When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1. And I, when I came Paul having begun…
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 is here confirmed — that hitherto he has not been speaking of mere empty prattling, but has included the entire training of human learning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–8 The Gospel.
The Gospel.
He returneth to 1 Cor. 1:17, that is to say, to his own example: confessing that he used not amongst 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, humble and abject, as touching the flesh.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you,…
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.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–8 It should seem by the apostle’s so often declaring…
It should seem by the apostle’s 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 man’s 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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 Our apostle had, in the foregoing chapter, declared how…
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,
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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.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 In this passage the apostle pursues his design, and…
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 (Co1 2:2), 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. Any one 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.
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II. The manner wherein he preached Christ is here also observable. 1. Negatively. He came not among them with excellency of speech or wisdom, Co1 2:1. His speech and preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, Co1 2:4. 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, Co1 2:1. 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, Co1 2:3, Co1 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, Co2 10:10. 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, Act 14:12. 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 (Co1 2:5) - 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–8 And I, brethren, when I came to you,.... This…
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 Co1 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
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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, Act 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".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–8 And I accordingly came to you, not with loftiness…
And I accordingly came to you, not with loftiness of speech or of wisdom - I did not affect either deep wisdom or eloquence. Declaring the testimony of God - What God gave me to testify concerning his Son.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–8 The apostle makes an apology for his manner of…
CHAPTER II.
The apostle makes an apology for his manner of preaching, 1.
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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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6 1Co 2:1. And I, brethren, &c. — As if…
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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–8 And I, brethren - Keeping up the tender and…
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.
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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.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 8 In weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.…
In weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. We must not think, says St. John Chrysostom, that this made the virtue of St. Paul less commendable. It is natural to every man to fear persecutions and torments. We admire the apostle, who amidst these fears, was always ready to expose himself, was always fighting, and always victorious. (Witham) --- During the stay I made with you at Corinth, I saw myself daily exposed to injuries, affronts, and persecutions. I had then the opportunity of practising the lessons which our expiring Redeemer delivered to us from the wood on which he died, and the daily contradictions I met with obliged me to think of other things than fine discourses, and elegant harangues. (Theophylactus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 1 Corinthians Chapter 2
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!
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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.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 C. As Illustrated by the Apostle’s Example
C. As Illustrated by the Apostle’s Example
1Co_2:1-5
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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 man’s [om. man’s3] 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.—κᾀγω: “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 (λόγος and σοφία) 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 (σοφίᾳ λόγου), 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 with—proclaiming 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 God’s 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 deliberate—the result of a settled purpose. For—confirmatory—I 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” (τι), as in our E. V., is contrary to the phraseology. But Stanley translates: “I determined to know nothing,” making οὐκ ἕκρινα like οὓ φημι. 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.] κρίνειν 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 crucified—i.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 men’s 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 Apostle’s 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, ἐγενόμηνπρὸςὑμᾶς. 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 γενέσθαι πρός occurs also in 16:10. (πρός: 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 Rückert 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 myself—as 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 (λόγος), his private discourse, and the second (κήρυγμα), his public discourse [so Olsh., Rück., 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.4—was not.—The verb here has to be supplied; either ἐγένετο for 1Co_2:3, or ἧν, meaning: was not furnished with (Luk_4:32); or: did not consist in. The character of his speech and preaching is described, 1, negatively—not in the persuasive words of wisdom, οὐκ ἐν πειθοῖς σοφίας λόγοις.—[ἀνθρωπίνης man’s, 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 πειθοῖς 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 φειδός from φείδομαι. But the explanation, which would take πειθοῖς as a substantive, in the sense of: persuasions, and put σόφίας λόγοις in apposition, is inadmissible, if only for this reason, that the plural of πειθώ 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: οὐκ ἐν πειθοῖ σοφίας in fitting antithesis to ἐν ἀποδείξει πνεύματος, since it is decisive against this, that this reading no where appears alone without λόγοις or λόγων. Even in the ordinary reading, “wisdom” may be regarded as expressing the main idea, inasmuch as 1Co_2:5 demands this. πειθός, otherwise πιθανός [and as Meyer suggests, “probably a word in common, oral use.”]=convincing, winning, enticing, comp. πιθανογογία, Col_2:4. [Corinthia verba, pro exquisitis, et magnopere elaboratis et ad ostentationem nitidis. Wetstein ad loc.] 2, positively—but 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 salvation—hence, 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 God’s 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, God’s Spirit and power can bear testimony, and glorify Christ, and bring to man’s 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 God’s spirit and power which would alone prove mighty for the overthrow of Satan, and the setting up of God’s 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 preëminently 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, impure—a man’s name is put for Christ’s; 2, unsafe and fickle—human systems crowd each other out; 3, inoperative—the Spirit of God is not its source; 4, not genuine—science has no faith-begetting power. Therefore a Christian’s 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 preacher’s 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 Christ’s 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 sentences—until 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 μαρτν́ριον. others, according to good and ancient authorities [A. C. Cod. Sin. Syr.], read μνστήριον. But it is more probable that this arose from a gloss suited to 1Co_2:7, than that μαρτν́ριον could have crept in here from 1:6; at the same time only a few authorities read μαρτν́ριον τον͂ χριστον͂.
[2]1Co_2:2.—The received τον͂ είδεναι τι is not well authenticated, and the order τί εἰδέναι is confirmed by B. C. D. E. Δ.and many other decisive authorities. [Wordsworth says: “τὶ, which is emphatic, is rightly placed before είδέναι by B. C. D. E. and by Griesbach, Scholz., Lach., Alf., Meyer. Indeed είδέναι τὶ ἐν ν̔μῖν would have been liable to an inconvenient interpretation: to know what is in you.”]
[3]1Co_2:4.—The received ανθρωπίνης has the balance of authorities against it [and is omitted by Griesb., Scholz. Lach., Tisch., Meyer.] Other variations in this ver. (e. g.) πιθανοῖς for πειθοῖς etc., can hardly be regarded as any thing more than conjectures of an older or a later date, (See below.)
[4][Why de Wette’s 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.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–8 The Greek implies, "The only definite thing that I…
The Greek implies, "The only definite thing that I made it my business to know among you, was to know Jesus Christ (His person) and Him crucified (His office)" [ALFORD], not exalted on the earthly throne of David, but executed as the vilest malefactor. The historical fact of Christ's crucifixion had probably been put less prominently forward by the seekers after human wisdom in the Corinthian church, to avoid offending learned heathens and Jews. Christ's person and Christ's office constitute the sum of the Gospel.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–8 3. This pride of philosophy Paul renounced at his…
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.
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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.
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Ch. 2. The wisdom of the Gospel discernible by…
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.
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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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 (1) And I.—The Apostle now proceeds to show how…
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 God’s method. “The testimony of God” is St. Paul’s testimony concerning God in Christ (1Co_1:6; 2Ti_1:8).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–8 Vers. 1-5. St. Paul"s own method.
Vers. 1-5. St. Paul"s own method.
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", (trietian 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)
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Vers. 1-5.
A faithful picture of a true gospel preacher.
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 theme a 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 subjects political and philosophical dwindled 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.)
HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB.
Vers. 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.
HOMILIES BY E. HURNDALL Vers. 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 haystack exceedingly 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.
1. This was "the testimony of God" (ver. 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.
2. 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 desired conviction 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 Spirit and 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 spirit he 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 apostle a 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 (ver. 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 inquiry What is our faith based upon? Do we know anything of the "power ofGod," the "demonstration of the Spirit "? The faith of not a few such as it is is based upon the imagination, eloquence, learning, or eccentricities of their ministers; upon the authority of their Church; or upon their own unsanctioned fancies. H.
HOMILIES BY H. BREMNER Vers. 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.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 And I, brethren,… came … not with excellency of…
1Co_2:1-5
And I, brethren,… came … not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.
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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.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1–5. Paul has shown, in the preceding chapter, that…
1–5. Paul has shown, in the preceding chapter, that God chose the things and persons which the world calls foolish, and weak, and base, and of no account, in order to confute the world's wisdom and to overthrow its power. He now shows that this harmonizes with the means used at Corinth in the founding of the church. Not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Not with the eloquent arts of a Grecian orator, or the speculations of a Greek philosopher; things highly esteemed at Corinth and among all the Greeks. The testimony of God. The Revision has, “Mystery of God,” which has the support of the best MSS., and harmonizes better with the context. The gospel is often called “a mystery” (Eph. 3:9, and 1 Tim. 3:16).
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 (For many points, see Homiletic Analysis.)
CRITICAL NOTES
(For many points, see Homiletic Analysis.)
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1Co_2:1. I.—Slightly emphatic; q.d. “I was myself also in complete harmony of spirit and method with the lines of God’s 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_10:19—which surely extends beyond any mere case of forensic apology—to 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 Lord’s 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.—God’s “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 Paul’s argument, “crucify” Christ (1Co_2:8).
1Co_2:7.—Connect, not “we speak … in a mystery,” but “God’s 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 God’s self-conscious personality.
1Co_2:12. World.—Here κόσμος; in 1Co_2:6-8, αἰών. Liddon, Bampton Lectures, v., note, as to κόσμος, 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 (κτίσις), but only as the κόσμος, 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! God’s thoughts, as the Spirit discloses them, spoken in the Spirit’s 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 Lord’s Supper, “Τὰ ἅγια τοῖς ἁγίοις.” “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” (νοῦς) 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 backslider’s 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 Paul’s 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 Jude’s 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 distinction—a very difficult question—it 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 Master’s terminology, and those “born again.” “Soulish” has been proposed as an equivalent for Paul’s 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 body’s 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 God’s 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, and—culture or no culture in the ordinary sense—you 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 Æon, 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 men—no 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 been—even Gospel privileges and a hope for Gentiles—a “mystery” (1Co_2:7). They had been the secrets of God’s 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 things—Heaven; 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 Paul’s 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 children—“the 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 John’s 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 behind—he 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 encyclopædic 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 Paul’s inspired language, and strongly suggests that behind the world’s 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 God”—that 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 world’s wisdom,” when he came to Corinth. Let the “natural men” teach “natural men” “natural” thoughts! Paul will begin, and will end—but that there is no end to the Theme—with “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 Him—perhaps 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 man’s 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 otherwise—to 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 sufferer—would 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, “Paul’s preaching attracted me; Paul’s 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 man’s” 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 Judæa 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 overtopping—a Saul amongst them—the 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 Monod’s 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 Cæsarea. 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 one—“Jesus 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 pilgrim’s 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 Lord’s 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 Lord’s Supper. The story of the Resurrection and of the appearance of the Risen Christ to His Disciples occupies only twenty verses in St. Matthew’s narrative; only twenty—perhaps only nine—in St. Mark’s; 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 Lord’s Ascension into heaven, nor does St. John; and even if the closing verses of St. Mark’s Gospel came from his own hand, he tells us nothing more than the bare fact.… Time and place are left indefinite, and our Lord’s parting words to His Disciples and the vision of angels are passed over in silence. But the Betrayal, the Arrest, the appearance before Caiaphas, Peter’s denial, the cry of the people for the release of Barabbas, and the Crucifixion of our Lord, Pilate’s 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 Lord’s 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 Messiah’s 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 God’s 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 preacher’s 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 Duff’s Bagster’s 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 knowledge—journals, 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. Smith’s Duff, i. 258). God’s Word was the only book for the missionary, and for the minister of the Gospel. More exactly parallel to Paul’s 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 father’s 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 God’s 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 Paul’s 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 stone—and God! It might even issue in so modifying some essential feature of the Gospel that it should no longer be simply God’s “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 Person—“Jesus 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. Paul’s 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, Paul’s 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.—Men’s 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 Him—stand 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 Paul’s 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 Peter’s connection with the Judaising controversy which just at this period evidently occupied so much of Paul’s 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 propose—“Christ 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 sinner’s 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, Poppæa, sat by Nero’s 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 Paul’s 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 world—not to say also in the Church—to know, to have but the one theme, sovereign in all his theology, his ethics, his teaching, his service—“Jesus 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 Paul’s 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 community—as 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” topic—a 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 fail—he 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 false—no gods at all; his the only True. Their religions—whether childish in their barbarous simplicity, or hoary with antiquity, the fruit of ages of subtle thought—all 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 ancestors—sins, 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 æsthetics. 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 fact—Sin, 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 raised—all 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 truth—“tests 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!” [Voltaire’s 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 Baptist’s 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 man’s 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 labourer’s 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 d’être is Christ—Paul’s “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 “manifold”—many-sided, many-coloured—“wisdom 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 knew—none better—the 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. Paul’s 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 God’s 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 Capitol—or the Cross—can 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 natures—hating themselves that they do not, and cannot, attain to even their own ideal of Goodness or Holiness—these 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 God’s “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-enacted—or which had its counterpart—within 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 world’s 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 thus—as is proved by multiplied experiment—provides 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, God’s 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 Spirit’s assurance to the penitent sinner that he has found acceptance with God for Christ’s 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 God”—God’s forgiving, adopting love to him the sinner—“is 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 man’s mind and heart, is past our analysis. [How does man’s mind meet and act upon man’s mind?] But the fact is sure to the man who receives it upon the Spirit’s “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 child’s life, if only she have her child’s 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, Paul’s 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 God’s works there is a “law of parsimony”—parsimony 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 God’s 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 God’s 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 implanted—“God 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 God’s 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 field—“the 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 God’s method in everything else, if this particular group of facts, and this particular path into the knowledge of them, were without their natural analogies—were 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 man’s 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 æsthetic, 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 Hannington’s 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 up—sealed 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 man’s 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 means—words spoken, words written, by men who are taught them, not by man’s 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 God’s 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 man’s 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 child’s 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 Paul’s theology [the Holy Ghost’s theology, they say who believe in Paul’s 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 Father”—or gets at the Father, even to know Him—“but 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 substitute—if they did so designedly—one 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 Author’s 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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1–8 1. “Indeed having come unto you, brethren, I came…
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.”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 1Co 2:2
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?
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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.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 3. (1Co 2:1-16.)
Section 3. (1Co 2:1-16.)
The revelation by the Spirit, of things beyond mere human knowledge.
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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.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v2 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians
THE APOSTLE’S THEME
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1Co 2:2.
Many of you are aware that to-day I close forty years of ministry in this city-I cannot say to this congregation, for there are very, very few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of these years. You will bear me witness that I seldom intrude personal references into the pulpit, but perhaps it would be affectation not to do so now. Looking back over these long years, many thoughts arise which cannot be spoken in public. But one thing I may say, and that is, that I am grateful to God and to you, dear friends, for the unbroken harmony, confidence, affection, and forbearance which have brightened and lightened my work. Of its worth I cannot judge; its imperfections I know better than the most unfavourable critic; but I can humbly take the words of this text as expressive, not, indeed, of my attainments, but of my aims. One of my texts, on my first Sunday in Manchester, was ‘We preach Christ and Him crucified,’ and I look back, and venture to say that the noble words of this text have been, however imperfectly followed, my guiding star.
Now, I wish to say a word or two, less personal perhaps, and yet, as you can well suppose, not without a personal reference in my own consciousness.
I. Note here first, then, the Apostolic theme-Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Now, the Apostle, in this context, gives us a little autobiographical glimpse which is singularly and interestingly confirmed by some slight incidental notices in the Book of the Acts. He says, in the context, that he was with the Corinthians ‘in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,’ and, if we turn to the narrative, we find that a singular period of silence, apparent abandonment of his work and dejection, seems to have synchronised with his coming to the great city of Corinth. The reasons were very plain. He had recently come into Europe for the first time and had had to front a new condition of things, very different from what he had found in Palestine or in Asia Minor. His experience had not been encouraging. He had been imprisoned in Philippi; he had been smuggled away by night from Thessalonica; he had been hounded from Berea; he had all but wholly failed to make any impression in Athens, and in his solitude he came to Corinth, and lay quiet, and took stock of his adversaries. He came to the conclusion which he records in my text; he felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers, or to attempt to vie with Sophists and professional orators, but that his only way to meet Greek civilisation, Greek philosophy, Greek eloquence, Greek self-conceit, was to preach ‘Christ and Him crucified.’ The determination was not come to in ignorance of the conditions that were fronting him. He knew Corinth, its wealth, its wickedness, its culture, and knowing these he said, ‘I have made up my mind that I will know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’
So, then, this Apostle’s conception of his theme was-the biography of a Man, with especial emphasis laid on one act in His history-His death. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity. His relation to the truth that He proclaimed, and to the truths that may be deducible from the story of His life and death, is altogether different from the relation of any other founder of a religion to the truths that he has proclaimed. For in these you can accept the teaching, and ignore the teacher. But you cannot do that with Christianity; ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life’; and in that revealing biography, which is the preacher’s theme, the palpitating heart and centre is the death upon the Cross. So, whatever else Christianity comes to be-and it comes to be a great deal else-the principle of its growth, and the germ which must vitalise the whole, lie in the personality and the death of Jesus Christ.
That is not all. The history of the life and the death want something more to make them a gospel. The fact, I was going to say, is the least part of the fact; as in some vegetable growths, there is far more underground than above. For, unless along with, involved in, and deducible from, but capable of being stated separately from, the external facts, there is a certain commentary or explanation of them: the history is a history, the biography is a biography, the story of the Cross is a touching narrative, but it is no gospel.
And what was Paul’s commentary which lifted the bare facts up into the loftier region? This-as for the person, Jesus Christ ‘declared to be the son of God with power’-as for the fact of the death, ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures.’ Let in these two conceptions into the facts-and they are the necessary explanation and presupposition of the facts-the Incarnation and the Sacrifice, and then you get what Paul calls ‘my gospel,’ not because it was his invention, but because it was the trust committed to him. That is the Gospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with; and that is the Gospel which, God helping me, I have for forty years tried to preach.
We hear a great deal at present, or we did a few years ago, about this generation having recovered Jesus Christ, and about the necessity of going ‘back to the Christ of the Gospels.’ By all means, I say, if in the process you do not lose the Christ of the Epistles, who is the Christ of the Gospels, too. I am free to admit that a past generation has wrapped theological cobwebs round the gracious figure of Christ with disastrous results. For it is perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Him, and not to know Him about whom these things are said. But the mistake into which the present generation is far more likely to fall than that of substituting theology for Christ, is the converse one-that of substituting an undefined Christ for the Christ of the Gospels and the Epistles, the Incarnate Son of God, who died for our salvation. And that is a more disastrous mistake than the other, for you can know nothing about Him and He can be nothing to you, except as you grasp the Apostolic explanation of the bare facts-seeing in Him the Word who became flesh, the Son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons.
I would further point out that a clear conception of what the theme is, goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall be proclaimed. The Apostle says, in the passage which is parallel to the present one, in the previous chapter, ‘We preach Christ crucified’; with strong emphasis on the word ‘preach.’ ‘The Jew required a sign’; he wanted a man who would do something. The Greek sought after wisdom; he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate. Paul says, ‘No!’ ‘We have nothing to do. We do not come to philosophise and to argue. We come with a message of fact that has occurred, of a Person that has lived.’ And, as most of you know, the word which he uses means in its full signification, ‘to proclaim as a herald does.’
Of course, if my business were to establish a set of principles, theological or otherwise, then argumentation would be my weapon, proofs would be my means, and my success would be that I should win your credence, your intellectual consent, and conviction. If I were here to proclaim simply a morality, then the thing that I would aim to secure would be obedience, and the method of securing it would be to enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command. But, seeing that my task is to proclaim a living Person and a historical fact, then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in the market-place he stands, trumpet in one hand and the King’s message in the other-proclaim it loudly, confidently, not ‘with bated breath and whispering humbleness,’ as if apologising, nor too much concerned to buttress it up with argumentation out of his own head, but to say, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ and to what the Lord saith conscience says, ‘Amen.’ Brethren, we need far more, in all our pulpits, of that unhesitating confidence in the plain, simple proclamation, stripped, as far as possible, of human additions and accretions, of the great fact and the great Person on whom all our salvation depends.
II. So let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this theme demands.
‘Nothing but,’ says Paul. I might venture to say-though perhaps the tone of the personal allusions in this sermon may seem to contradict it-that this exclusiveness is to be manifested in one very difficult direction, and that that is, the herald shall efface himself. We have to hold up the picture; and if I might take such a metaphor, like a man in a gallery who is displaying some masterpiece to the eyes of the beholders, we have to keep ourselves well behind it; and it will be wise if not even a finger-tip is allowed to steal in front and come into sight. One condition, I believe, of real power in the ministration of the Gospel, is that people shall be convinced that the preacher is thinking not at all about himself, but altogether about his message. You remember that wonderfully pathetic utterance from John the Baptist’s stern lips, which derives much additional pathos and tenderness from the character of the man from whom it came, when they asked him, ‘Who art thou?’ and his answer was, ‘I am a Voice.’ I am a Voice; that is all! Ah, that is the example! We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. We must efface ourselves if we would proclaim Christ.
But I turn to another direction in which this theme demands exclusiveness, and I revert to the previous chapter where in the parallel portion to the words of my text, we find the Apostle very clearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wish which he deliberately thwarted and set at nought. ‘The Jews require a sign-but we preach Christ crucified. The Greeks seek after wisdom,’ but again, ‘we preach Christ crucified.’ Now, take these two. They are representations, in a very emphatic way, of two sets of desires and mental characteristics, which divide the world between them.
On the one hand, there is the sensuous tendency that wants something done for it, something to see, something that sense can grasp at; and so, as it fancies, work itself upwards into a higher region. ‘The Jew requires a sign’-that is, not merely a miracle, but something to look at. He wants a visible sacrifice; he wants a priest. He wants religion to consist largely in the doing of certain acts which may be supposed to bring, in some magical fashion, spiritual blessings. And Paul opposes to that, ‘We preach Christ crucified.’ Brethren, the tendency is strong to-day, not only in those parts of the Anglican communion where sacramentarian theories are in favour, but amongst all sections of the Christian Church, in which there is obvious a drift towards more ornate ritual, and aesthetic services, as means of attracting to church or chapel, and as more important than proclaiming Christ. I am free to confess that possibly some of us, with our Puritan upbringing and tendency, too much disregard that side of human nature. Possibly it is so. But for all that I profoundly believe that if religion is to be strong it must have a very, very small infusion of these external aids to spiritual worship, and that few things more weaken the power of the Gospel that Paul preached than the lowering of the flag in conformity with desires of men of sense, and substituting for the simple glory of the preached Word the meretricious, and in time impotent, and always corrupting, attractions of a sensuous worship.
Further, ‘The Greeks seek after wisdom.’ They wanted demonstration, abstract principles, systematised philosophies, and the like. Paul comes again with his ‘We preach Christ and Him crucified.’ The wisdom is there, as I shall have to say in a moment, but the form that it takes is directly antagonistic to the wishes of these wisdom-seeking Greeks. The same thing in modern guise besets us to-day. We are called upon, on all sides, to bring into the pulpit what they call an ethical gospel; putting it into plain English, to preach morality, and to leave out Christ. We are called upon, on all sides, to preach an applied Christianity, a social gospel-that is to say, largely to turn the pulpit into a Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper. We are asked to deal with the intellectual difficulties which spring from the collision of science, true or false, with religion, and the like. All that is right enough. But I believe from my heart that the thing to do is to copy Paul’s example, and to preach Christ and Him crucified. You may think me right or you may think me wrong, but here and now, at the end of forty years, I should like to say that I have for the most part ignored that class of subjects deliberately, and of set purpose, and with a profound conviction, be it erroneous or not, that a ministry which listens much to the cry for ‘wisdom’ in its modern forms, has departed from the true perspective of Christian teaching, and will weaken the churches which depend upon it. Let who will turn the pulpit into a professor’s chair, or a lecturer’s platform, or a concert-room stage or a politician’s rostrum, I for one determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
III. Lastly, observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which this theme secures.
Paul says ‘nothing but’; he might have said ‘everything in.’ For ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ covers all the ground of men’s needs. No doubt many of you will have been saying to yourselves whilst you have been listening, if you have been listening, to what I have been saying, ‘Ah! old-fashioned narrowness; quite out of date in this generation.’ Brethren, there are two ways of adapting one’s ministry to the times. One is falling in with the requirements of the times, and the other is going dead against them, and both of these methods have to be pursued by us.
But the exclusiveness of which I have been speaking, is no narrow exclusiveness. Paul felt that, if he was to give the Corinthians what they needed, he must refuse to give them what they wanted, and that whilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities. That is true yet, for the preaching that bases itself upon the life and death of Jesus Christ, conceived as Paul had learned from Jesus Christ to conceive them, that Gospel, whilst it brushes aside men’s superficial wishes, goes straight to the heart of their deep-lying universal necessities, for what the Jew needs most is not a sign, and what the Greek needs most is not wisdom, but what they both need most is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And we all, scholars and fools, poets and common-place people, artists and ploughmen, all of us, in all conditions of life, in all varieties of culture, in all stages of intellectual development, in all diversities of occupation and of mental bias, what we all have in common is that human heart in which sin abides, and what we all need most to have is that evil drop squeezed out of it, and our souls delivered from the burden and the bondage. Therefore, any man that comes with a sign, and does not deal with the sin of the human heart, and any man that comes with a philosophical system of wisdom, and does not deal with sin, does not bring a Gospel that will meet the necessities even of the people to whose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message.
But, beyond that, in this message of Christ and Him crucified, there lies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in these desires that at first sight it seems to thwart. ‘A sign?’ Yes, and where is there power like the power that dwells in Him who is the Incarnate might of omnipotence? ‘Wisdom?’ Yes, and where is there wisdom, except ‘in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’ ? Let the Jew come to the Cross, and in the weak Man hanging there, he will find a mightier revelation of the power of God than anywhere else. Let the Greek come to the Cross, and there he will find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The bases of all social, economical, political reform and well-being, lie in the understanding and the application to social and national life, of the principles that are wrapped in, and are deduced from, the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have not learned them all yet. They have not all been applied to national and individual life yet. I plead for no narrow exclusiveness, but for one consistent with the widest application of Christian principles to all life. Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus, and to know everything in Jesus, and Jesus in everything. Do not begin your building at the second-floor windows. Put in your foundations first, and be sure that they are well laid. Let the Sacrifice of Christ, in its application to the individual and his sins, be ever the basis of all that you say. And then, when that foundation is laid, exhibit, to your heart’s content, the applications of Christianity and its social aspects. But be sure that the beginning of them all is the work of Christ for the individual sinful soul, and the acceptance of that work by personal faith.
Dear friends, ours has been a long and happy union but it is a very solemn one. My responsibilities are great; yours are not small. Let me beseech you to ask yourselves if, with all your kindness to the messenger, you have given heed to the message. Have you passed beyond the voice that speaks, to Him of whom it speaks? Have you taken the truth-veiled and weakened as I know it has been by my words, but yet in them-for what it is, the word of the living God? My occupancy of this pulpit must in the nature of things, before long, come to a close, but the message which I have brought to you will survive all changes in the voice that speaks here. ‘All flesh is grass . . . the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.’ And, closing these forty years, during a long part of which some of you have listened most lovingly and most forbearingly, I leave with you this, which I venture to quote, though it is my Master’s word about Himself, ‘I judge you not; the word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Nature of St. Paul's Preaching
The Nature of St. Paul's Preaching
1-5. Paraphrase. 'When I visited you in Corinth I made no attempt to reconcile my message with your Greek philosophy, (2) but kept to the proclamation of the facts of Christ's life and death upon the Cross. (3) It was with much anxiety and self-distrust that I preached the gospel to you; (4) and the success I obtained was due not to my way of commending the truth, but solely to the spirit and power which animated me; (5) and so God's purpose was fulfilled, that your faith should be based not upon the eloquence of man, but upon the grace of God.'
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1. When I came] i.e. on his first visit some five years before (Act_18:1-11). Not with excellency of speech or of wisdom] St. Paul did not try to win the Corinthians to the gospel either by the eloquence of his speech in presenting it, or by his adroitness in showing its connexion with some of the philosophical ideas which were popular at the time. Testimony] i.e. which God sent me to give about Christ. RV, following another reading, has 'mystery,' i.e. the hidden counsel and will of God revealed in Christ: cp. Rom_16:25, Rom_16:26.
2. Save Jesus Christ, etc.] The Apostle relied for their conversion upon his witness to the great facts of Christ's life and death. The Crucifixion he dwelt upon all the more emphatically that he knew it must be an unattractive doctrine to many.
3. In weakness] His first visit was paid at a time when he was either sick in body from his recurrent malady (2Co_12:7), or sick at heart from his failure at Athens (Act_17:32), and dreading lest he were again to fail among these argumentative Greeks. Fear and.. much trembling] The Apostle frequently uses this expression to indicate an overpowering anxiety for the performance of duty, culminating in a supreme effort: cp. 2Co_7:15; Eph_6:5; Php_2:12.
4. The success of the Apostle's preaching was the result of his own possession of the divine Spirit, and the power that resided in his message to arrest and convince the hearer.
6-16. Paraphrase. 'There is indeed a wisdom with which the facts of the gospel are in harmony and which we declare to those who are ripe to receive it. (7, 8) It is not the wisdom of this world, for that led its possessors to crucify the Lord; but the wisdom which God has long kept secret (9) as the Scriptures confirm. (10) This secret wisdom God has revealed to us by His Spirit; (11) for just as man's spirit alone knows his secret thoughts, so only the Spirit of God knows God's deep designs. (12) And that Spirit of God has revealed these designs to us, (13) and we preach them in words suited to convey their spiritual message. (14) Now to the man who has not been enlightened by the Spirit of God these truths make no appeal; (15) but he whose mind has been thus enlightened is able to estimate them rightly, and he himself in his turn cannot be understood by the unspiritual. (16) For no one can know the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him; but we are in sympathy with the mind of Christ, and so can understand these spiritual truths which are revealed in Him.'
6. Wisdom] Christianity has a wisdom of its own. While it is centred in a Person, it is capable of being expressed in the terms of philosophy, and is in harmony with all that is best in human reasoning and speculation.
Perfect] St. Paul divides Christians into two classes, the beginners and the advanced. The former must be taught the simple truths of the gospel and grounded in its facts: the latter are able to receive teaching regarding God's plan in redemption and His purpose as it is revealed in Christ and illustrated in the history of the world. 'Perfect' means 'mature,' 'full-grown,' and is applied to Christians of ripe experience and character. It is often used in this sense in the Epistle to the Hebrews: cp. Eph_4:13; Col_1:28; Heb_2:10; Heb_5:9, Heb_5:14; Heb_9:9; Heb_10:1, etc.
The princes of this world] 'The men of light and leading' (Dods). They showed utter ignorance of God's mind: cp. 1Co_2:8.
7. In a mystery] Mystery means something formerly hidden in the counsels of God, but now revealed. The 'mystery' here is the reasoned account of the redemption brought by Christ. Theology is necessary if we are to understand our religion. Unto our glory] cp. Mat_25:34.
8. The Lord of glory] The glory is His; and He came to bestow it upon us, to bringus to the perfection of our nature.
9. Eye hath not seen] A free quotation, perhaps from memory, of Isa_64:4 with the addition of 'neither have entered into the heart of man,' in order to emphasise the fact that man has had no share in the discovery. The things which God hath prepared] The spiritual blessings and comforts and enhghtenment revealed in Christ.
10. Searcheth] i.e. explores, fathoms: Psa_139:1; Rom_8:27. The deep things] lit. 'the depths of God': i.e. His counsels.
11. The spirit of man.. the Spirit of God] The two expressions are exactly parallel. The spirit of man is man's conscious self in thought: and the Spirit of God is His conscious Self in thought.
12, 13. Render, 'Now when we accepted the salvation of the gospel our minds were enlightened not by any worldly wisdom, but by the wisdom which God's Spirit bestows upon the spiritually-minded and which enables us to understand and appreciate the blessings given us through Christ. (13) And these blessings we explain to you in terms suggested by no human philosophy, but by God's Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language.'
12. The spirit of the world] i.e. the wisdom falsely so called, which brought men no blessing. The spirit which is of God] i.e. true spiritual insight, which God gives by bestowing upon us a portion of His own Spirit, sending forth into our minds His light and truth (Psa_43:3). The things that are freely given]
The spiritual blessings brought by Christ, forgiveness, sanctification, redemption (1Co_1:30).
13. We speak] Our language no less than our truths are the result of the spiritual insight with which God has enlightened our minds. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual] The phrase should be translated either, (1) 'interpreting spiritual truths in spiritual language,' or, (2) as in RM, 'interpreting spiritual things to spiritual men.' The former connects it with the context of this v., the latter with 1Co_2:14. With the former also cp. 1Co_2:4.
14. The natural man] i.e. man as he is by nature before he has come under the influence of God's grace. He may have all the intellectual qualities necessary to comprehend the wisdom of man, but he cannot understand the wisdom of God without the spiritual qualities which come only from acceptance of the gospel, e.g. humility, purity of heart, and submission to the influence of Christ.
15. Is judged of no man] The unregenerate man cannot estimate the spiritual man's experiences and aspirations: he is only bewildered when he hears these things mentioned.
16. Who hath known] adapted from Isa_40:18. No man untouched by God's Spirit can know anything of His mind. His truth is only revealed to those in sympathy with the spirit and character of Christ.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1–8 [In chapter 1 Paul showed that it was God's…
[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 ]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 7 Jehovah. Jer 9:24
Lord
Jehovah. Jer 9:24
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The Apostle’s Preaching. (1Co 2:1-5).
CHAPTER 2
1. The Apostle’s Preaching. (1Co 2:1-5).
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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 God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom ordained by God before the world unto our glory. And what is this hidden wisdom, God’s 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).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 The Preaching of the Cross.
The Preaching of the Cross.
Paul’s preaching not in man’s wisdom:
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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.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul contrasts human wisdom and God's wisdom. He emphasizes that spiritual wisdom comes from God.
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brothers
Here this means fellow Christians, including both men and women.
I decided to know nothing ... except Jesus Christ
When Paul said that he "decided to know nothing" he exaggerated to emphasize that he decided focus on and teach about nothing other than Jesus Christ. AT: "I decided to teach nothing ... except Jesus Christ" or "I decided not to teach anything ... except Jesus Christ" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
translationWords
brother
wise
preach
mystery
know
Jesus
crucify
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 7, 8 2:1-5 God’s sovereign work made Paul’s preaching effective. In…
2:1-5 God’s sovereign work made Paul’s preaching effective. In his evangelism, Paul did not rely on the persuasive power of his intellect or his dynamic personality, but on the power of the Holy Spirit (see also study note on 1:18-31).
2:1 When I first came to you: See Acts 18:1-17. lofty words and impressive wisdom: Human wisdom and philosophy don’t bring people to Christ (see 1 Cor 1:17, 21; 2:2). The message of the cross has its own power to convert the human heart (see 1:17; Rom 1:16; Gal 6:14). • God’s secret plan: See study note on 1 Cor 2:7.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.