker would first come to a city (1Co 2:1), he would advertise a meeting where he would declaim (normally praising the city); if he proved successful and attracted enough students, he would stay on in the city. Paul points out that he did not come to them like such sophists, pandering to popularity (see further 2Co 2:17)." [Note: Keener, p. 34. ]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
31
Chapter 4
THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING
In the preceding section of this Epistle Paul introduced the subject which was prominent in his thoughts as he wrote: the divided state of the Corinthian Church. He adjured the rival parties by the name of Christ to hold together, to discard party names and combine in one confession. He reminded them that Christ is indivisible, and that the Church which is founded on Christ must also be one. He shows them how impossible it is for anyone but Christ to be the Churchs foundation, and thanks God that he had given no pretext to anyone to suppose that he had sought to found a party. Had he even baptised the converts to Christianity, there might have been persons foolish enough to whisper that he had baptised in his own name and had intended to found a Pauline, not a Christian, community. But providentially he had baptised very few, and had confined himself to preaching the Gospel, which he considered to be the proper work to which Christ had “sent” him; that is to say, for which he held an Apostles commission and authority. But as he thus repudiates the idea that he had given any countenance to the founding of a Pauline party, it occurs to him that some may say, Yes, it is true enough, he did not baptise; but his preaching may more effectually have won partisans than even baptising them into his own name could have done. And so Paul goes on to show that his preaching was not that of a demagogue or party leader, but was a bare statement of fact, garnished and set off by absolutely nothing which could divert attention from the fact either to the speaker or to his style. Hence this digression on the foolishness of preaching.
In this section of the Epistle then it is Pauls purpose to explain to the Corinthians (1) the style of preaching he had adopted while with them and (2) why he had adopted this style.
I. His time in Corinth, he assures them, had been spent, not in propagating a philosophy or system of truth peculiar to himself, and which might have been identified with his name, but in presenting the Cross of Christ and making the plainest statements of fact regarding Christs death. In approaching the Corinthians, Paul had necessarily weighed in his own mind the comparative merits of various modes of presenting the Gospel. In common with all men who are about to address an audience, he took into consideration the aptitudes, peculiarities, and expectations of his audience, that he might so frame his arguments, statements, and appeals as to be most likely to carry his point. The Corinthians, as Paul well knew, were especially open to the attractions of rhetoric and philosophical discussion. A new philosophy clothed in elegant language was likely to secure a number of disciples. And it was quite in Pauls power to present the Gospel as a philosophy. He might have spoken to the Corinthians in large and impressive language of the destiny of man, of the unity of the race, and of the ideal man in Christ. He might have based all he had to teach them on some of the accepted dicta or theories of their own philosophers. He might have propounded some new arguments for immortality or the existence of a personal God, and have shown how congruous the Gospel is to these great truths. He might, like some subsequent teachers, have emphasised some particular aspect of Divine truth, and have so identified his teaching with this one side of Christianity as to found a school or sect known by his name. But he deliberately rejected this method of introducing the Gospel, and determined not to know anything among them save “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He stripped his mind bare, as it were, of all his knowledge and thinking, and came among them as an ignorant man who had only facts to tell.
Paul then in this instance deliberately trusted to the bare statement of facts, and not to any theory about these facts. This is a most important distinction, and to be kept in view by all preachers, whether they feel called by their circumstances to adopt Pauls method or not. In preaching to audiences with whom the facts are familiar, it is perfectly justifiable to draw inferences from them and to theorise about them for the instruction and edification of Christian people. Paul himself spoke “wisdom among them that were perfect.” But what is to be noted is that for doing the work proper to the Gospel, for making men Christians, it is not theory or explanation, but fact, that is effective. It is the presentation of Christ as He is presented in the written Gospels, the narrative of His life and death without note or comment, theory or inference, argument or appeal, which stands in the first rank of efficiency as a means of evangelising the world. Paul, ever moderate, does not denounce other methods of presenting the Gospels as illegitimate; but in his circumstances the bare presentation of fact seemed the only wise method.
No doubt we may unduly press Pauls words; and probably we should do so if we gathered that he merely told his hearers how Christ had lived and died and gave them no inkling of the significance of His death. Still the least we can gather from his words is that he trusted more to facts than to any explanation of the facts, more to narration than to inference and theory. Certainly the neglect of this distinction renders a great proportion of modern preaching ineffective and futile. Preachers occupy their time in explaining how the Cross of Christ ought to influence men, whereas they ought to occupy their time in so presenting the Cross of Christ that it does influence men. They give laboured explanations of faith and elaborate instructions regarding the method and results of believing, while they should be exhibiting Christ so that faith is instinctively aroused. The actor on the stage does not instruct his audience how they should be affected by the play; he so presents to them this or that scene that they instinctively smile or find their eyes fill. Those onlookers at the Crucifixion who beat their breasts and returned to their homes with awe and remorse were not told that they should feel compunction; it was enough that they saw the Crucified. So it is always; it is the direct vision of the Cross, and not anything which is said about it, which is most effective in producing penitence and faith. And it is the business of the preacher to set Christ and Him crucified clear before the eyes of men; this being done, there will be little need of explanations of faith or inculcation of penitence. Make men see Christ, set the Crucified clear before them, and you need not tell them to repent and believe; if that sight does not make them repent, no telling of yours will make them.
The very fact that it was a Person, not a system of philosophy, that Paul proclaimed was sufficient proof that he was not anxious to become the founder of a school or the head of a party. It was to another Person, not to himself, he directed the attention and faith of his hearers. And that which permanently distinguishes Christianity from all philosophies is that it presents to men, not a system of truth to be understood, but a Person to be relied upon. Christianity is not the bringing of new truth to us so much as the bringing of a new Person to us. The manifestation of God in Christ is in harmony with all truth; but we are not required to perceive and understand that harmony, but to believe in Christ. Christianity is for all men, and not for the select, highly educated few; and it depends, therefore, not on exceptional ability to see truth, but on the universal human emotions of love and trust.
II. Paul justifies his rejection of philosophy or “wisdom” and his adoption of the simpler but more difficult method of stating fact on three grounds. The first is that Gods method had changed. For a time God had allowed the Greeks to seek Him by their own wisdom; now He presents Himself to them in the foolishness of the Cross (1Co 1:17-25). The second ground is that the wise do not universally respond to the preaching of the Cross, a fact which shows that it is not wisdom that preaching appeals to (1Co 1:26-31). And his third ground is that, he feared lest, if he used “wisdom” in presenting the Gospel, his hearers might be only superficially attracted by his persuasiveness and not profoundly moved by the intrinsic power of the Cross. 1Co 2:1-5.
1. His first reason is that God had changed His method. “After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Even the wisest of the Greeks had attained only to inadequate and indefinite views of God. Admirable and pathetic are the searchings of the noble intellects that stand in the front rank of Greek philosophy; and some of their discoveries regarding God and His ways are full of instruction. But these thoughts, cherished by a few wise and devout men, never penetrated to the people, and by their vagueness and uncertainty were incapacitated from deeply influencing anyone. To pass even from Plato to the Gospel of John is really to pass from darkness to light. Plato philosophises, and a few souls seem for a moment to see things more clearly; Peter preaches, and three thousand souls spring to life. If God was to be known by men generally, it was not through the influence of philosophy. Already philosophy had done its utmost; and so far as any popular and sanctifying knowledge of God went, philosophy might as well never have been. “The world by wisdom knew not God.” No safer assertion regarding the ancient world can be made.
That which, in point of fact, has made God known is the Cross of Christ. No doubt it must have seemed foolishness and mere lunacy to summon the seeker after God away from the high and elevating speculations of Plato on the good and the eternal and to point him to the Crucified, to a human form gibbeted on a malefactors cross, to a man that had been hanged. None knew better than Paul the infamy attaching to that cursed death, and none could more distinctly measure the surprise and stupefaction with which the Greek mind would hear the announcement that it was there God was to be seen and known. Paul understood the offence of the Cross, but he knew also its power. “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”
As proof that God was in their midst and as a revelation of Gods nature, the Jews required a sign, a demonstration of physical power. It was one of Christs temptations to leap from a pinnacle of the Temple, for thus He would have won acceptance as the Christ. The people never ceased to clamour for a sign. They wished Him to bid a mountain be removed and cast into the sea; they wished Him to bid the sun stand still or Jordan retire to its source. They wished Him to make some demonstration of superhuman power, and so put it beyond a doubt that God was present. Even at the last it would have satisfied them had He bid the nails drop out and had He stepped down from the Cross among them. They could not understand that to remain on the Cross was the true proof of Divinity. The Cross seemed to them a confession of weakness. They sought a demonstration that the power of God was in Christ, and they were pointed to the Cross. But to them the Cross was a stumbling block they could not get over. And yet in it was the whole power of God for the salvation of the world. All the power that dwells in God to draw men out of sin to holiness and to Himself was actually in the Cross. For the power of God that is required to draw men to Himself is not power to alter the course of rivers or change the site of mountains, but power to sympathise, to make mens sorrows His own, to sacrifice self, to give all for the needs of His creatures. To them that believe in the God there revealed, the Cross is the power of God. It is this love of God that overpowers them and makes it impossible for them to resist Him. To a God who makes Himself known to them in self-sacrifice they quickly
2. As a second ground on which to rest the justification of his method of preaching Paul appeals to the constituent elements of which the Church of Corinth was actually composed. It is plain, he says, that it is not by human wisdom, nor by power, nor by anything generally esteemed among men that you hold your place in the Church. The fact is that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” If human wisdom or power held the gates of the kingdom, you yourselves would not be in it. To be esteemed, and influential, and wise. is no passport to this new kingdom. It is not men who by their wisdom find out God and by their nobility of character commend themselves to Him; but it is God who chooses and calls men, and the very absence of wisdom and possessions makes men readier to listen to His call. “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are; that no flesh should glory in His presence.” It is all Gods doing now; it is “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus”; it is God that hath chosen you. Human wisdom had its opportunity and accomplished little; God now by the foolishness of the Cross lifts the despised, the foolish, the weak, to a far higher position than the wise and noble can attain by their might and their wisdom.
Paul thus justifies his method by its results. He uses as his weapon the foolishness of the Cross, and this foolishness of God proves itself wiser than men. It may seem a most unlikely weapon with which to accomplish great things, but it is God who uses it, and that makes the difference. Hence the emphasis throughout this passage on the agency of God. “God hath chosen” you; “Of God are ye in Christ Jesus”; “Of God He is made unto you wisdom.” This method used by Paul is Gods method and means of working, and therefore it succeeds. But for this reason also all ground of boasting is removed from those who are within the Christian Church. It is not their wisdom or strength, but Gods work, which has given them superiority to the wise and noble of the world. “No flesh can glory in Gods presence.” The wise and mighty of earth cannot glory, for their wisdom and might availed nothing to bring them to God; those who are in Christ Jesus can as little glory, for it is not on account of any wisdom or might of theirs, but because of Gods call and energy, they are what they are. They were of no account, poor, insignificant, outcasts, and slaves, friendless while alive and when dead not missed in any household; but God called them and gave them a new and hopeful life in Christ Jesus.
In Pauls day this argument from the general poverty and insignificance of the members of the Christian Church was readily drawn. Things are changed now; and the Church is filled with the wise, the powerful, the noble. But Pauls main proposition remains: whoever is in Christ Jesus is so, not through any wisdom or power of his own, but because God has chosen and called him. And the practical result remains. Let the Christian, while he rejoices in his position, be humble. There is something wrong with the mans Christianity who is no sooner delivered from the mire himself than he despises all who are still entangled. The self-righteous attitude assumed by some Christians, the “Look at me” air they carry with them, their unsympathetic condemnation of unbelievers, the superiority with which they frown upon amusements and gaieties, all seem to indicate that they have forgotten it is by the grace of God they are what they are. The sweetness and humble friendliness of Paul sprang from his constant sense that whatever he was he was by Gods grace. He was drawn with compassion towards the most unbelieving because he was ever saying within himself, There, but for the grace of God, goes Paul. The Christian must say to himself, It is not because I am better or wiser than other men that I am a Christian; it is not because I sought God with earnestness, but because He sought me, that I am now His. The hard suspicion and hostility with which many good people view unbelievers and godless livers would thus be softened by a mixture of humble self-knowledge. The unbeliever is no doubt often to be blamed, the selfish pleasure seeker undoubtedly lays himself open to just condemnation, but not by the man who is conscious that but for Gods grace he himself would be unbelieving and sinful.
Lastly, Paul justifies his neglect of wisdom and rhetoric on the ground that had he used “enticing words of mans wisdom” the hearers might have been unduly influenced by the mere guise in which the Gospel was presented and too little influenced by the essence of it. He feared to adorn the simple tale or dress up the bare fact, lest the attention of his audience might be diverted from the substance of his message. He was resolved that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God; that is to say, that those who believed should do so, not because they saw in Christianity a philosophy which might compete with current systems, but because in the Cross of Christ they felt the whole redeeming power of God brought to bear on their own soul.
Here again things have changed since Pauls day. The assailants of Christianity have put it on its defence, and its apologists have been compelled to show that it is in harmony with the soundest philosophy. It was inevitable that this should be done. Every philosophy now has to take account of Christianity. It has shown itself to be so true to human nature, and it has shed so much light on the whole system of things and so modified the action of men and the course of civilisation, that a place must be found for it in every philosophy. But to accept Christianity because it has been a powerful influence for good in the world, or because it harmonises with the most approved philosophy, or because it is friendly to the highest development of intellect, may be legitimate indeed; but Paul considered that the only sound and trustworthy faith was produced by direct personal contact with the Cross. And this remains forever true.
To approve of Christianity as a system and to adopt it as a faith are two different things. It is quite possible to respect Christianity as conveying to us a large amount of useful truth, while we hold ourselves aloof from the influence of the Cross. We may approve the morality which is involved in the religion of Christ, we may Countenance and advocate it because we are persuaded no other force is powerful enough to diffuse a love of law and some power of self-restraint among all classes of society, we may see quite clearly that Christianity is the only religion an educated European can accept, and yet we mat never have felt the power of God in the Cross of Christ. If we believe in Christianity because it approves itself to our judgment as the best solution of the problems of life, that is well; but still, if that be all that draws us to Christ, our faith stands in the wisdom of men rather than in the power of God.
In what sense then are we Christians? Have we allowed the Cross of Christ to make its peculiar impression upon us? Have we given it a chance to influence us? Have we in all seriousness of spirit considered what is presented to us in the Cross? Have we honestly laid bare our hearts to the love of Christ? Have we admitted to ourselves that it was for us He died? If so, then we must have felt the power of God in the Cross. We must have found ourselves taken captive by this love of God. Gods law we may have found it possible to resist; its threatenings we may have been able to put out of our mind. The natural helps to goodness which God has given us in the family, in the world around us, in the fortunes of life, we may have found too feeble to lift us above temptation and bring us into a really high and pure life. But in the Cross we at length experience what Divine power is; we know the irresistible appeal of Divine self-sacrifice, the overcoming, regenerating pathos of the Divine desire to save us from sin and destruction, the upholding and quickening energy that flows into our being from the Divine sympathy and hopefulness in our behalf. The Cross is the actual point of contact between God and man. It is the point at which the fulness of Divine energy is actually brought to bear upon us men. To receive the whole benefit and blessing that God can now give us we need only be in true contact with the Cross: through it we become direct recipients of the holiness, the love, the power, of God. In it Christ is made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. In very truth all that God can do for us to set us free from sin and to restore us to Himself and happiness is done for us in the Cross; and through it we receive all that is needful, all that Gods holiness requires, all that His love desires us to possess.