1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 1:1

I. INTRODUCTION (1:1-9) A. Salutation (1:1-3) 1:1 Paul was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ on the Damascus road. This call did not come from or through men, but directly from the Lord Jesus. An apostle is literally a sent one. The first apostles were witnesses of Christ in resurrection. They also could perform miracles to confirm that the message they preached was divine. Paul could truly say in the language of Gerhard Tersteegen: Christ the Son of God has sent me To the midnight lands; Mine the mighty ordination Of the pierced hands. When Paul wrote, a brother named Sosthenes was with him, so Paul includes his name in the salutation. It cannot be known for sure whether this is the same Sosthenes as in Act_18:17, the ruler of the synagogue who was publicly beaten by the Greeks. Possibly this leader had been saved through Paul’s preaching and was now helping him in the work of the gospel. 1:2 The letter is addressed first of all to the church of God which is at Co rinth. It is encouraging that there is no place on earth too immoral for an assembly belonging to God to be established. The Corinthian congregation is further described as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called … saints. Sanctified here means set apart to God from the world, and describes the position of all who belong to Christ. As to their practical condition, they should set themselves apart day by day in holy living. Some people contend that sanctification is a distinct work of grace whereby a person obtains the eradication of the sin nature. Such a teaching is contradicted in this verse. The Corinthian Christians were far from what they should have been in practical holiness, but the fact remains that they were positionally sanctified by God. As saints they were members of a great fellowship: called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. Although the teachings of this Epistle were first addressed to the saints in Corinth, they are also intended for all those of the worldwide fellowship who acknowledge the lordship of Christ. 1:3 First Corinthians is in a very special way the letter of His lordship. In discussing the many problems of assembly and personal life, the apostle constantly reminds his readers that Jesus Christ is Lord and that all we do should be done in acknowledgment of this great truth. Paul’s characteristic greeting is given in verse 3. Grace and peace summarize his entire gospel. Grace is the source of every blessing, and peace is the result in the life of a man who accepts the grace of God. These great blessings come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul does not hesitate to mention the Lord Jesus in the same breath with God our Father. This is one of hundreds of similar expressions in the NT implying the equality of the Lord Jesus with God the Father.

1 Corinthians 1:4

B. Thanksgiving (1:4-9) 1:4 Having concluded his salutation, the apostle now turns to thanksgiving for the Corinthians and for the wonderful work of God in their lives (vv. 4-9). It was a noble trait in Paul’s life that always sought to find something thankworthy in the lives of his fellow believers. If their practical lives were not very commendable, then he would at least thank his God for what He had done for them. This is exactly the case here. The Corinthians were not what we would call spiritual Christians. But Paul can at least give thanks for the grace of God which was given to them by Christ Jesus.1:5 The particular way in which God’s grace was manifested to the Corinthians was in their being richly endowed with gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Paul specifies gifts of utterance and all knowledge, presumably meaning that the Corinthians had been given the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and knowledge to an extraordinary degree. Utterance has to do with outward expression and knowledge with inward comprehension. 1:6 The fact that they had these gifts was a confirmation of God’s work in their lives, and that is what Paul means when he says, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. They heard the testimony of Christ, they received it by faith, and God testified that they were truly saved by giving them these miraculous powers. 1:7 As far as the possession of gifts was concerned, the Corinthian church was not inferior to any other. But the mere possession of these gifts was not in itself a mark of true spirituality. Paul was really thanking the Lord for something for which the Corinthians themselves were not directly responsible. Gifts are given by the ascended Lord without regard to a person’s own merit. If a person has some gift, he should not be proud of it but use it humbly for the Lord. The fruit of the Spirit is another matter entirely. This involves the believer’s own surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit. The apostle could not commend the Corinthians for evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, but only for what the Lord had sovereignly bestowed on themsomething over which they had no control. Later in the Epistle the apostle will have to reprove the saints for their abuse of these gifts, but here he is content to express thanks that they had received these gifts in such unusual measure. The Corinthians were eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bible students are not agreed as to whether this refers to Christ’s coming for His saints (1Th_4:13-18), or the Lord’s coming with His saints (2Th_1:6-10), or both. In the first case it would be a revelation of Christ only to believers, whereas in the second it would be His Revelation to the whole world. Both the Rapture and the glorious appearing of Christ are eagerly awaited by the believer. 1:8 Now Paul expresses the confidence that the Lord will also confirm the saints to the end, that they might be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once again it is striking that Paul’s thanksgiving is concerned with what God will do rather than with what the Corinthians have done. Because they have trusted Christ, and because God confirmed this fact by giving the gifts of the Spirit to them, Paul was confident that God would keep them for Himself until Christ’s coming for His people. 1:9 Paul’s optimism concerning the Corinthians is based on the faithfulness of God who called them into the fellowship of His Son. He knows that since God had gone to such tremendous cost to make them sharers of the life of our Lord, He would never let them slip out of His hands.

1 Corinthians 1:10

II. DISORDERS IN THE CHURCH (1:10-6:20) A. Divisions among Believers (1:10-4:21) 1:10 The apostle is now ready to take up the problem of divisions in the church (1:10-4:21). He begins with a loving exhortation to unity. Instead of commanding with the authority of an apostle, he pleads with the tenderness of a brother. The appeal for unity is based on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and since the name stands for the Person, it is based on all that the Lord Jesus is and has done. The Corinthians were exalting the name of men; that could only lead to divisions. Paul will exalt the name of the Lord Jesus, knowing that only in this way will unity be produced among the people of God.

To speak the same thing means to be of the same mind and of one accord. It means to be united as to loyalty and allegiance. This unity is produced when Christians have the mind of Christ, and in the verses to follow, Paul will tell them in a practical manner how they can think Christ’s thoughts after Him. 1:11 News concerning the contentions in Corinth had come to Paul from Chloe’s household. In naming his informers, Paul lays down an important principle of Christian conduct. We should not pass on news about our fellow believers unless we are willing to be quoted in the matter. If this example were followed today, it would prevent most of the idle gossip which now plagues the church. 1:12 Sects or parties were being formed within the local church, each one claiming its distinctive leader. Some acknowledged preference for Paul, some for Apollos, some for Cephas (Peter). Some even claimed to belong to Christ, probably meaning that they alone belonged to Him, to the exclusion of others! 1:13 Paul’s indignant rebuke of sectarianism is found in verses 13-17. To form such parties in the church was to deny the unity of the body of Christ. To follow human leaders was to slight the One who had been crucified for them. To take the name of a man was to forget that in baptism, they had acknowledged their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. 1:14 The rise of parties in Corinth made Paul thankful that he had baptized only a few in the assembly there. He mentions Crispus and Gaius as among those whom he had baptized. 1:15, 16 He would never want anyone to say that he had baptized in his own name. In other words, he was not trying to win converts to himself or to make a name for himself. His sole aim was to point men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. On further reflection Paul remembered that he had also baptized the household of Stephanas, but he could not think of any other. 1:17 He explains that Christ did not send him primarily to baptize, but to preach the gospel. This does not mean for a moment that Paul did not believe in baptism. He has already mentioned the names of some whom he did baptize. Rather, it means that his main business was not to baptize; he probably entrusted this work to others, perhaps to some of the Christians in the local church. This verse, however, does lend its testimony against any idea that baptism is essential to salvation. If that were true, then Paul would be saying here that he was thankful that he saved none of them except Crispus and Gaius! Such an idea is untenable. In the latter part of verse 17, Paul is making an easy transition to the verses that follow. He did not preach the gospel by using wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. He knew that if men were impressed by his oratory or rhetoric, then to that extent he had defeated himself in his efforts to set forth the true meaning of the cross of Christ. It will help us to understand the section that follows if we remember that the Corinthians, being Greeks, were great lovers of human wisdom. They regarded their philosophers as national heroes. Some of this spirit had apparently crept into the assembly at Corinth. There were those who desired to make the gospel more acceptable to the intelligentsia. They did not feel that it had status among scholars, and so they wanted to intellectualize the message. This worship of intellectualism was apparently one of the issues that was causing the people to form parties around human leaders. Efforts to make the gospel more acceptable are completely misguided. There is a vast difference between God’s wisdom and man’s, and there is no use trying to reconcile them. Paul now shows the folly of exalting men, and emphasizes that to do this is inconsistent with the true nature of the gospel (1:18-3:4). His first point is that the message of the cross is the opposite of all that men consider to be true wisdom (1:18-25). 1:18 The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. As Barnes so aptly stated: The death on the cross was associated with the idea of all that is shameful and dishonorable; and to speak of salvation only by the sufferings and death of a crucified man was fitted to excite in their bosoms only unmingled scorn. The Greeks were lovers of wisdom (the literal meaning of the word philosophers). But there was nothing in the gospel message to appeal to their pride of knowledge. To those who are being saved, the gospel is the power of God. They hear the message, they accept it by faith, and the miracle of regeneration takes place in their lives. Notice the solemn fact in this verse that there are only two classes of people, those who perish and those who are saved. There is no in-between class. Men may love their human wisdom but only the gospel leads to salvation. 1:19 The fact that the gospel would be offensive to human wisdom was prophesied by Isaiah (Isa_29:14): I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.S. Lewis Johnson in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary notes that in context these words are God’s denouncement of the policy of the wise in Judah in seeking an alliance with Egypt when threatened by Sennacherib. How true it is that God delights to accomplish His purposes in ways that seem foolish to men. How often He uses methods that the wise of this world would ridicule, yet they achieve the desired results with wonderful accuracy and efficiency. For example, man’s wisdom assures him that he can earn or merit his own salvation. The gospel sets aside all man’s efforts to save himself and presents Christ as the only way to God. 1:20 Paul next hurls out a defiant challenge: Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Did God consult them when He devised His plan of salvation? Could they ever have worked out such a plan of redemption if left to their own wisdom? Can they rise to disprove anything that God ever said?

The answer is an emphatic No! God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.1:21 Man cannot by his own wisdom come to the knowledge of God. For centuries God gave the human race this opportunity, and the result was failure. Then it pleased God by the preaching of the cross, a message that seems foolish to men, to save those who believe. The foolishness of the thing preached refers to the cross. Of course, we know that it is not foolishness, but it seems foolish to the unenlightened mind of man.

Godet says that verse 21 contains a whole philosophy of history, the substance of entire volumes. We should not hurry over it quickly, but ponder deeply its tremendous truths. 1:22 It was characteristic of the Jews to request a sign. Their attitude was that they would believe if some miracle were shown to them. The Greeks on the other hand searched for wisdom. They were interested in human reasonings, in arguments, in logic. 1:23 But Paul did not cater to their desires. He says, We preach Christ crucified. As someone has said, He was not a sign-loving Jew, nor a wisdom-loving Greek, but a Savior-loving Christian.To the Jews, Christ crucified was a stumbling block. They looked for a mighty military leader to deliver them from the oppression of Rome. Instead of that, the gospel offered them a Savior nailed to a cross of shame. To the Greeks, Christ crucified was foolishness. They could not understand how One who died in such seeming weakness and failure could ever solve their problems. 1:24 But strangely enough, the very things that the Jews and the Gentiles sought are found in a wonderful way in the Lord Jesus. To those who hear His call and trust in Him, both Jews and Greeks, Christ becomes the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1:25 Actually there is neither foolishness nor weakness with God. But the apostle is saying in verse 25 that what seems to be foolishness on God’s part, in the eyes of men, is actually wiser than men at their very best. Also, what seems to be weakness on God’s part, in the eyes of men, turns out to be stronger than anything that men can produce. 1:26 Having spoken of the gospel itself, the apostle now turns to the people whom God calls by the gospel (vv. 26-29). He reminds the Corinthians that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. It has often been pointed out that the text does not say not any but not many. Because of this slight difference, one English lady of noble blood used to testify that she was saved by the letter m.The Corinthians themselves had not come from the upper intellectual crust of society. They had not been reached by high-sounding philosophies but by the simple gospel. Why, then, were they putting such a premium on human wisdom and exalting preachers who sought to make the message palatable to the worldly-wise? If men were to build a church, they would want to enroll the most prominent members of the community. But verse 26 teaches us that the people men esteem so highly, God passes by. The ones He calls are not generally the ones the world considers great. 1:27 God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. As Erich Sauer says: The more primitive the material, the greaterif the same standard of art can be reachedthe honor of the Master; the smaller the army, the mightierif the same great victory can be wonthe praise of the conqueror. God used trumpets to bring down the walls of Jericho. He reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 to rout the armies of Midian. He used an oxgoad in the hand of Shamgar to defeat the Philistines. With the jawbone of a donkey He enabled Samson to defeat a whole army. And our Lord fed over 5,000 with nothing more than a few loaves and fishes. 1:28 To make up what someone has called God’s five-ranked army of fools, Paul adds the base things of the world and the things which are despised and the things which are not. Using such unlikely materials, God brings to nothing the things that are. In other words, He loves to take up people who are of no esteem in the eyes of the world and use them to glorify Himself. These verses should serve as a rebuke to Christians who curry the favor of prominent and well-known personages and show little or no regard for the more humble saints of God. 1:29 God’s purpose in choosing those of no account in the eyes of the world is that all the glory should accrue to Himself and not to man. Since salvation is entirely of Him, He alone is worthy to be praised. 1:30 Verse 30 emphasizes even further that all we are and have comes from Himnot from philosophy, and that there is therefore no room for human glory. First of all, Christ became for us wisdom. He is the wisdom of God (v. 24), the One whom God’s wisdom chose as the way of salvation. When we have Him we have a positional wisdom that guarantees our full salvation. Secondly, He is our righteousness. Through faith in Him we are reckoned righteous by a holy God.

Thirdly, He is our sanctification. In ourselves we have nothing in the way of personal holiness, but in Him we are positionally sanctified, and by His power we are transformed from one degree of sanctification to another. Finally, He is our redemption, and this doubtless speaks of redemption in its final aspect when the Lord will come and take us home to be with Himself, and when we shall be redeemedspirit, soul, and body. Traill delineated the truth sharply: Wisdom out[side] of Christ is damning follyrighteousness out[side] of Christ is guilt and condemnationsanctification out[side] of Christ is filth and sinredemption out[side] of Christ is bondage and slavery. A. T. Pierson relates verse 30 to the life and ministry of our Lord: His deeds and His words and His practices, these show Him as the wisdom of God. Then come His death, burial, and resurrection: these have to do with our righteousness. Then His forty days’ walk among men, His ascension up on high, the gift of the Spirit, and His session at the right hand of God, have to do with our sanctification. Then His coming again, which has to do with our redemption. 1:31 God has so arranged it that all these blessings should come to us in the Lord. Paul’s argument therefore is, Why glory in men? They cannot do any one of these things for you.