1 Corinthians 1:6

THE WITNESS CONCERNING CHRIST

‘The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.’

1 Corinthians 1:6

Christianity means, first of all, the testimony of Christ; that is to say, the witness concerning Christ. Now this is what the great Apostle urges over and over again. He is always urging it. He presents himself everywhere to men as a witness for the Person of Christ.

I. The message which he brings is first and foremost a testimony concerning Him.—And this was something wholly new in the history of religious teaching. There had been religious teachers; there had been philosophers by the score before St. Paul came. They had their doctrines; they had their systems; they had their theories, which they presented to men’s minds, and which they offered to men’s acceptance. St. Paul, too, had his system and his doctrines to propose to men, which he did hold up and propose to men; but they lay in the background of all that he taught. What he put prominently forward first, and what was the one thing which he gave his life in order that he might press upon the minds and souls of men, was the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, as he over and over again says, lived, died, was buried, rose, ascended, is ever at the right hand of God, and ever living with His Church and people upon earth. It was this testimony of Christ which he is everywhere delivering; it is the same testimony of Christ which is the prime element of our Christianity too. It is true there are great doctrines presented to our minds—doctrines that are most magnificent in their sweep, and most glorious in their truth, most mighty in their power, most precious in their meaning, but they all of them hang upon the Person of Christ. It is the testimony of Christ which makes them all what they are.

II. And yet Christianity in its true essence means something more than this testimony of Christ.—It means this first, but it means much more besides. And St. Paul expresses the further meaning of the religion which he taught in the brief, terse sentence of the text. He says to his converts in the city of Corinth, ‘The testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.’ And what he means to say is that that testimony of Christ, which he delivered to them, took deep root in the hearts of those who became followers of Christ, and laid hold of the springs of their being. It is quite clear that this was so. St. Paul came to the great city of Corinth, and there he delivered the testimony of Christ to such as would listen to him. Most men, of course, refused to listen. They laughed at what seemed such folly to them. They scoffed at the humbler tent-maker who ventured to teach them. They were angry, some of them, with him, and the anger of some went on until the days of persecution. Nevertheless, there were some who did listen, and when they listened, the testimony of Christ, which Paul delivered, laid strange hold upon them which they could not explain. The Person of Christ, of which he talked to them a great deal, rose up before their spirits and minds as a great reality, and then it was to them the very refuge that they wanted from their sins and the sorrows of their life. It was the very rock on which they wanted to plant their feet for safety; it was the very light that they wanted to guide them; it was the very hope which they wanted as they thought of death and whatever it might be that comes after death. The testimony of Christ was confirmed in them.

III. And here is the further meaning of the essence of true Christianity. It is not only the revelation of Christ to men; it is that first and foremost, but besides that it is the drawing of men to Christ. St. Paul’s first object was to bring Christ to men, but the reason why that was his first object was that he might eventually bring men to Christ. The testimony of Christ has been delivered to us, not simply to add to the stock of our human knowledge, or to move our wonder and admiration. Christ is held up to us, not simply as a beautiful statue, attracting our wonder and admiration and homage by its beauty and its glory, while all the time it is only like cold and lifeless marble. No! He is held up as a living Person, stretching His hands to us, moving Himself towards us, calling us by His loving voice, and Whom we find to be warm and living. Christ is held up to us in the New Testament that we may be drawn to His feet in humble penitence and faith and love, and then, what always follows, that we may be gradually renewed after His image.

Illustration

‘It would be a foolish thing to say, as men sometimes do say, in the newspapers and elsewhere, that all our modern controversies upon matters of doctrine are a mere waste of words and time, and that it matters really very little whether we accept, for instance, the Thirty-nine Articles of the English Church or the Decrees of the Council of Trent. Doctrine is of great importance, but it is of less importance than the testimony concerning Christ Himself. St. Paul wrote elaborate treatises to set forth and to enforce doctrines. There are treatises by the hundred written to-day to uphold some doctrines and to demolish others. But all these things do not touch the centre of our faith. They are all secondary to the great foundation truth that the Son of God came into the world in the Person of Christ, lived, died, rose, ascended, lives for ever, promising to us who have sinned—that means all of us—pardon and peace and life. It is the testimony of the Person of Christ which first meets the hunger of human souls.’