We finished chapter 1, where 1 Corinthians stressed that it’s in “weakness” where we see God. Paul contrasted earthly wisdom with God’s wisdom, which may seem foolish and scandalous, most exemplified in the cross of Christ. We begin chapter 2 with Paul still making his personal appeal, by using “I” and recalling his visit with them (Acts 18:1-17).
God’s Wisdom Proves itself to be True
Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
- Does this passage extol Paul’s greatness as an orator or the opposite?
Irony: Paul states that he doesn’t have the mastery and skill of an elite orator, describing his presence as “in weakness and in fear and in trembling” (2:3). Yet, in that very phrase, we find Paul using assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming) and rhyme to make his point:”En phobo kai en tromo pollo”!
In verse 4a, Paul denied employing rhetoric, “persuasive [words of] wisdom,” all the while he used a standard rhetorical technique of that time, and even the word, “apodeixis.” That was showing a point to be true because it was demonstrated to be true. What this reveals is that when Paul was earlier at Corinth, his sermon must have “bombed” in some way, but the Holy spirit still brought people to faith.
- Paul had shown himself to be a poor public speaker, and yet God the Holy Spirit was still at work through his words. This paradox (at least in Greek thinking back then) pointed people to trust in whom or what?
- What then is the hallmark of a “good” sermon, the presentation or the content?
What Wise Christians Desire
In this section, the text of 1st Corinthians switches to the first-person plural: “we.” Thus, what the letter next covers involves what both Paul and Sosthenes were doing.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:6-7
- What is the difference between God’s wisdom and the world’s wisdom?
- What two specific terms do Paul and Sosthenes use to describe God’s wisdom? (vs. 7)
- How can God’s wisdom be “hidden” if it’s also revealed?
Secret/Mystery: Paul and Sosthenes preached God’s wisdom in the form of a secret, a mystery. In Christ’s Church, a mysterion, a secret mystery, is a secret and mystery because it originates from God.
- Jeremiah 23:18, 22: [God of Sabaoth speaking:] “For who has stood in the LORD’s council to see and hear his word? … If they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and they would have turned them back from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.”
- Amos 3:7: Truly the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his counsel to his servants, the prophets.
In our culture, a “secret” is usually something an individual keeps to himself. This is not the case for Christ’s Church. God wants to reveal His mysteries (that is, the mysteries and secrets He wants us to receive) through those whom He had called to reveal such mysteries.
- Romans 16:24-26: Now to the one [God] who can strengthen you with my [Paul] gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for long ages but now revealed and made known through the prophetic scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God into the obedience of faith to all the Gentiles….
- Ephesians 3:3, 5-6: This secret/mystery was made known to me [Paul] … This is that secret: The gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body …
This helps us understand why the “mystery” is not kept away from God’s people or something individualistic, as was the mystery religions of 1st-century Greece. God has revealed it to all, and it is publicly preached by pastors like Paul and Sosthenes, the “we” in these verses.
Laleo: This Greek word can mean “sound forth,” “speak,” or “proclaim,” as in preach. The ESV oddly translates this term in verses 6 and 7 as “impart,” which inhibits the hearer/reader from understanding how that word is fully used within 1st Corinthians. Forms of laleo refer to outward acts of speaking, primarily in a public setting, often with authority, whether real or presumed (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2:6, 7, 13; 9:8, 12:3, 10, 30; 13:1; 14:2, 4-6, 11, 13, 18, 21, 34-35, 39; 15:34). This will become important later in the letter.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:8-10
- What did the ruler of “this age” not understand?
- What did this lead them to do?
- What does this say about Christ?
- What is the purpose of God’s Spirit?
Verse 9 is not a quotation from any verse of Scripture. Most likely, it quotes a text that no longer exists, which Paul and Sosthenes used to make their point. That being said, we can find the ideas in this verse taught elsewhere in Scripture: Psalm 31:19; Isaiah 52:15, 64:3, and 65:17; and, Sirach 1:10.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:11-13
- If the wisdom/Wisdom of God comes from God, can a person’s own “spirit” grasp such wisdom/Wisdom?
Verse 11b reads, “no one can comprehend the thoughts of God.” Paul and Sosthenes may have tapped into current-day Greek philosophy to help undermine the Greek cultural “wisdom thinking” influencing the congregation there. One such thought from within Greek philosophy stated, “It is not possible for the human mind, sprung from a mortal mother, to fathom the intentions of the gods.” Spring-boarding from that, verse 11 then uses that thought to make the point that one can only know the mind of God through God’s own Spirit.
- How did Paul and Sosthenes impart (laleo) that wisdom/Wisdom?
- What then is the purpose of the sermon?
- Verse 13 says that Paul and Sosthenes (“we”) preach God’s wisdom/Wisdom taught by the Spirit “to those who are spiritual?” What is going on through the word-play in this verse?
- What does this verse make the hearer/reader thing that he is, which may or may not be the case?
- If the hearers of 1st Corinthians are not “those who are spiritual,” how are they being set up, so they are hit with greater impact?
Read 1 Corinthians 2:14-16
- Normally, we would think the term “natural person” is something good, which is better than the alternative, an “unnatural person.” What does the term “natural person” mean in verse 14?
- What is the “natural person” unable to do?
- Verse 15 says that the spiritual person is “to be judged by no one.” Make sense of this—afte all, Paul and Sosthenes ARE judging them.
Verse 15 doesn’t mean that the “spiritual person” is above criticism or not under the authority of the Church. The Corinthians are being criticized because they were not properly submitting themselves to authority, which is an essential part of spirituality.
- To whom then does the “no one” refer in verses 14-15?
- Ultimately, who judges the Christian?
The Mind of the Lord: In verse 16, Paul and Sosthenes refer to Isaiah 40:13, which was a rhetorical question that anticipated a negative answer: no mortal person has access to the mind of God and, thus, is incapable of instructing God. The Old-Testament book of Wisdom, which shaped much “wisdom thinking” for Jews and Christians of the 1st Century, also speaks to this.
For who knows the counsel of God? Or who can comprehend the will of Lord? For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate, and our designs are likely to fail; for a perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the mind with many thoughts. It is hard enough to figure out what is on earth, and only with difficulty grasp what is at hand–but who has searched out what is in the heavens? Who has known your [God’s] counsel, unless you have given wisdom and sent him your Holy Spirit from on high? And thus the paths of those on earth were set right, and people were taught what pleases you, and were saved by Wisdom. [Wisdom 9:13-18]
- According to the Wisdom passage, what does God sending His Holy Spirit enable for “those on earth” about being “saved by Wisdom”?
1 Corinthians then says, “But we have the mind of Christ.”
With the “we,” Paul and Sosthenes were referring to themselves. If “we” meant the Corinthian Christians, then what they next say makes no sense. For next, Paul again gets personal, saying that he could not address the Corinthian Christians as “spiritual people”; they were immature and did not have the mind of Christ, which is why they were divided as they were.
Unity (or lack of it!) is Addressed Once More
Paul and Sosthenes just stated that they had the “mind of Christ.” Through that, they were implying that the Corinthian Christians did not. With that, Paul now again gets personal, bringing out what lacking the mind of Christ causes within congregational life.
Using chiasm (remember lesson 1?), Paul addressed the lack of unity once more.
A 1:10-2:5 Unity within the congregation
. B 2:6-16 Wisdom of mature believers
A’ 3:1-23 Unity within the congregation
Read 1 Corinthians 3:1
Having been led to think that they were among “those who are spiritual” (vs. 13), Paul broadsides the Corinthian Christians with the truth: They are not only not spiritual, but “fleshly people, as infants in Christ.”
Read 1 Corinthians 3:2-4
- What does Paul mean when he said that he had to feed them with “milk”?
- What does that imply about growing in the Faith?
It has now been three to five years since Paul met the Corinthians to whom he writes. In verse 1, Paul used “flesh” as an adjective, not a noun. This conveys the idea that the Corinthians were “fleshly [adjective] people, as infants,” painting a picture that they were fat babies, having lots of flesh, getting fatter and yet not growing! (Imagine that ugly picture!)
- Despite that, what does Paul say at the end of verse 2?
- What is the irony that Paul brings out that they are not ready for “solid food” but still only milk?
- How did their immaturity manifest itself?
- What sinful way of thinking brought division where there should have been unity?
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