For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
Paul determined to make nothing else known among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, though he knew other things besides this central theme. After meeting eloquence, philosophy, logic and science on their own terms at Athens with little fruit, he came to wealthy, corrupt Corinth in weakness and fear and much trembling, refusing excellency of speech and enticing words of man's wisdom in order to urge salvation simply through Christ in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. His purpose was that faith should stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men, since learning and skill can prepare the way but cannot convict and convert. Jesus crucified is the sum, substance, foundation, beginning, middle and end of the gospel, to be presented in every sermon and kept in view in searching Scripture, with every other truth having influence in relation to it. Meditating on Calvary magnifies the plan of salvation, reveals the worth of human beings purchased at infinite price, and transforms mind and character into the same image, and therefore every Christian is to share this inexhaustible subject in words and example to point the weary and broken-hearted to Jesus as the sinner's only hope.
Words and Historical Setting
To know in this verse means to make known, for Paul understood much besides Christ crucified yet resolved to make nothing else known among the Corinthians. The I belongs to a deliberate pattern of I, we and us running through the whole second chapter, which is to be read and noticed word by word.
At Corinth he made Jesus Christ and Him crucified the center, sole focus and essential message of his teaching. At Athens he had met eloquence, logic, oratory, philosophy and science on their own terms with extended discussion of natural religion, yet judged the effort to have borne little fruit and brought few to accept the gospel. He therefore deliberately avoided elaborate arguments, theories, display, impressive speech and worldly wisdom at Corinth, choosing to urge sinners to salvation simply through Christ as Saviour and to arrest careless and indifferent hearers. Corinth was a wealthy, populous city corrupted by heathen vices, and he concluded that in the brief span of human life nothing else mattered so much, keeping the gospel simple because worldly learning and eloquence had failed to move hearts while the cross is God's power to save, with his preaching depending on the Spirit's power so faith would rest on God's power and not human wisdom.
During his year and a half there his hearers were carnal babes able to bear only milk and not meat, slow to learn and closed by jealousy, evil-surmising and accusation against the full working of the Holy Spirit, wise in worldly knowledge but ignorant of divine power on the heart and unable to comprehend the mysteries of salvation. Around them were also proud believers in human theories, exponents of false worship seeking in nature theories to contradict the spiritual and immortal life, critics and skeptics, and licentious sinners. He therefore laid carefully the rudiments, the very alphabet of faith, sowing seed for others to water with further light as the church could bear. He did not begin with direct rebuke of licentiousness and its heinousness before a holy God, but set before them the true object of life, practical godliness and the holiness required for a place in God's kingdom, longing for gospel light to pierce darkness and show the offensiveness of immorality.
The burden of his teaching made salvation through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting on the merits of Christ's blood, their most earnest study and greatest joy, to lift them from worldliness and sin to purity and righteousness at the foot of the cross and prepare them for eternal life. The cross was to be their chief subject of study and joy and the only light by which the worth of the human soul can be understood, with Christ's character as the necessary beginning of a study that becomes the redeemed's science and song through eternity. He centered on Christ rather than making circumcision or observance of the ceremonial law a condition for Gentiles to enter the church and share its privileges, since Christ's saving work embraced the whole world. He preached not with polished oratory or philosophical discussion but through God's grace and power, and Crispus and many Corinthians believed and were baptized.
Manner Without Human Wisdom
Though able to interest hearers with varied wisdom and to answer oratory with oratory, philosophy with philosophy, and logic with logic, the resolve was to refuse excellency of speech and enticing words of human wisdom. There was no display as fine orator, debater, deep philosopher, ruler over conscience, and no flourish, boasting, pompous science or eloquence. The message was made Christ crucified as sum and substance of the whole gospel, with clear direct testimony rather than impressive speech.
Coming was in weakness and fear and much trembling, in the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, having learned from the divine Teacher. Sanctified humility guarded against obscuring the power of God's word or dishonoring truth, and God sanctified abilities to give divine power to the work. The aim was that faith should stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men, with proclamation in simple eloquence of what had been revealed rather than worldly learning, philosophy, or persuasive speech. Though Christ crucified may seem foolish or offensive to human judgment, Christ is God's power and wisdom, so no flesh has ground to boast before God. The lesson learned was not to repeat the errors of the world but to express the affirmative truth of God's law as a life-and-death question of obedience unto life or disobedience unto death, lifting up the risen Saviour with the cross of Calvary as the theme of the plan of salvation. Knowledge of a crucified and risen Saviour was presented as saving leaves from the tree of life, so attention would not be scattered from Jesus Christ, placing the crucifixion at the heart of God's hidden wisdom and the work of converting souls, and leaving no place for one man to stand supreme as a ruling despot keeping order in the church.
The resolve governed the whole later ministry without loss as the unchanging source of wisdom and strength. It was reached by setting aside the wisdom of the world once trusted, by grasping that the call as apostle came through the will of God by Jesus Christ and not from men, and by much study of the Scriptures so preaching would not empty the cross of power. It was lived out as making Christ the very life and counting all things loss to gain the knowledge of Christ, to be found in Him with righteousness through faith and not own law-righteousness, and to know Him in resurrection power and fellowship of suffering. The crucified Christ had changed the former persecutor into disciple and learner, and the cross remained the sole ground of confidence and success and the only guarantee of success. The Saviour's love sustained amid struggles against sin and self, Satan and spiritual wickedness, the world's hostility and enemies' opposition, infirmities and many labors, while keeping the purpose of the high calling in view in winning converts and establishing churches. God calls few who are wise, mighty, or noble by human measure, choosing what the world calls foolish, weak, base, despised, and nothing to bring to nothing what is something.
Learning and skill in speaking can prepare a way for the gospel but cannot supply the power needed to convict and convert, as experience at Athens had taught. Elegant speech is unnecessary while God's power is necessary, and without it nothing is accomplished. The verse does not excuse a smooth general testimony that leaves people careless or spiritually weaker, but requires plain speech against wrong with spiritual power to strengthen the church.
Hidden Wisdom Revealed
The determination to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified was carried out by coming not with excellency of speech or wisdom and not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in weakness and fear and much trembling in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that faith should stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. That power bears the test of trial, breaking down opposition, melting away scientific reasoning, and bringing men and women to appreciate truth that keeps them on a solid foundation of past experience to be held fast. The sacred solemn work refuses criticism and piling up rubbish of needless, vain, foolish words. The wisdom spoken among the perfect is not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto glory. None of the princes of this world knew it, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The crucified Christ as Lord of glory is divine and human as revealed by God, His death belongs to God's wisdom ordained before the world, and His obedience unto death belongs to His work as Priest and Sacrifice.
God has prepared for them that love Him things that eye has not seen nor ear heard nor heart imagined. He has revealed them by His Spirit who searches all things, even the deep things of God, for as the spirit of man knows the things of man so only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. Believers have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God that they might know the things freely given by God, speaking them not in words taught by man's wisdom but as taught by the Holy Ghost, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God as foolishness to him and cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual judges all things yet is judged of no man, having the mind of Christ to know the mind of the Lord. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned and must be studied diligently in the Word as lessons in humility before God, requiring spiritual knowledge and spiritual experience to face the future, meet opposition, and be ready to be changed if alive or brought up from the grave.
That preaching of Christ crucified is foolishness to them that perish, especially to men given to worldly pursuits and worldly wisdom, which is why not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called and few men of business ability come into the truth. To them which are called and saved the same preaching is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ is made unto believers wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that no flesh should glory in men but he that glories should glory in the Lord. True wisdom and education therefore center on God and Christ rather than dependence on extensive human learning or grounds for pride, developing humility by showing how much remains to be learned. Students are urged to study deeply, understand, and put into practice the truths revealed in the chapter, holding Jesus Christ and His crucifixion as the central knowledge to be taught.
Contemplating the Cross Transforms
Christ crucified is the Christian's central subject for thought, conversation, and joyful feeling, taking priority over all else. Meditating on Calvary and the magnitude of the sacrifice magnifies the plan of salvation. Such contemplation awakens deep and sacred feelings, with gratitude and praise to God and the Lamb, and calls for earnest feeling over eternal interests purchased at immense cost. It refines and elevates the affections and transforms mind and character. That renewed mind gains courage and zeal to spread that knowledge and to continue in the suffering path until death.
The cross alone reveals the worth of human beings, whose value is known at Calvary where the Father gave His Son at infinite price for redemption with wisdom, mercy, and full love. Its vast love is to absorb the mind and be the deepest concern of the soul. It should soften the soul and heart, stir earnest feeling, turn the heart from pride and worldly attachments, and call for deep devotion and humble obedience. Remembering blessings and that great love leads to trusting everything to God, and those who value this salvation follow wherever led and regard burdens given as privilege.
Keeping the eye of faith fixed on Jesus alone and refusing to let Satan's hellish shadow intercept God's love and tender compassion changes the beholder into the same image. Faith must penetrate the thick cloud of darkness instead of looking at the cloud and talking about it and dreading it, because looking at darkness makes dark while looking to Jesus keeps in light. Dwelling on Christ's great love instead of faultfinding shows Him descending step by step in the valley of humiliation to stand at the head of humanity as a perfect pattern in human flesh for every son and daughter of Adam, wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, chastised for peace, and striped for healing. Remembering that He was crucified for each person makes quarrels and faultfinding unworthy uses of precious time. It calls for standing in God's wisdom in whatever calling or work, with living testimony that work is through Jesus Christ crucified, and for studying His work until divine inspiration brings repentance and confession and humiliation of soul in every church.
Preaching Christ Today
Jesus crucified is the sum, substance, foundation, beginning, middle and end of the gospel and must be presented in every sermon and kept in view in searching Scripture, with every other truth having its influence and power in relation to it. Mere theory explaining how truths fit together is insufficient without pressing Christ upon the conscience toward practical godliness, presenting doctrines in their unity and applying them to daily life to show sin and need to turn to God. History and prophecy are to be traced from Adam onward to magnify Christ as exalted and all in all, calling sinners to repent and turn to God, with His words, actions and teachings presented impressively. The cross reveals the exalted character of God's law and gives life to souls weakened by sin, enlightening the mind, sanctifying the soul, banishing unbelief, inspiring faith, and awakening neglected duty to be lightbearers with a missionary spirit of labor and sacrifice.
Christ crucified is the first subject for unbelievers, babes and those with no knowledge of truth, before health reform, advanced doctrinal discourses, Sabbath reasons or the third angel's message. Strong discourses do not melt and subdue hearts, but Jesus with His sanctification of soul, body and spirit and amazing love, spoken in simplicity, meekness and lowliness without human ornament or flowery speech, reaches, softens, melts and subdues toward conversion. Further light is then unfolded gradually as seekers inquire and are able to bear it, with health reform and full present truth following step by step after conversion. All congregations need this simplicity to learn justification before God as the sinner's only hope, and its presentation in simplicity and power holds attention, arouses interest and leads minds to heavenly and divine things.
Preaching must lift up Christ as the sinner's only hope through faith in His righteousness rather than works, with living power that the Spirit uses to open minds and confront lies, presented with certainty and decision as God's truth. It refuses Christless sermons, mere theory, lectures, dry human theories, high-flown flowery speech, pleasing tales, anecdotes, cheap illustrations, phrenology, marriage topics, symbols and human inventions that divert, confuse, belittle truth and plant no conviction, leaving laborers with few sheaves and weighed and found wanting. Ministers must be converted, plead for the Spirit, feel truth's practical power in their own souls, humble themselves as little children, fall on the Rock and be broken, and learn Christ's way with souls rather than keen debating and criticizing.
Messengers keep self in the background so Jesus only appears, converting to Christ and not to the instrument, and do not fasten people to themselves but turn sympathies to Jesus. They stay pure and closely connected with Heaven, obtain the Spirit by earnest persevering prayer, feed the perishing with needed heavenly bread rather than unneeded science, and serve with heart knowledge and personal experience assimilated like food rather than mere head knowledge, scholastic study or quoting great authors. They serve with tact, zeal according to knowledge, careful humble deportment, tenderness, lowliness and meekness, watching for souls as those who must give account, refusing to display human wisdom or exalt self or carry the work by their own ideas. This turns many from darkness to light, establishes churches and withstands Satan, with the same power given to Paul, Apollos, Silas, Timothy, Peter, James and John ready today.
Worship and preaching keep Christ crucified as the central interest with every word in fear and trembling, refusing political speeches, side issues and distractions while preaching the Word and making warning the burden. Workers go quietly where prejudice is strong, preaching grand Bible truths without first arousing prejudice or directly attacking Sunday, for Christ died because God's law is eternal, immutable and unchangeable, and the Spirit awakens hearers, brings the commandments to remembrance and teaches the Sabbath. Even when nothing but Christ is preached the Spirit repeats that the seventh day is the Sabbath, so honest hungering souls gain confidence and are won without the Sabbath question being taken up first. This work is distinguished from announcing an hour, day or year for Christ's appearing, a different yoke and message never given that ruins souls.
This preaching, empowered by the Holy Spirit, turns ignorance and error to light, convicts of sin as a two-edged sword, and brings genuine conversion of thousands in a day with unity of heart and mind and no strife for supremacy. It was the standard urged upon revival preachers and later reformers, the pattern of the early disciples for the final worldwide work, with the message to go throughout the world to overcome unbelief. It was the reason the disciples continued under prohibition because they obeyed God rather than men, even when it brought persecution as when Stephen was stoned.
Living and Sharing the Message
Paul made Jesus Christ and Him crucified the one central subject of his teaching and knowledge, and every Christian whatever their status or education is to keep proclaiming that good news of salvation to those ignorant of Him and living in sin. This witness is to be given in both words and example, drawing continually from Christ and His life-giving words stored in mind and heart as treasure valued above gold and silver. The gospel is the one great theme embracing preaching, publishing, education and medical work, and workers keep self subordinate while making Christ central. Giving self fully to Him, practicing His words, abiding in Him and becoming one with Him displays pure principles in simplicity and meekness. Words and good works are to fit profession of faith to lead others to glorify God, and a heart filled with immortality's hope and the glory of the gospel cannot remain silent.
Proclaiming Christ and Him crucified enlists all interests and powers in lifting up the Man of Calvary, telling the story of redeeming love with Spirit-given zeal and power. It points the weary, heavy-laden, poor, broken-hearted and perplexed to Jesus as source of all spiritual strength, shows forth the praises of Him who called out of darkness into marvelous light, and tells with pen and voice that Jesus lives to make intercession. The same Jesus who walked with disciples and toiled and suffered in human nature is present in divine power at the right hand to help in every emergency, and workers look to Him for comfort in His assurance to be with them always even to the end of the world. This united labor with the great Master-Worker is done while it is day because time is passing and the end is near, following the self-denying Redeemer through His pilgrimage of matchless love on earth. It is presented with patience, hope and untiring vigilance, calling people to repent and warning that Christ will come again in power and great glory, so that those living in the last days may receive light and His way be prepared for His second appearing.
To know Christ crucified is to make faith in Christ the whole burden of knowledge and preaching, the beginning, middle and end, the foundation and crowning glory of the plan of salvation. It draws minds away from trust in men however high their claims and away from self-righteousness, outward forms, human rites, ceremonies and earthly mediators to Christ alone in penitence and faith. Each person must individually believe and receive Christ as Saviour, for no priest or pope can take the place of the divine Mediator. The one who comes as a repentant believing sinner finds pardon and peace and has Christ's righteousness imputed, calling in despair of own work for Christ as righteousness, with repentance toward God whose holy law is transgressed and faith in Christ whose blood atones, earnest prayer for aid against evil propensities, and obedient endeavor as proof of sincere prayer. All sanctification comes through living active faith that transforms the soul into Christ's image, and in Christ alone are centered all hopes of eternal life. It is the exchange by which He took what was ours and gives what is His, becoming what He was not that sinners might become what they were not, a message that melts hearts, inspires immortal hope, exposes superstition, refutes error, uproots heresy, and kindles a light whose rays extend to earth's uttermost parts and brighten to the close of time.
Keeping Christ and His crucifixion at the center protects the work from novelty that undermines long-established truths and holds to solid past experience that bears trial, breaks opposition and melts scientific reasoning. Jesus and His crucifixion are the great center of all truth, to be taught as truth in Jesus clearly without obscurity, compromise or fear while the Spirit makes it effective, and to be made the chief cornerstone of character that stems bad companionship, values restrictions and fits for immortal life. Gospel workers resolve to learn at the foot of the cross to bring sheaves, keeping self out of sight while ever lifting up and exalting Christ and keeping eternal truths and the peril of neglecting eternal interests plainly before hearers. They labor faithfully and humbly for the church's spiritual welfare in weakness and fear and much trembling, declaring God's testimony in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so faith stands not in men's wisdom but in God's power. As guardians of the flock they are circumspect in deportment, use capabilities with tact and skill in winning souls, have zeal according to knowledge, are a sweet savor of Christ in every place, represent Christ's meekness as true witnesses of the great Teacher, and speak not from human impulse but through Christ's Spirit working in them to do God's will under a cloud of witnesses.
The apostles made Christ crucified the center of preaching and the chief desire to know, and knowing Him meant sharing His sufferings on the way of self-denial and the cross. They put aside personal convenience and pleasure and counted lives as nothing beside doing good and saving souls, and few choose that way yet those faithful few receive blessing and become channels of light to the world. The cross of self-denial remains to be plainly and prominently presented and not hidden under attractive additions, for human wisdom, talents, ability and strength are not to be exalted. To glory in own wisdom, talents, ability or human strength instead of Christ crucified is pride, and punishment surely follows pride, with God bringing down, removing blessing and strength, and teaching utter weakness and need of divine help until the Lord alone is exalted. Preaching Christ crucified is serious heavenly work, and lightness and careless joking confuse and condemn fellow workers, leaving them unable to turn thoughts to heavenly themes.
Setting forth Christ crucified begins with Good Samaritan sympathy that supplies physical necessities, feeds the hungry, houses the poor and reaches depths of misery, giving opportunity to present Him and forming a heritage of light. Uplifting Him touches and convicts the heart, brings the will into subjection, cleanses the soul temple for His indwelling, and fills the soul with earnest love to feast on truth, which must then be imparted with consecrated service. Christian labor is to exalt Jesus, especially Christ crucified, rather than draw attention to the minister or attach people to the preacher, keeping Calvary and the cross central and joining divine power with human effort. It keeps the work on Jesus amid attacks without defending self or arguing accusations, and teaches His suffering and death, wounded for transgressions and made sin so sinners become God's righteousness, through the Spirit's power rather than applause, status, book learning or human ability. Plain simple words with earnestness, humility, heavenly wisdom and love for Christ and those He died for give power to bring conviction, presenting Christ crucified for sins, risen and ascended as intercessor as the science of salvation and burden of the work, with no disgrace even under family or social pressure to be silent.
The chapter belongs among chapters to be thought over at home and applied with God's help to understand them, because many who think they are prepared for the Lord's coming are not. Applying them leads to bearing testimony in the Lord's name, confessing Christ and acknowledging experience, separating from hindrances, knowing God's will and traveling in that pathway, becoming free and all light in the Lord and coming out of darkness into marvelous light. It reveals present spiritual condition to anyone whose discernment is not wholly perverted, and while mercy lingers calls for falling on the Rock and being broken that Jesus may build up into His own likeness. Received in love for the soul it stops leading others in false paths.
The chapter is given to be studied and practiced for curing craving for alcohol and stimulating drinks by looking unto Jesus and trusting His grace to overcome unnatural appetite. It means arousing moral powers, cooperating fully in total abstinence, regaining self-control, keeping the body in healthful condition for service, keeping the intellect clear, and not thinking of self more highly than ought. Paul made Christ and His crucifixion the focus of knowledge and preaching, rejecting worldly wisdom and eloquent words so faith would rest on God's power and no flesh would boast before God. That same dependence supports faithful work for wealthy and influential people, since conversion does not depend on human ability but God works through human agents and the Holy Spirit to lead even wealth-seekers to divine principles.
Christ crucified is to be presented whenever there is opportunity, with tenderness and love as well as plainness and faithfulness, because hearers face decision to obey truth or refuse the cross and reject mercy. Preaching Him means a commitment kept through all ministry to preach Jesus Christ and rely on His righteousness by faith rather than leave Him out. Preaching Christ crucified through the whole world is the one work and single theme for all who labor as His representatives to as many as will believe, with the Holy Spirit opening hearts and doors wherever they go in His name, and with one heart and mind taxing resources to the uttermost they daily add new territories as fields of labor. Those serving in churches and institutions uphold Him as the sure foundation against the enemy's efforts to make people fall.
Paul determined to make nothing else known among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, though he knew other things besides this central theme. After meeting eloquence, philosophy, logic and science on their own terms at Athens with little fruit, he came to wealthy, corrupt Corinth in weakness and fear and much trembling, refusing excellency of speech and enticing words of man's wisdom in order to urge salvation simply through Christ in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. His purpose was that faith should stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men, since learning and skill can prepare the way but cannot convict and convert. Jesus crucified is the sum, substance, foundation, beginning, middle and end of the gospel, to be presented in every sermon and kept in view in searching Scripture, with every other truth having influence in relation to it. Meditating on Calvary magnifies the plan of salvation, reveals the worth of human beings purchased at infinite price, and transforms mind and character into the same image, and therefore every Christian is to share this inexhaustible subject in words and example to point the weary and broken-hearted to Jesus as the sinner's only hope.
Words and Historical Setting
To know in this verse means to make known, for Paul understood much besides Christ crucified yet resolved to make nothing else known among the Corinthians. The I belongs to a deliberate pattern of I, we and us running through the whole second chapter, which is to be read and noticed word by word.
At Corinth he made Jesus Christ and Him crucified the center, sole focus and essential message of his teaching. At Athens he had met eloquence, logic, oratory, philosophy and science on their own terms with extended discussion of natural religion, yet judged the effort to have borne little fruit and brought few to accept the gospel. He therefore deliberately avoided elaborate arguments, theories, display, impressive speech and worldly wisdom at Corinth, choosing to urge sinners to salvation simply through Christ as Saviour and to arrest careless and indifferent hearers. Corinth was a wealthy, populous city corrupted by heathen vices, and he concluded that in the brief span of human life nothing else mattered so much, keeping the gospel simple because worldly learning and eloquence had failed to move hearts while the cross is God's power to save, with his preaching depending on the Spirit's power so faith would rest on God's power and not human wisdom.
During his year and a half there his hearers were carnal babes able to bear only milk and not meat, slow to learn and closed by jealousy, evil-surmising and accusation against the full working of the Holy Spirit, wise in worldly knowledge but ignorant of divine power on the heart and unable to comprehend the mysteries of salvation. Around them were also proud believers in human theories, exponents of false worship seeking in nature theories to contradict the spiritual and immortal life, critics and skeptics, and licentious sinners. He therefore laid carefully the rudiments, the very alphabet of faith, sowing seed for others to water with further light as the church could bear. He did not begin with direct rebuke of licentiousness and its heinousness before a holy God, but set before them the true object of life, practical godliness and the holiness required for a place in God's kingdom, longing for gospel light to pierce darkness and show the offensiveness of immorality.
The burden of his teaching made salvation through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting on the merits of Christ's blood, their most earnest study and greatest joy, to lift them from worldliness and sin to purity and righteousness at the foot of the cross and prepare them for eternal life. The cross was to be their chief subject of study and joy and the only light by which the worth of the human soul can be understood, with Christ's character as the necessary beginning of a study that becomes the redeemed's science and song through eternity. He centered on Christ rather than making circumcision or observance of the ceremonial law a condition for Gentiles to enter the church and share its privileges, since Christ's saving work embraced the whole world. He preached not with polished oratory or philosophical discussion but through God's grace and power, and Crispus and many Corinthians believed and were baptized.
Manner Without Human Wisdom
Though able to interest hearers with varied wisdom and to answer oratory with oratory, philosophy with philosophy, and logic with logic, the resolve was to refuse excellency of speech and enticing words of human wisdom. There was no display as fine orator, debater, deep philosopher, ruler over conscience, and no flourish, boasting, pompous science or eloquence. The message was made Christ crucified as sum and substance of the whole gospel, with clear direct testimony rather than impressive speech.
Coming was in weakness and fear and much trembling, in the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, having learned from the divine Teacher. Sanctified humility guarded against obscuring the power of God's word or dishonoring truth, and God sanctified abilities to give divine power to the work. The aim was that faith should stand in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men, with proclamation in simple eloquence of what had been revealed rather than worldly learning, philosophy, or persuasive speech. Though Christ crucified may seem foolish or offensive to human judgment, Christ is God's power and wisdom, so no flesh has ground to boast before God. The lesson learned was not to repeat the errors of the world but to express the affirmative truth of God's law as a life-and-death question of obedience unto life or disobedience unto death, lifting up the risen Saviour with the cross of Calvary as the theme of the plan of salvation. Knowledge of a crucified and risen Saviour was presented as saving leaves from the tree of life, so attention would not be scattered from Jesus Christ, placing the crucifixion at the heart of God's hidden wisdom and the work of converting souls, and leaving no place for one man to stand supreme as a ruling despot keeping order in the church.
The resolve governed the whole later ministry without loss as the unchanging source of wisdom and strength. It was reached by setting aside the wisdom of the world once trusted, by grasping that the call as apostle came through the will of God by Jesus Christ and not from men, and by much study of the Scriptures so preaching would not empty the cross of power. It was lived out as making Christ the very life and counting all things loss to gain the knowledge of Christ, to be found in Him with righteousness through faith and not own law-righteousness, and to know Him in resurrection power and fellowship of suffering. The crucified Christ had changed the former persecutor into disciple and learner, and the cross remained the sole ground of confidence and success and the only guarantee of success. The Saviour's love sustained amid struggles against sin and self, Satan and spiritual wickedness, the world's hostility and enemies' opposition, infirmities and many labors, while keeping the purpose of the high calling in view in winning converts and establishing churches. God calls few who are wise, mighty, or noble by human measure, choosing what the world calls foolish, weak, base, despised, and nothing to bring to nothing what is something.
Learning and skill in speaking can prepare a way for the gospel but cannot supply the power needed to convict and convert, as experience at Athens had taught. Elegant speech is unnecessary while God's power is necessary, and without it nothing is accomplished. The verse does not excuse a smooth general testimony that leaves people careless or spiritually weaker, but requires plain speech against wrong with spiritual power to strengthen the church.
Hidden Wisdom Revealed
The determination to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified was carried out by coming not with excellency of speech or wisdom and not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in weakness and fear and much trembling in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that faith should stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. That power bears the test of trial, breaking down opposition, melting away scientific reasoning, and bringing men and women to appreciate truth that keeps them on a solid foundation of past experience to be held fast. The sacred solemn work refuses criticism and piling up rubbish of needless, vain, foolish words. The wisdom spoken among the perfect is not the wisdom of this world nor of the princes of this world that come to nothing, but the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom ordained before the world unto glory. None of the princes of this world knew it, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The crucified Christ as Lord of glory is divine and human as revealed by God, His death belongs to God's wisdom ordained before the world, and His obedience unto death belongs to His work as Priest and Sacrifice.
God has prepared for them that love Him things that eye has not seen nor ear heard nor heart imagined. He has revealed them by His Spirit who searches all things, even the deep things of God, for as the spirit of man knows the things of man so only the Spirit of God knows the things of God. Believers have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit of God that they might know the things freely given by God, speaking them not in words taught by man's wisdom but as taught by the Holy Ghost, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God as foolishness to him and cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned, but he that is spiritual judges all things yet is judged of no man, having the mind of Christ to know the mind of the Lord. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned and must be studied diligently in the Word as lessons in humility before God, requiring spiritual knowledge and spiritual experience to face the future, meet opposition, and be ready to be changed if alive or brought up from the grave.
That preaching of Christ crucified is foolishness to them that perish, especially to men given to worldly pursuits and worldly wisdom, which is why not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called and few men of business ability come into the truth. To them which are called and saved the same preaching is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ is made unto believers wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that no flesh should glory in men but he that glories should glory in the Lord. True wisdom and education therefore center on God and Christ rather than dependence on extensive human learning or grounds for pride, developing humility by showing how much remains to be learned. Students are urged to study deeply, understand, and put into practice the truths revealed in the chapter, holding Jesus Christ and His crucifixion as the central knowledge to be taught.
Contemplating the Cross Transforms
Christ crucified is the Christian's central subject for thought, conversation, and joyful feeling, taking priority over all else. Meditating on Calvary and the magnitude of the sacrifice magnifies the plan of salvation. Such contemplation awakens deep and sacred feelings, with gratitude and praise to God and the Lamb, and calls for earnest feeling over eternal interests purchased at immense cost. It refines and elevates the affections and transforms mind and character. That renewed mind gains courage and zeal to spread that knowledge and to continue in the suffering path until death.
The cross alone reveals the worth of human beings, whose value is known at Calvary where the Father gave His Son at infinite price for redemption with wisdom, mercy, and full love. Its vast love is to absorb the mind and be the deepest concern of the soul. It should soften the soul and heart, stir earnest feeling, turn the heart from pride and worldly attachments, and call for deep devotion and humble obedience. Remembering blessings and that great love leads to trusting everything to God, and those who value this salvation follow wherever led and regard burdens given as privilege.
Keeping the eye of faith fixed on Jesus alone and refusing to let Satan's hellish shadow intercept God's love and tender compassion changes the beholder into the same image. Faith must penetrate the thick cloud of darkness instead of looking at the cloud and talking about it and dreading it, because looking at darkness makes dark while looking to Jesus keeps in light. Dwelling on Christ's great love instead of faultfinding shows Him descending step by step in the valley of humiliation to stand at the head of humanity as a perfect pattern in human flesh for every son and daughter of Adam, wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, chastised for peace, and striped for healing. Remembering that He was crucified for each person makes quarrels and faultfinding unworthy uses of precious time. It calls for standing in God's wisdom in whatever calling or work, with living testimony that work is through Jesus Christ crucified, and for studying His work until divine inspiration brings repentance and confession and humiliation of soul in every church.
Preaching Christ Today
Jesus crucified is the sum, substance, foundation, beginning, middle and end of the gospel and must be presented in every sermon and kept in view in searching Scripture, with every other truth having its influence and power in relation to it. Mere theory explaining how truths fit together is insufficient without pressing Christ upon the conscience toward practical godliness, presenting doctrines in their unity and applying them to daily life to show sin and need to turn to God. History and prophecy are to be traced from Adam onward to magnify Christ as exalted and all in all, calling sinners to repent and turn to God, with His words, actions and teachings presented impressively. The cross reveals the exalted character of God's law and gives life to souls weakened by sin, enlightening the mind, sanctifying the soul, banishing unbelief, inspiring faith, and awakening neglected duty to be lightbearers with a missionary spirit of labor and sacrifice.
Christ crucified is the first subject for unbelievers, babes and those with no knowledge of truth, before health reform, advanced doctrinal discourses, Sabbath reasons or the third angel's message. Strong discourses do not melt and subdue hearts, but Jesus with His sanctification of soul, body and spirit and amazing love, spoken in simplicity, meekness and lowliness without human ornament or flowery speech, reaches, softens, melts and subdues toward conversion. Further light is then unfolded gradually as seekers inquire and are able to bear it, with health reform and full present truth following step by step after conversion. All congregations need this simplicity to learn justification before God as the sinner's only hope, and its presentation in simplicity and power holds attention, arouses interest and leads minds to heavenly and divine things.
Preaching must lift up Christ as the sinner's only hope through faith in His righteousness rather than works, with living power that the Spirit uses to open minds and confront lies, presented with certainty and decision as God's truth. It refuses Christless sermons, mere theory, lectures, dry human theories, high-flown flowery speech, pleasing tales, anecdotes, cheap illustrations, phrenology, marriage topics, symbols and human inventions that divert, confuse, belittle truth and plant no conviction, leaving laborers with few sheaves and weighed and found wanting. Ministers must be converted, plead for the Spirit, feel truth's practical power in their own souls, humble themselves as little children, fall on the Rock and be broken, and learn Christ's way with souls rather than keen debating and criticizing.
Messengers keep self in the background so Jesus only appears, converting to Christ and not to the instrument, and do not fasten people to themselves but turn sympathies to Jesus. They stay pure and closely connected with Heaven, obtain the Spirit by earnest persevering prayer, feed the perishing with needed heavenly bread rather than unneeded science, and serve with heart knowledge and personal experience assimilated like food rather than mere head knowledge, scholastic study or quoting great authors. They serve with tact, zeal according to knowledge, careful humble deportment, tenderness, lowliness and meekness, watching for souls as those who must give account, refusing to display human wisdom or exalt self or carry the work by their own ideas. This turns many from darkness to light, establishes churches and withstands Satan, with the same power given to Paul, Apollos, Silas, Timothy, Peter, James and John ready today.
Worship and preaching keep Christ crucified as the central interest with every word in fear and trembling, refusing political speeches, side issues and distractions while preaching the Word and making warning the burden. Workers go quietly where prejudice is strong, preaching grand Bible truths without first arousing prejudice or directly attacking Sunday, for Christ died because God's law is eternal, immutable and unchangeable, and the Spirit awakens hearers, brings the commandments to remembrance and teaches the Sabbath. Even when nothing but Christ is preached the Spirit repeats that the seventh day is the Sabbath, so honest hungering souls gain confidence and are won without the Sabbath question being taken up first. This work is distinguished from announcing an hour, day or year for Christ's appearing, a different yoke and message never given that ruins souls.
This preaching, empowered by the Holy Spirit, turns ignorance and error to light, convicts of sin as a two-edged sword, and brings genuine conversion of thousands in a day with unity of heart and mind and no strife for supremacy. It was the standard urged upon revival preachers and later reformers, the pattern of the early disciples for the final worldwide work, with the message to go throughout the world to overcome unbelief. It was the reason the disciples continued under prohibition because they obeyed God rather than men, even when it brought persecution as when Stephen was stoned.
Living and Sharing the Message
Paul made Jesus Christ and Him crucified the one central subject of his teaching and knowledge, and every Christian whatever their status or education is to keep proclaiming that good news of salvation to those ignorant of Him and living in sin. This witness is to be given in both words and example, drawing continually from Christ and His life-giving words stored in mind and heart as treasure valued above gold and silver. The gospel is the one great theme embracing preaching, publishing, education and medical work, and workers keep self subordinate while making Christ central. Giving self fully to Him, practicing His words, abiding in Him and becoming one with Him displays pure principles in simplicity and meekness. Words and good works are to fit profession of faith to lead others to glorify God, and a heart filled with immortality's hope and the glory of the gospel cannot remain silent.
Proclaiming Christ and Him crucified enlists all interests and powers in lifting up the Man of Calvary, telling the story of redeeming love with Spirit-given zeal and power. It points the weary, heavy-laden, poor, broken-hearted and perplexed to Jesus as source of all spiritual strength, shows forth the praises of Him who called out of darkness into marvelous light, and tells with pen and voice that Jesus lives to make intercession. The same Jesus who walked with disciples and toiled and suffered in human nature is present in divine power at the right hand to help in every emergency, and workers look to Him for comfort in His assurance to be with them always even to the end of the world. This united labor with the great Master-Worker is done while it is day because time is passing and the end is near, following the self-denying Redeemer through His pilgrimage of matchless love on earth. It is presented with patience, hope and untiring vigilance, calling people to repent and warning that Christ will come again in power and great glory, so that those living in the last days may receive light and His way be prepared for His second appearing.
To know Christ crucified is to make faith in Christ the whole burden of knowledge and preaching, the beginning, middle and end, the foundation and crowning glory of the plan of salvation. It draws minds away from trust in men however high their claims and away from self-righteousness, outward forms, human rites, ceremonies and earthly mediators to Christ alone in penitence and faith. Each person must individually believe and receive Christ as Saviour, for no priest or pope can take the place of the divine Mediator. The one who comes as a repentant believing sinner finds pardon and peace and has Christ's righteousness imputed, calling in despair of own work for Christ as righteousness, with repentance toward God whose holy law is transgressed and faith in Christ whose blood atones, earnest prayer for aid against evil propensities, and obedient endeavor as proof of sincere prayer. All sanctification comes through living active faith that transforms the soul into Christ's image, and in Christ alone are centered all hopes of eternal life. It is the exchange by which He took what was ours and gives what is His, becoming what He was not that sinners might become what they were not, a message that melts hearts, inspires immortal hope, exposes superstition, refutes error, uproots heresy, and kindles a light whose rays extend to earth's uttermost parts and brighten to the close of time.
Keeping Christ and His crucifixion at the center protects the work from novelty that undermines long-established truths and holds to solid past experience that bears trial, breaks opposition and melts scientific reasoning. Jesus and His crucifixion are the great center of all truth, to be taught as truth in Jesus clearly without obscurity, compromise or fear while the Spirit makes it effective, and to be made the chief cornerstone of character that stems bad companionship, values restrictions and fits for immortal life. Gospel workers resolve to learn at the foot of the cross to bring sheaves, keeping self out of sight while ever lifting up and exalting Christ and keeping eternal truths and the peril of neglecting eternal interests plainly before hearers. They labor faithfully and humbly for the church's spiritual welfare in weakness and fear and much trembling, declaring God's testimony in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so faith stands not in men's wisdom but in God's power. As guardians of the flock they are circumspect in deportment, use capabilities with tact and skill in winning souls, have zeal according to knowledge, are a sweet savor of Christ in every place, represent Christ's meekness as true witnesses of the great Teacher, and speak not from human impulse but through Christ's Spirit working in them to do God's will under a cloud of witnesses.
The apostles made Christ crucified the center of preaching and the chief desire to know, and knowing Him meant sharing His sufferings on the way of self-denial and the cross. They put aside personal convenience and pleasure and counted lives as nothing beside doing good and saving souls, and few choose that way yet those faithful few receive blessing and become channels of light to the world. The cross of self-denial remains to be plainly and prominently presented and not hidden under attractive additions, for human wisdom, talents, ability and strength are not to be exalted. To glory in own wisdom, talents, ability or human strength instead of Christ crucified is pride, and punishment surely follows pride, with God bringing down, removing blessing and strength, and teaching utter weakness and need of divine help until the Lord alone is exalted. Preaching Christ crucified is serious heavenly work, and lightness and careless joking confuse and condemn fellow workers, leaving them unable to turn thoughts to heavenly themes.
Setting forth Christ crucified begins with Good Samaritan sympathy that supplies physical necessities, feeds the hungry, houses the poor and reaches depths of misery, giving opportunity to present Him and forming a heritage of light. Uplifting Him touches and convicts the heart, brings the will into subjection, cleanses the soul temple for His indwelling, and fills the soul with earnest love to feast on truth, which must then be imparted with consecrated service. Christian labor is to exalt Jesus, especially Christ crucified, rather than draw attention to the minister or attach people to the preacher, keeping Calvary and the cross central and joining divine power with human effort. It keeps the work on Jesus amid attacks without defending self or arguing accusations, and teaches His suffering and death, wounded for transgressions and made sin so sinners become God's righteousness, through the Spirit's power rather than applause, status, book learning or human ability. Plain simple words with earnestness, humility, heavenly wisdom and love for Christ and those He died for give power to bring conviction, presenting Christ crucified for sins, risen and ascended as intercessor as the science of salvation and burden of the work, with no disgrace even under family or social pressure to be silent.
The chapter belongs among chapters to be thought over at home and applied with God's help to understand them, because many who think they are prepared for the Lord's coming are not. Applying them leads to bearing testimony in the Lord's name, confessing Christ and acknowledging experience, separating from hindrances, knowing God's will and traveling in that pathway, becoming free and all light in the Lord and coming out of darkness into marvelous light. It reveals present spiritual condition to anyone whose discernment is not wholly perverted, and while mercy lingers calls for falling on the Rock and being broken that Jesus may build up into His own likeness. Received in love for the soul it stops leading others in false paths.
The chapter is given to be studied and practiced for curing craving for alcohol and stimulating drinks by looking unto Jesus and trusting His grace to overcome unnatural appetite. It means arousing moral powers, cooperating fully in total abstinence, regaining self-control, keeping the body in healthful condition for service, keeping the intellect clear, and not thinking of self more highly than ought. Paul made Christ and His crucifixion the focus of knowledge and preaching, rejecting worldly wisdom and eloquent words so faith would rest on God's power and no flesh would boast before God. That same dependence supports faithful work for wealthy and influential people, since conversion does not depend on human ability but God works through human agents and the Holy Spirit to lead even wealth-seekers to divine principles.
Christ crucified is to be presented whenever there is opportunity, with tenderness and love as well as plainness and faithfulness, because hearers face decision to obey truth or refuse the cross and reject mercy. Preaching Him means a commitment kept through all ministry to preach Jesus Christ and rely on His righteousness by faith rather than leave Him out. Preaching Christ crucified through the whole world is the one work and single theme for all who labor as His representatives to as many as will believe, with the Holy Spirit opening hearts and doors wherever they go in His name, and with one heart and mind taxing resources to the uttermost they daily add new territories as fields of labor. Those serving in churches and institutions uphold Him as the sure foundation against the enemy's efforts to make people fall.