_And I, brethren_, &c. As if he had said, I have been showing that God is wont to call and convert persons to himself by unlikely and contemptible means; and that his design in the gospel is of a very humbling nature, and admirably calculated to stain human pride, and bring men to glory in him alone... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I determined not to know any thing_, &c. To act as one who knew nothing, or to waive all my other knowledge, and not to preach any thing _save Jesus Christ and him crucified_ That is, what he taught, did, and suffered. Or, not only to preach the gospel sincerely, without any mixture of human wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit, we speak wisdom_ Yea, the truest and most excellent wisdom: for the subject matter of our preaching is the most wise contrivance and counsel of God concerning the salvation of mankind by Christ crucified, which will be acknowledged to be the highest wisdom, though not by learned philosophe... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ This ignorance fulfils what is written concerning the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom; _eye hath not seen_, &c. No merely natural or unenlightened man hath either seen, heard, or known; _the things which God hath prepared_, saith the prophet, _for them that love him_ “These words do not imm... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now we have received, not the spirit of the world_ Which suggests worldly wisdom; the spirit that is in worldly, carnal people, and which guides and governs them; a spirit which is earthly, sensual, and devilish. This spirit is not, properly speaking, _received_, for the carnal and unregenerate alw... [ Continue Reading ]
_But the natural man_ The man who has only the powers of nature, the faculties derived from Adam, but not a supernatural principle of saving grace; who has a soul in his body, (as the word ψυχικος, derived from ψυχη, _a soul_, implies,) but no divine inspiration in that soul; or who is not truly enl... [ Continue Reading ]
_But he that is spiritual_ Whose mind is enlightened, and his heart renewed by the Spirit of God; _judgeth_ Or rather discerneth; _all things_ Namely, all the things of God whereof we have been speaking; _yet he himself is judged_ Is discerned; by _no man_, by no natural men; they neither understand... [ Continue Reading ]