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. _the testimony of... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified_ He had come to deliver a testimony concerning God, and as we have seen, that testimony must needs result in the humiliation of man. Accordingly, its matter is very simple. All he knows is Jesus Christ, and even... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I was with you in weakness_ No personal advantages assisted his preaching: no eloquence, save that of deep conviction; no self-confidence; nothing but self-mistrust, anxiety, the deepest sense of unworthiness, combined with an infirmity of body, which was a great trial to the Apostle, and of wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_in demonstration of the Spirit and of power_ Not persuasive (πειθοῖς) arguments, but appeals to the conscience and to the influence of a higher power. It is doubtful whether we should translate -the Spirit" here, as though the Holy Spirit were meant, and more than doubtful whether we should interpr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit we speak wisdom_ Is there, then, no wisdom possible for a Christian? no sphere for the exercise of those faculties of the intellect which we received from God? the hearer may say. Certainly, says the Apostle, (for to say otherwise would be to contradict the Jewish Scriptures, especially Pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_the wisdom of God in a mystery_ The distinction between _faith wisdom_and _knowledge_in St Paul's writings would appear to be this. _Faith_is the fundamental principle of Christianity, whereby the life of God in Christ is received into the heart; _wisdom_is the power of insight into things Divine r... [ Continue Reading ]
_which none of the princes of this world knew_ These words seem to be written for the instruction of the class of persons who attach importance to the opinions of those high in position and influence the princes, or rather _rulers_of this world, its statesmen. Such persons, the Apostle points out, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_But as it is written, Eye hath not seen_ There has been much discussion whence these words are derived, but they are quite sufficiently near to the passage in Isaiah 64:4 to be regarded as a quotation from thence. It is unreasonable to require greater literal accuracy in the citation of words from... [ Continue Reading ]
_for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God_ In this and the next verse we gather (1) the personality of the Holy Ghost, (2) His distinction from the Father. He not only searches the deep things of God, which He could not be described as doing were He identical with the Father,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now we have received_ Literally, WE RECEIVED, i.e. when we became disciples. _that we might know_ The word here signifies to perceive, rather than to gather by the exercise of the reason. Such things as the Spirit reveals to us are discerned as clearly by our spirits as the things visible to sense... [ Continue Reading ]
_comparing spiritual things with spiritual_ These words have been interpreted in several ways. (1) Wiclif renders them "_maken a liknesse of_(i.e. explaining) _spyritual things to goostli men_." (2) The Vulgate and English versions render the Greek word by _compare_. (3) Some interpret, _explaining... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God_ The natural man (_animalis_, Vulgate), that is, the man whose perceptions do not extend beyond the region of the intellect, the part of his being which he has in common with the animal creation, can never attain to the things of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that is spiritual judgeth all things_ The word which is used in this and the preceding verse, which is translated _discerned_in the last verse, in the text of this verse by _judgeth_, and in the margin by _discerneth_, signifies in every other passage in the N. T. to _examine_, and is so ren... [ Continue Reading ]
_For who hath known the mind of the Lord_ See note on 1 Corinthians 1:10. The Hebrew of Isaiah 40:13, here quoted, has _spirit_, the Septuagint _mind_. St Paul here follows the Septuagint, which is nearer to the original than our version, -Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord?" The literal trans... [ Continue Reading ]