Introductory remarks
1
📚Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God 📖, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 📚To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:1:2 Paul speaks of what all believers in Christ are. They form a called out assembly (note on Church at Matt 16:18). They belong to God (1 Cor 16:19-20; John 17:9-10). They are set apart “sanctified” (John 17:17-19). They are “in” Christ (Eph 1:1, 4). God has called them to be holy (to be a special people belonging to a holy God. Note at Lev 20:7). They have one Lord (1 Cor 8:5-6; Rom 10:9).⚜
3 📚Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul expresses his thanksgiving
4 📚I always thank my God for you, for the grace of God which is given to you by Jesus Christ, 5 📚so that in everything you are enriched 📖 by him, in all kinds of speaking and complete knowledge, 6 📚since the testimony of Christ was established among you, 7 📚so that you are not inferior in any gift 📖, as you wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 📚He will establish you to the end 📖, so that you may be blameless 📖 in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 📚God is faithful 📖, by whom you were called into the fellowship 📖 of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
The divided Corinthian church
10 📚Now I plead with you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak in agreement, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
1:10 See 1 Cor 12:25; Rom 12:16; Eph 4:3. Is it possible for all believers to be “perfectly united in...mind and...purpose”? Evidently. See also 1 Cor 2:16; 2 Cor 13:11; Eph 4:13; Phil 1:27; 2:2; Acts 4:32. Of course Paul is speaking of the teachings of Christ and his apostles. It is possible for all believers to agree on these teachings, but very difficult. It requires a thorough knowledge of God’s word, a firm belief in it, and a determination to apply it in every situation.⚜
11 📚For it has been told me about you, my brethren, by those who are of the household of Chloe, that there are quarrels among you. 12 📚Now I say that all of you are speaking like this: “I am of Paul”, and another “I am of Apollos 📖”, and another “I am of Cephas”, and another “I am of Christ 📖”.
1:11-12 This was a mark of their immaturity and lack of spirituality – 1 Cor 3:1-4. They knew much and spoke well (v 5), but practiced little of the truth they knew – a common fault everywhere and always. They made far too much of men – another common fault in all times (1 Cor 3:5-8).⚜
13 📚Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1:13 Neither Christ nor His Body can be divided (1 Cor 12:12-13). Believers are to recognize this fact, accept one another, and live in the unity they have in Christ (Eph 4:2). Paul is saying in this verse, “who is any person compared to Christ? Do not exalt any man to too high a place”.⚜
14 📚I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius, 15 📚so that no one should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 📚And also I baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides these, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else. 17 📚For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of no effect.
1:14-17 Notes on baptism at Matt 3:6; 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38. Paul knew that as far as salvation is concerned repentance and faith were the vital things (Acts 17:30; 20:21; Rom 10:9-10). If baptism had been essential for salvation (as some today confidently assert) could Paul possibly have taken this attitude toward it? It is evident that the duty of all believers to live in harmony with each other was more important to Paul than questions about baptism.⚜
True wisdom and power
18 📚For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 📚For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom
of the wise,
and will bring to nothing
the understanding of
the intelligent.
20 📚Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1:20 True wisdom begins with the fear of the one true God, and this the wise men, scholars and philosophers who belong to this world (and not to Christ) do not have (see Job 28:28; Ps 111:10; Prov 1:7). So they do not have even the barest beginning of wisdom. But the point here is that God made all their so-called wisdom as foolishness by the cross. The cross is God’s one way of saving men, and it is a way none of the wisest of men ever once thought. The way of wisdom cannot bring salvation to anyone. It is not God’s way. See also Col 2:8.⚜
21 📚For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the “foolishness” of what was preached 📖 to save those who believe.
1:21 There are three important truths here.
First, men with all their philosophy, intellectual activity or mystic knowledge did not come to the knowledge of God. Actually quite the opposite happened – they lost the knowledge of God that mankind once had (see Rom 1:21-23).
Second, God saves people through what seems foolishness to so-called wise men – the preaching of the cross (v 18).⚜
22 📚📚 For the Jews require a miraculous sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom 📖, 23 📚but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block 📖 to the Jews, and foolishness 📖 to the Greeks, 24 📚but to those who are called 📖, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 📚Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1:17-25 In v 17 Paul is not denying that Christ told His disciples to baptize (Matt 28:19), or that all believers should be baptized. He is speaking about the essence of his ministry, the one overwhelmingly important thing – preaching the gospel.
Observe here what Paul avoided in his preaching – human wisdom. He knew that such wisdom was really foolishness (v 20), and that by it no one can come to a true knowledge of God (v 21). And he knew that God had appointed the clear preaching of the gospel as the way to bring men to salvation (vs 21,23; 1 Cor 15:1-2; Rom 1:16). Preaching with human wisdom is the same as trying to empty the cross of Christ of its power. And we may be sure that anything which does that is not of God, and is of no use in the salvation of men.
Verse 18 speaks of two classes of people – the “perishing” and those “being saved”. The attitude of people toward Christ’s cross reveals which group they are in. In these verses the “perishing” (see John 3:16; Luke 19:10) are of two kinds (v 22) – the religious law-keeping Jews and the idolatrous Greeks with their love of philosophy. The cross is foolishness to both kinds of people. Why? They do not understand it (2 Cor 4:4), and they do not believe it is necessary (the gospel is not man’s way of thinking, but God’s – Rom 8:5-7). Moreover, they do not want it (they are self-confident and proud and the cross would humble them in the dust).
There are many such people today. They do not think it is foolishness to lie, cheat, steal, live for temporary pleasures, or bow down to images made by men. To them only the cross (which is the wisdom of God – v 24) is foolishness!
But some people are “being saved” (salvation begins with the new birth – John 1:12-13; 3:3-8, and goes on to the resurrection and glorification of believers – Rom 8:23, 30). To them the cross is the power of God (vs 18,24; Rom 1:16). They have experienced its power. It has completely changed their lives (2 Cor 5:17). To them it is also the wisdom of God (v 24). They see far more of God’s wisdom in any aspect of the cross than in all the works of all the world’s wise men and philosophers who do not believe and know Christ.⚜
1:25 See how different God’s wisdom is from man’s, and how far above it. Compare Isa 55:8-9; Rom 11:33-36.⚜
26 📚For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
1:26 This was true then and true now. In India from among the intellectuals, or the high castes God has called some but not many. It has pleased Him to call many from among the poor and uneducated, the lower castes or no castes. Compare Christ’s words in Matt 11:25-26. Caste pride is not something He looks on with favour.⚜
27 📚But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, 28 📚and lowly things of the world, and things which are despised, God has chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 📚so that no flesh should glory in God's presence.
1:27-29 Here is God’s good purpose in choosing the lowly and despised to be His people. He loathes men’s pride, and cannot stand those who boast in their strength and influence. See Jer 9:23; Prov 6:16-17; 16:5; Isa 1:31; 2:12-18; 13:11; Jer 17:5; Matt 18:3-4; Jam 4:6. He has arranged matters so that all in which men take pride will come to nothing and that no human being will be able to boast in His presence – Rom 3:27; Eph 2:9.⚜
30 📚But by him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, and righteousness 📖, and sanctification 📖, and redemption 📖,
1:30 Believers are in Christ (Eph 1:1, 4). They are there because God the Father has chosen them. And Christ is to them all they need for salvation, for time and for eternity. Christ is a far higher wisdom than anything the world knows or can know (Col 2:2-3, 8, 9). And even the most uneducated and lowliest believer in Christ has more true wisdom than any wise man or philosopher without Christ.⚜
31 📚so that, according to what is written, he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.