Bible Study - 1 Corinthians Chapter 2
Bible Study - 1 Corinthians Chapter 2
| 1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. | Paul is reminding them of his history with the Corinthian church. He came to them and founded their church. Paul is stating that it was not human abilities in knowledge and speaking ability that was behind his founding of the Corinthian church. In fact, Paul is criticized for not being the powerful and popular orator that Apollos was. He just gave the testimony of God, which spoke for itself. | ||
| 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. |
Paul states the reason for his approach, a total focus on the salvation of the Christ Event, Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection. It was always Paul's practice to begin by teaching about Jesus Christ, first in the synagogue, then to all who would listen. (Acts 13:26-42) | ||
| 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, |
"I was with you" transitions from his arrival to the time he lived with and taught them. Paul is acknowledging that he was not the perfect man like Jesus was. One of the ways leaders are criticized is by pointing out their faults. And Paul was being attacked this way in the Corinthian church at this time. Paul's weakness is not specified. However, he writes about the "thorn in his flesh" that God would not remove in 2 Corinthians 12:8. So it may be referring to this physical affliction that may have been visible to others. Or it may be that Paul is referring to his speaking ability not being what people wanted it to be. Or it could just be that they saw he was a man like they were, with weaknesses and mistakes. The meaning of fear and trembling is not specified. But this serves as a reminder that the task of preaching the gospel in Corinth was daunting. It was a nexus of pagan religions. This was like going into the Cantina on Tatooine unarmed and on beat up the new guy night. Both of these phrases put the focus on God for the results, and not on Paul himself. Paul repeats this theme in 2 Corinthians 11:30 and 12:5. | ||
| 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. |
The people of the Greco-Roman culture were fascinated by words, rhetoric and logic to prove points. This was such that even things that were patently false were still engaged with on the merits of the argument. Those that made their living this way were called sophists. Because the use of false arguments was so prevalent, the word for false arguments in English is sophistry. Ironically, sophistry is mainstream in western culture far more than in first century Greece. Worse, today people deny that sophistry is sophistry. (At least the Greco-Roman culture was aware of it being false.) For example, the fact is that if you average the income of all men and compare it to the average income of all women, men make more money. Then people make the leap wider than the Pacific Ocean and say this is evidence of misogyny, when the main cause is the differences in career choices as a group, followed by women tending to make quality of family life a higher priority in their daily choices and career advancement. Doctors make more than janitors, regardless of gender. Paul distanced himself from the sophists of the day by stating that his message was not successful because of his rhetoric, but because of and by the work of the Spirit. The spiritual gifts and miracles were also evidence that Paul's words true. However, Paul seems to have referred to the Spirit moving in the gospel message itself in contrast to sophist's delivery of human wisdom. Faith based on human wisdom will not last. 1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. | ||
| 6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; |
Next Paul stated that wisdom was taught to "the mature", and that this was the timeless wisdom of God, not the sophistry of man. A mistake in interpretation of this verse is that Paul withheld wisdom from the Corinthians because of their immaturity. As a whole the church was immature, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:1 refers to them as a group as being immature in Christ. But that doesn't mean that there were none who were spiritually mature. Verse 12 of this chapter speaks of those who have received the Spirit so that they will know the things freely given by God. And verse 15 speaks of a person who is spiritual in all things. From this context of Paul referring to some people in the Corinthian church as being spiritual and mature, Paul was saying that he spoke wisdom to the mature who are able to receive the wisdom of God. But not all are yet mature, although he keeps encouraging them to become mature Christians. In 1 Corinthians 14:20 Paul persuades them to put on the mindset of one who is mature in Christ. | ||
| 7 but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; |
The mystery is that the plan of God to redeem mankind through the sacrifice of Christ was now revealed. To the secular leaders of that time crucifixion was the most shameful death. But to Christians it is called Christ's glory. They meant it to end a threat to their power, but instead they fulfilled God's plan from before the world was made. Calvinists use verse 7 as evidence of predestination. This ignores dozens of verses about choosing. If we don't have free will to choose, then what are those verses for? At the bottom of the problem is that our minds cannot comprehend foreknowledge and free will being compatible, any more than we can really comprehend the trinity. Yet they do coexist. Rejecting one side or the other in scripture because we cannot understand how they can coexist is a perilous course. | ||
9
but just as it is written,
|
Paul was possibly referring to Isaiah 64:4 and 65:17, which was the opinion of the NASB translators. If so, it is heavily paraphrased by Paul. Or it could be a quote of a non-scriptural text significant to the Corinthians. As to its meaning, this is in line with what he has just written in the previous verse. God's wisdom is unknown to man, and his plan to save humanity was not understood beforehand, and is still not understood by those who are not in Christ. | ||
| 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. |
The Spirit is key to understanding God's wisdom. Paul uses the Greek philosophy, "like is only known by like," to make the point that only God can know God. However, we can know God through the Holy Spirit in us as He is God. Paul reinforced this with the analogy of the hidden inner man. The beginning of verse 10 could be translated to begin with "but" instead of "for". However, that would put this sentence in opposition to the previous passage. And the context as well as Paul's writing in other letters make it clear that it should be "for", meaning this is an explanatory sentence rather than opposition. | ||
| 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, | It is by the Holy Spirit we know things from God. The primary method the Spirit informs us is through scripture. Scripture is divinely inspired and this is done by the Spirit. The secondary method is by the Spirit walking with us daily. But we must distinguish this from the spirit of the world. It is by scripture, God's special revelation, that we can discern between them. Anything that contradicts, adds to or takes away from scripture is not of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of this world often uses our own fleshly desires to deceive us. Thus people not grounded in scripture will come out of a private prayer time with a false revelation that is from themselves and contrary to the Spirit. | ||
| 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. |
In this verse "words" doesn't mean language. In Greek it is logois from logos which means word, message, argument, book and such. In this context it refers to the preaching of the gospel. This verse is reinforcing the verses before, stating that spiritual truths cannot be understood in man's wisdom, but only by the Holy Spirit. The ESV translation is a little clearer. 1 Corinthians 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. [ESV] In verse 2 Paul says he preaches Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In verses 6-7 Paul writes about preaching God's wisdom to the mature that the worldly do not understand, and they certainly do not understand the crucifixion. In verses 10-13 our ability to understand the crucifixion and salvation is by the Holy Spirit. Thus the passage from verse 2 to 13 is about the gospel being preached, written about, and understood by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some misuse this verse to falsely support a doctrine of a secret prayer language. However, this is reading into the text to a very large degree. It does not speak of the gift of tongues at all, let alone that doctrine. | ||
| 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. | In Greek, psuchikos, is a natural man and also an unspiritual man. Appraised, anakrinetai from anakrino in Greek, means appraised in the sense of examined and discerned. When we rely on our own human rationality, spiritual things are foolishness to us. The trinity is nonsense to human reasoning. But it is the true nature of God whether we can comprehend it or not. | ||
| 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. |
Different translations use appraised, appraises, discerned, judges, and judged in verses 14 & 15, and they are all the same word in Greek. Christians must judge what is right and wrong, scriptural or against scripture, Godly or worldly, true or false. And this must be by God's standards and not our own. That Christians are judged by no one doesn't mean we are exempt from critical appraisal and correction by other Christians. It means our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus and we are blameless in His sight. So we will not face condemnation for our sins at the Bema seat, but instead will be evaluated for reward according to what we accomplished in this life. | ||
| 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. |
This is a quote from Isaiah 40:13. This is a rebuke of those that put themselves as judge of God, and their own reasoning as the standard by which they judge God, themselves, and others. This is beyond foolish, it is self-idolatry. God is all-knowing, and we know next to nothing. It is not our place to instruct God on what He should do or how He should do anything. However, as Christians we are to become like Christ. This not an instant transformation, but the work of a lifetime. We have the Spirit in us and Spirit inspired scripture to inform us. Thus we should use our heads to discern everything as Christ would do. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.