II. (1) AND I. — The Apostle now proceeds to show how he personally, in both the matter and manner of his teaching at Corinth, had acted in accordance with those great principles which he has already explained as God’s method. “The testimony of God” is St. Paul’s testimony concerning God in Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
I DETERMINED NOT TO KNOW. — Better, _I did not determine to know._ The only subject of teaching concerning which the Apostle had formed a determined resolve in his mind when coming to Corinth was the preaching Christ and Him as being crucified. We have here a statement of what was ever the subject-m... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WAS WITH YOU. — To show that the real force of his teaching lay in its subject-matter, and not in any power with which he may have proclaimed the gospel, the Apostle now dwells upon his own physical weakness. The “weakness and fear and trembling” of which St. Paul speaks here had in it probabl... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MY SPEECH. — The result which necessarily followed from this weakness and trembling was that neither his “speech” (_i.e.,_ the style of his teaching), nor his “preaching” (_i.e.,_ the subject-matter of his teaching) were of such a kind as to appeal to the natural tastes of the Corinthians. DEMO... [ Continue Reading ]
HOWBEIT WE SPEAK WISDOM. — Nevertheless, there is a wisdom in the gospel. The assertion is in the Greek a more striking contrast to 1 Corinthians 2:4 than appears in the English. In the original (1 Corinthians 2:4) the word is “wisdom,” and not “_man’s_ wisdom,” as in the English. Thus the statement... [ Continue Reading ]
IN A MYSTERY. — The writer explains in these words the plan on which his speaking of God’s wisdom proceeded, that he dealt with it as the ancient mysteries were dealt with, explaining certain truths only to the initiated, and not to all (1 Corinthians 4:1; Colossians 1:26). HIDDEN. — Heretofore unr... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WOULD NOT HAVE CRUCIFIED. — The conduct of the princes and rulers of this world, alike Jewish and Gentile, illustrates and proves the previous assertion (John 8:19; John 19:9). LORD OF GLORY. — In striking contrast to the ignominy of the crucifixion.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IT IS WRITTEN. — Where do the words which follow occur? They are not to be found as here given anywhere in the Old Testament. It has therefore been suggested (Origen) that they are from some apocryphal book, or some book which has been lost, as is supposed many have been. Chrysostom also suggests... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT GOD HATH REVEALED THEM UNTO US. — Here the emphatic word is “us.” The latter part of 1 Corinthians 2:8 are parenthetical, and the sense goes back to the beginning of 1 Corinthians 2:8. “None of the princes of this age know these things, but God hath revealed them unto _us_ His apostles and teach... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT MAN... — Better, _Who of men knoweth the things of a man? but the spirit of the man which is in him knoweth them._ THE THINGS OF GOD KNOWETH NO MAN. — These words cannot be taken as an assertion that man cannot have any knowledge of the things of God; but the Apostle urges that man, as man, ca... [ Continue Reading ]
WE. — This must not be confined to the Apostles exclusively. Though referring primarily to them, it includes all the members of the Christian Church as one with its teachers and rulers. The “things freely given us of God” mean all spiritual things.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT IN THE WORDS. — Not only the gospel truths themselves, but the very form and manner in which those truths are taught is the result of spiritual insight. COMPARING SPIRITUAL THINGS WITH SPIRITUAL. — Better, _explaining spiritual things in spiritual language;_ really only another more pointed form... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE NATURAL MAN. — To understand this and other passages in which St. Paul speaks of “natural” and “spiritual” men, it is important to recollect that our ordinary manner of speaking of man as consisting of “soul and body” — unless “soul” be taken in an un-technical sense to denote the whole imma... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL. — The spiritual man judges all spiritual truth, but he himself is judged by none who are not spiritual. (See 1 Corinthians 14:29; 1 John 4:1.)... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR. — This is the proof that the enlightened spiritual man cannot be judged by any one who is not thus enlightened. “Who (thus uninstructed) can know the mind of the Lord Jesus, that he may instruct Him?” BUT WE. — That is, spiritual men, including the Apostles. The Apostle here identifies Christ... [ Continue Reading ]