 |  |
RECONCILIATION AND FAILURE OF THE LAW 87
1 Corinthians 1:18 to 2:5
The wisdom and power of God
A 1:18.
The power of God.
B 1:19-22.
The wisdom of the world.
C 1:23.
We preach Christ crucified.
D 1:24-31.
Object. That no flesh should glory.
C 2:1,2.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
B 2:3,4.
Not with ... man's wisdom.
A 2:5.
Your faith ... the power of God.
By observing that 2:1,2 is an outcome of 1:27-31 we are enabled to appreciate the apostle's conscientious
faithfulness. Had he been a man-pleaser, and desired to tickle the ears of the worldlings, he would have discoursed
eloquently upon the great themes of his ministry to his own shame and the ruin of the Corinthians. Instead, he
allowed his traducers the opportunity of criticizing his lack of eloquence, and preserved his faithfulness as a steward
of the mysteries of God. Failure to connect chapter 2:1,2 with the spirit of the quotations with which chapter 1 ends
has led some into that perilous position of becoming critics of the apostle's motives. First of all they utterly fail to
appreciate the fulness of his message on Mars Hill, and then they imagine that the apostle was full of remorse for
speaking as he had done, and so, when he reached Corinth (Acts 18:1) from Athens, he determined upon another
course, and adhered to the preaching of Christ crucified. This, however, is not the case. The preaching of the cross,
and that only, was necessitated by the spiritual condition of his hearers in Corinth, and not by the apostle's
estimation of his (so-called) failure at Athens. We speak more fully upon Acts 17 in another place, so leave the
matter here with these few words.
The words `in demonstration of the spirit and of power' are sometimes used of meetings to-day. `The display of
spirit and power' refers to the confirmation of the apostle's teaching, `through mighty signs and wonders, by the
power of the Spirit of God' (Rom. 15:19).
Chapters 2:6 to 3:2 bring into strong contrast
The natural......................... and ......... the spiritual.
The babe............................. and ......... the full-grown or perfect.
The milk............................. and ......... the meat.
The teaching of man ........... and ......... the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
After telling of the reasons why he limited his preaching to that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that his
manner of speech likewise was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, the apostle goes on to say that he did
speak of deeper things, wisdom indeed, but only to such as were spiritually ready to receive them:
`Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect ... we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world (ages) unto our glory' (2:6,7).
It is wisdom that was spoken, that was hidden, that was ordained before the ages. The mystery was the way in
which the apostle spoke it. We speak, what? the wisdom of God; how? in a mystery. It is not the mystery, but the
wisdom which was hidden. This is rendered certain by consulting the original: `mystery' is neuter, `wisdom' is
feminine, the relative pronoun `which' is ten, feminine, and refers to wisdom. Christ crucified is the wisdom of God
(1:23,24). But the hidden wisdom necessitated Christ risen as the firstfruits, and this opened up teaching that went
back to Adam and before the ages for which the Corinthians were not ready.
The reason for speaking this hidden wisdom in a mystery is parallel to a large extent with the reason for speaking
to the people in parables (Matt. 13:10-17). None but spiritual persons could understand spiritual things. To the
natural man they are foolishness. Rotherham renders the words `comparing spiritual things with spiritual' as
follows: `by spiritual words spiritual things explaining'. J.N. Darby reads `communicating spiritual (things) by
spiritual (means)'. Another rendering is `explaining spiritual things to spiritual persons'. Whichever rendering be