[Meeting] meeting: 1 Corinthians 1 Part 2

[Jones, Rob (SF02)]

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After so exalted and precious an introduction, it is humbling to consider
in verse 10 the necessity of the urgent appeal to these dear saints "by the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ" that there should be practical unity among
them. When considering the greatness of the grace that has been showered
upon the Church of God unitedly, how can we dare to act in discord and
division? But such is the sad tendency in an evil world, and while having
still within us a fleshly nature that responds to selfish and self-centered
attractions. It was true in Corinth, and how true in the Church at large
through all the years! Who is there today who does not deeply need this
challenging Epistle?

 

First, it is urged that they "all speak the same thing." For it is wrong
speaking that is the beginning of division. If we are inclined to "speak
our mind," let us remember first that "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor.
2:16); and be watchful that it is His mind that moves our tongues. If this
is true, we shall "all speak the same thing;" our speaking will all have
the same concerted objective, moving in the same stedfast direction.

 

Secondly, "and that there be no divisions among you." Small indeed are the
occasions that will sometimes cause these things; and we must be always
watchful against anything that would introduce friction between saints of
God, and judge it promptly. Thirdly, "that ye be perfectly joined together
in the same mind and in the same judgment." This is possible only if we
have our minds set on things above, and in this way are unitedly seeking
the mind of Christ, in which there is certainly perfect unity. Mere
personal preference must be given no place, but that which is honestly for
the glory of Christ. This will give sober judgment too as regards occasions
that demand some proper judicious decisions.

 

But in Corinth there were contentions. Paul candidly tells them who had
informed him of this. And he spares no one in his reproof. He takes sides
with no one, but presses the fact that the assembly was responsible for
this, not merely some individuals. Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and even Christ,
they were making leaders of divisions among themselves. If some felt they
were honoring Paul in this way, Paul did not think so. Nor indeed were they
honoring Christ who would put Him in the place of their particular leader
in contrast to other saints of God.

 

"Is Christ divided?" No, He is the Head of the entire body of Christ, the
Assembly. "Was Paul crucified for you?" In view of the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how can any child of God give a place of superiority to any
mere man?

 

 Their  public baptism had designated them all as followers of Christ, not
of any servant of Christ.

 

Nor only this: Paul had not even done the baptizing of the Corinthians,
except for Crispus and Gains. For he diligently sought that their faith
would stand in the power of God, not as attached to any man (Compare ch
2:4,5). He had been careful to avoid any charge by men that he baptized in
his own name: the baptism therefore was left to others.

 

Let us observe that verse 14 is emphatic: Paul had baptized none in the
assembly but Crispus and Gains. Yet he adds, "And I baptized also the
household of Stephanus." This household therefore was not in the assembly,
though Stephanus himself was. Is there any other explanation than that the
household was composed of children too young to be in the assembly? In
chapter 16:4 however we read that "the house of Stephanus . . . have
addicted themselves to the ministry." This would pose an insoluble problem
if the word "house" and "household" were the same, but the Greek word for
"household" in chapter I refers strictly to the children of the
householder; while that for "house" in chapter 16 is a term that includes
servants. Is it not therefore likely that it was the household servants of
Stephanus, who, being in the assembly (not therefore themselves baptized by
Paul), had addicted themselves to the ministry. There seems no other answer
to the problem.

 

Further, he says, "Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other." Why
had he forgotten this? Because it was a matter of little importance. There
may have been others in Corinth whom he had baptized, but they were at any
rate not in the assembly, as would no doubt be the case if they were young
children.

 

To Paul, baptism was not the important matter it is to some. He
emphatically stresses that Christ had not sent him to baptize, but to
preach the gospel: it was the gospel he preached that was the vital matter:
it is this that brings souls to the Lord Himself, furnishes forgiveness,
justification, eternal life, settled peace with God. Baptism could do none
of these, nor help in doing so: it is merely a public ordinance that puts
one in the place of outward discipleship.

 

But more, Paul avoided all intellectual or philosophical reasonings in his
presentation of the gospel. These are things that lead to self-exaltation
and consequent disunity, and draw attention away from the cross of Christ.
For the cross is the basis of the unity of the body of Christ (Eph.
2:15,16). And without it there could be no gospel whatever. If the
preaching of the cross appears to those who are perishing to be
foolishness, yet to us who are saved, it is the power of God. "The wise and
prudent" very often are those who are blinded to the truth of the gospel by
the very fact of its simplicity, and that it makes of little importance the
profound learning of men. But those who bow to it and are saved, recognize
power in it that is not humanly explainable.

 

Whether verse 19 refers to Job 5:12 specifically, or whether the general
message of the Old Testament involved the truth here declared, still God's
revelation now, which renders null and void all men's vaunted wisdom, this
was consistent with prophecy. This is a matter far higher than human
intellect could conceive, a matter too that is not submitted to the
reasoning's of human wisdom, but before which such wisdom collapses. God
destroys it and brings it to nothing.

 

Where are the wise, the scribe, the disputer of this world? No doubt these
are prominent men in the world's estimation; but in the light of the
revelation of God they become like the magicians of Egypt when the plague
of boils afflicted them: they could not stand before Moses (Ex. 9:11).
Indeed, this matchless revelation actually renders foolish the wisdom of
this world.

 

God first allowed man's wisdom to prove itself to the full. But its
strivings could never attain to the knowledge of God. God's own wisdom had
decreed this could not be. When Paul wrote, and in fact before the cross,
the outstanding philosophers of Greece - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle - had
proven complete failures in finding the knowledge of the true God, and were
mired with the rest of Greece in the worship of many false gods.

 

Yet now it has pleased God, by the foolishness of the preaching of the
cross, to save those who believe. This of course is what men count to be
foolishness. It requires no great intellect to understand, but only
simplicity of faith in the Son of God. And because of this great wisdom
being expressed in terms so simple and clear that a child can understand
it, therefore men who pride themselves on their superior wisdom are haughty
enough to despise this, and call it foolishness. It is of course not the
fact of preaching that is despised, but the subject matter.

 

Jews, because of their background and training in the public knowledge of a
God who manifested Himself in visible miracles and signs, were those who
considered that only striking visible signs were valid in proving a thing
to be of God. The Greeks, on the other hand, priding themselves on
intellectual achievement, sought after such wisdom as would of course exalt
the most philosophical minds.

 

"But we preach Christ crucified," says Paul, "unto the Jews a stumbling
block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." What kind of a sign was this? -
the Jews would ask: had not many others been crucified? Yes, but not
another like Him. Here is the one Man without sin, the One who is more than
man, the eternal God manifest in flesh. Him crucified? Yes, and it was Jews
who demanded it because Fie said He was the Son of God (J n. 19:7). But on
His part it was a sacrifice of infinite value, how much more than a sign!

 

And the Greeks, they may say it is foolishness; but when death strikes,
where is all human wisdom? Indeed, often before death, many of the wisest
intellects are reduced to utter inability to reason, or to even remember.
But here is death, the violent death of the curse, proclaimed as the means
of eternal blessing to mankind. And it cuts down everything that is merely
of man, everything that would tend to exalt man's pride, levelling Jews and
Gentiles practically to the dust of the earth, but with the precious object
of lifting them out of it. Actually, the wonder of it is worthy of the
utmost admiration, and it is nothing but the pride of man that refuses it;
whether religious pride, as with the Jew, or intellectual pride, as with
Gentiles. But to those who are called, Christ is seen as the power of God,
power manifested through such weakness as the Jews despised; and the wisdom
of God, far above and beyond all that Greek philosophy could imagine.

 

If, as in verse 25, men wish to consider this the foolishness of God, yet
it is infinitely wiser than man's highest wisdom; and if considered
weakness on God's part, yet there is a power in it far above the greatest
strength of men: it accomplishes such permanent results as to put to shame
those things in which men boast as their greatest accomplishments.

 

Now Paul appeals to the Corinthian brethren themselves to consider the fact
of their calling. Certainly it is God Himself who calls His saints: why
were there not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble among them?
Can it be that God arbitrarily discriminated against these? No indeed; for
at least there were some of these who believed the gospel. But God had seen
fit to choose the foolish things of the world in order to confound the
wise, weak things to confound the mighty, and things ignoble, despised, and
of no account, to render of no value those things that men highly honor. It
is not that God condemns intelligence or human ability, but by the
preaching of the cross He strikes the death-blow to man's pride and
confidence in these things. Some refuse it simply because it injures their
pride: they will not come down to admit that God is really greater than
themselves.

 

If human wisdom and ability is kept in its true place, as subject to, and
dependent upon the superior wisdom and power of God, then the wisest, most
powerful men would gladly accept the precious gospel of His grace, the
preaching of the cross; and they would be only the wiser for this, for they
should learn well the lesson that "no flesh should glory in His presence."
And the fact is that if not comparatively many, yet there are those who
have done so.

 

Verse 30 however shows that, though all mere human wisdom and work is
reduced to nothing by the gospel of God's grace, yet the believing
Corinthians were by this the recipients of the greatest possible blessing.
It was God's doing that they were established "in Christ Jesus": God had
brought them into a place of vital identification with Him, His own Son;
and their full supply of every kind was perfectly provided in Himself, not
by mere human instrumentality or effort. God has made Him "unto us,
wisdom," moreover, this wisdom involves what man's wisdom ignores, that is,

 

righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. These are matters vitally
necessary because of the most grave problems of the moral contamination
that infests all mankind, and which philosophy does not consider, because
it has no answer. Righteousness is that character of consistency with
whatever relationship in which we may be placed. But this is universally
violated, in every nation, culture, community, and family. Where then is it
to be found? Only in Christ, and He Himself is the believer's
righteousness, One who thoroughly satisfies God in every respect, as the
perfect Exemplar of consistency in every relationship.

 

And "sanctification" is the character of being set apart to God from all
this is contrary to His nature. For association with evil is corrupting;
but in Christ we see One "separate from sinners," and He Himself is our
sanctification: God has put us in this position "in Christ." Redemption is
the complete liberation, by virtue of a price paid, from the bondage that
holds men generally in a condition from which it is impossible to extricate
themselves. It is "in Christ" alone this is found: He has paid the full
price of our redemption in His sacrifice of Calvary: thus He Himself is
made unto us redemption. Precious, perfect provision for all who will
accept Him! What full and marvellous reason for boasting in the Lord.

F W Grant


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