1 Corinthians 8

1 Corinthians 8:1

For the Jews require a sign. Not merely miracles, such as the apostles worked (Acts 4:22 6:8 8:6 15:12 19:11), but a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1 Mr 8:11 Lu 11:16). They said, “Let Christ come down from heaven, if he be risen”. And the Greeks seek after wisdom. While the Jews asked for a sign from heaven, the Greeks demanded a well-argued system of philosophy (Acts 17:18).

1 Corinthians 8:2

But we preach Christ crucified. Not merely Christ, but Christ Crucified; a Crucified Savior. Unto the Jews a stumblingblock. Because they had an entirely different conception of the Christ. Yet it was predicted that he should be “a stone of stumbling” (Matthew 21:42 Isaiah 8:14) Unto the Greeks foolishness. It seemed to the Greeks that a being who died so ignominious a death could not be divine.

1 Corinthians 8:3

But unto them who are called. But to those who obey the gospel call, whether Jews or Gentiles, the Crucified Christ is found to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The gospel not only is found to be mighty, but wise in meeting the wants of the soul.

1 Corinthians 8:4

The foolishness of God. In one thing that men call foolishness, in Christ Crucified, there is greater wisdom than in all the philosophers, and though it seemed weakness of God to let Christ be crucified, yet the Crucified Savior is mightier than all the strength of men. If folly and weakness be of God, these will be wiser and stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 8:5

Not many wise men after the flesh. Paul now shows the weakness of the human instrumentality chosen to convert the world; not those the world called wise, not the mighty, not the noble, yet the work was moving on with wonderful power.

1 Corinthians 8:6

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. Men whom the world would call foolish, with a gospel that it called foolishness; yet these “confounded the wise” and upturned the world’s philosophies.

1 Corinthians 8:7

Base things of the world. Those of lowly birth. And things which are despised. People that the world would call “nobodies”, and things that it counts as nothing. These are chosen to bring to nothing things that are; the existing state of things; the pagan religious, governments, and civilization; these were to be overthrown through the influence of the gospel.

1 Corinthians 8:8

That no flesh should glory in his presnece. That it should be shown that the power was of God.

1 Corinthians 8:9

Who from God is made to us wisdom. “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), is wisdom to us. And righteousness. In him we are made righteous, and obtain sanctification and redemption. Christ is all of these to us.

1 Corinthians 8:10

He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. See Jeremiah 9:23. As Christ is our all, imparts every grace that we enjoy, and bestows every blessing, there is no ground for glorying in Paul, Apollos or Cephas, but in the Lord alone.

1 Corinthians 8:12

Christ Crucified SUMMARY OF I CORINTHIANS 2: The One Theme of Preaching Christ Crucified. Not Eloquence or Human Wisdom, but the Power of the Spirit. Needed. A Divine Wisdom in the Cross of Christ. This Is a Mystery Revealed to the Converted; Unseen by the. Unregenerate. The Things of the Kingdom Not Understood by the Worldly. These Are Revealed to Those Who Have the Spirit of God. And I, brethren, when I came to you. Paul has shown, in the preceding chapter, that God chose the things and persons which the world calls foolish, and weak, and base, and of no account, in order to confute the world’s wisdom and to overthrow its power. He now shows that this harmonizes with the means used at Corinth in the founding of the church. Came not with excellence of speech or of wisdom. Not with the eloquent arts of a Grecian orator, or the speculations of a Greek philosopher; things highly esteemed at Corinth and among all the Greeks. The testimony of God. The Revised Version has, “Mystery of God”, which has the support of the best MSS, and harmonizes better with the context. The gospel is often called “a mystery” (Ephesians 3:9 1 Timothy 3:16).

1 Corinthians 8:13

Save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. All his preaching centered upon this great theme, “To the Greeks foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling-block” (1 Corinthians 1:23).