1 Corinthians 1 - Introduction

After his salutation and thanksgiving, he exhorteth them to unity, and reproveth their dissensions. God destroyeth the wisdom of the wise, by the foolishness of preaching; and calleth not the wise, mighty, and noble, but the foolish, weak, and men of no account.

Anno Domini 57.

THE teacher who came to Corinth after the Apostle's departure, with a view to lessen his authority among the Corinthians, boldly affirmed that he was no apostle. Wherefore, to shew the falsehood of that calumny, St. Paul, after asserting his own apostleship, and giving the Corinthians his apostolical benediction, mentioned a fact well known to them all, by which his title to the apostleship was established in the clearest manner. Having communicated to the Corinthians a variety of spiritual gifts immediately after their conversion, he thanked God for having enriched them with everyspiritual gift, at the time when his preaching concerning Christ was confirmed among them, 1 Corinthians 1:4. By making the spiritual gifts with which the Corinthians were enriched immediately on their believing, a subject of thanksgiving to God, the Apostle, in a delicate manner, put them in mind, that they had received these gifts long before the false teacher came among them; consequently, that they had received none of their spiritual gifts from him, but were indebted to the Apostle himself for the whole of them; also that they were much to blame for attaching themselves to a teacher, who had given them no proof at all either of his doctrine or of his mission.

St. Paul, by thus appealing to the spiritual gifts which he had imparted to the Corinthians, having established his authority as an apostle, exhorted them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to live in union and peace, 1 Corinthians 1:10.—For he had heard that, after the example of the disciples of the Greek philosophers, each of them claimed peculiar respect, on account of the supposed eminence of the person who had taught him, and attached himself to that teacher, as if he, rather than Christ, had been the author of his faith, 1 Corinthians 1:11.—But to make them sensible that Christ was their only master, the Apostle asked them, Whether Christ, that is, the church of Christ, was divided into different sects, under different masters, like the Grecian schools of philosophy? and whether any one of their teachers was crucified for them? and whether they had been baptized in the name of any of them? 1 Corinthians 1:13.—He then thanked God, since they made such a bad use of the reputation of the persons who baptized them, that he had baptized but a few of them, 1 Corinthians 1:14.—And, to shew that they derived no advantage from the dignity of the teachers who baptized them, he told them, that he and his brethren Apostles, who, in respect of their inspiration, were the chief teachers in the church, were sent by Christ, not so much to baptize, as to preach the Gospel, 1 Corinthians 1:17.

The false teacher, by introducing the Grecian philosophy and rhetoric into his discourses, had endeavoured to render them acceptable to the Corinthians, and had preferred himself to St. Paul, who, he said, was unskilful in these matters. Lest, therefore, the Corinthians should think meanly of his doctrine and manner of preaching, the Apostle told them that Christ had sent him to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of speech, that is, with philosophical arguments expressed in flowery harmonious language, such as the Greeks used in their schools; because in that method, the Gospel becoming a subject of philosophical disputation, would have lost its efficacy as a revelation from God, 1 Corinthians 1:17.—That, though the preaching of salvation through the cross, appeared mere foolishness to the wilfully-destroyed amongthe heathen philosophers and Jewish scribes, yet to the saved from heathenism and Judaism, it was found by experience to be the powerful means of their salvation, 1 Corinthians 1:18.—That God foretold he would remove both philosophy and Judaism on account of their inefficacy, 1 Corinthians 1:19.—and make the Greek philosophers and Jewish scribes ashamed to shew themselves, because they had darkened and corrupted them, rather than enlightened and reformed the world, 1 Corinthians 1:20.—That, having thus experimentally shewn the inefficacy of philosophy, it pleased God by the preaching of doctrines which, to the philosophers, appeared foolishness, to save them who believed, 1 Corinthians 1:21.—And therefore, notwithstanding the Jews required a sign from heaven, in confirmation of the doctrines proposed to them, and the Greeks expected every doctrine to be conformable to their philosophical principles, the Apostle preached salvation through Christ crucified, which he knew was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, 1 Corinthians 1:22.—but to them who were called or persuaded to believe the Gospel, both Jews and Greeks, that doctrine was the powerful and wise means which God made use of for their salvation, 1 Corinthians 1:24.—Therefore, said he, it is evident that the foolish doctrines of God have more wisdom in them than the wisest doctrines of men; and the weak instruments used by God for accomplishing his purposes, are more effectual than the greatest exertions of human genius, 1 Corinthians 1:25.

Having thus defended both the doctrines of the Gospel, and the manner in which they were preached, the Apostle very properly proceeded to shew the Corinthians the folly of glorying in their teachers on account of their learning, their eloquence, their high birth, or their power. Look, said he, at the persons who have called you to the belief of the Gospel; not many philosophers, not many warriors, not many noble men, have been employed to call you, 1 Corinthians 1:26.—But God hath chosen, for that purpose, unlearned persons, to put to shame the learned, 1 Corinthians 1:27.—by their success in enlightening and reforming the world, 1 Corinthians 1:28.—that no flesh might take any honour to himself in the matter of converting and saving mankind, 1 Corinthians 1:29.—the whole glory being due to God, 1 Corinthians 1:30. In this light, the mean birth and low station of the first preachers of the Gospel, together with their want of literature and eloquence, instead of being objections to the Gospel, are strong proofs of its divine original.