Author: David Petts

Talk 5       God’s Superior Wisdom

Today we’re continuing our study of 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16.

Last time we discovered nine problems with human wisdom:

1. It is foolishness to God
2. It does not recognise God
3. It rejects the message of the cross
4. It rejects Christ who is God’s Wisdom personified
5. It is totally different from and inferior to God’s Wisdom
6. It is useless as a means of winning others for Christ
7. It is an insecure basis for our faith in Christ
8. It gets you nowhere! It leads only to death
9. It crucified the Lord of glory

Today we’ll be considering God’s superior Wisdom

One of the causes of division in the Corinthian church seems to have sprung from a human and worldly wisdom which was totally contrary to the wisdom of God.

These two kinds of wisdom (God’s and man’s) are contrasted in 1 Corinthians 1:18 -2:16

But first it will be helpful to mention some other NT verses which refer to God’s wisdom.

Romans 11:33

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

Romans 16:25-27

25 Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,

26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him –

27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Ephesians 1:7-10

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ

Ephesians 3:8-11

8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord

Colossians 2:2-3

2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

1 Timothy 1:17

17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen

Jude 25

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy–

25 to the only wise God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

From these passages we learn that:

• Only God, who is eternal, is truly wise
• God’s wisdom is beyond our understanding
• God’s wisdom is a mystery
• The mystery is the message of Christ crucified – the gospel
• God’s wisdom is manifested in his church

With this in mind we can now turn to today’s passage and see what more we can learn about God’s wisdom.

The ‘foolishness’ of the gospel is described in 1:18-2:5.

However, in 2:6-16 it is seen as God’s revealed wisdom.

This is the passage we’ll be looking at today, but, as I am not attempting a verse by verse commentary in these talks, for those who are interested there are additional notes on 1:18-2-5 at the end of the notes on today’s talk.

We now turn to Chapter 2. Please have your Bible open there.

In the previous section Paul has been talking largely about human wisdom.  Now he turns his attention to the wisdom of God.  This is true wisdom. 

The main point of this section is that those who are still ‘of this age’, who do not have the Spirit, do not understand the wisdom of God in Christ crucified. 

Paul’s concern is to get the Corinthians to stop acting like non-Spirit people and understand who they are in terms of the cross.

v6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

Although man’s wisdom cannot lead him to God, God’s wisdom can lead man to him.  The very message that is foolishness to the unbeliever is wisdom in God’s eyes. 

Mature here means spiritually adult.  The Corinthians were showing their immaturity by boasting in a wisdom that was not the wisdom of the cross.

v7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

In this verse Paul sees God’s wisdom as eternal

It was ordained before the world began but is hidden from the wisdom of man. 

It is (literally) in a mystery, a secret once hidden but now revealed in the gospel.

v8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

None of the political rulers of the day had possessed this divine wisdom or they would not have crucified Christ.  It was by their so-called wisdom that he was put to death.

The Lord of glory – Another example of a title clearly applied to Jesus but which in the OT was applied uniquely to Jehovah (Ps. 24:7-10).

v9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”

Human wisdom is based on the observation of the senses (Cf. modern Logical Positivism).

v10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Divine wisdom is not perceived with the senses but is revealed by the Spirit. 

It’s possible that some of the Corinthians were being influenced by an early form of Gnosticism.

They supposed that they could by searching plumb the depths of God’s being. 

But only the Spirit of God can know the thoughts of God. See next verse:

11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

The key to understanding God’s wisdom lies with the Spirit.

How can we really know the thoughts of another? 

A man can only know his own thoughts. 

Similarly, only the Spirit of God can know the mind of God.

True wisdom comes to us by revelation from the Holy Spirit

12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

We have received God’s Spirit so that we may understand…

We have not received the spirit of the world (Satan, the god of this age 2 Cor.4:4). 

Any suggestion that a Christian could receive any spirit other than that which comes from God would be totally foreign to Paul’s thinking. 

13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

The revelation of the Spirit is what enables Christians to understand God’s wisdom. 

It is also what enables us to preach it! This is what we speak…

          Expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words

The gospel is a spiritual truth and must be proclaimed with spiritual words – words taught by the Spirit (not with human wisdom)

There could even be a reference to spiritual gifts here (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:1 pneumatika). 

14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Note that the ‘man without the spirit’ (psuchikos – natural) does not accept the things of the Spirit.  They are foolishness to him because he cannot understand them.

15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

By contrast, ‘the spiritual man’ (pneumatikos) can make judgments about all things because he has the Spirit.

16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.

Mind here = spirit.  ‘In the Greek Bible that Paul cites the word “mind” translates the Heb. ruah, which ordinarily means “spirit”’ (Fee pp 119-120).

Note again that Christ is identified with Jehovah (cf. Isaiah 40:13). 

Finally, note the connection between the Spirit and the cross in this passage. 

2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”–

10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit

God’s wisdom is revealed in the cross

God’s wisdom is revealed by the Spirit

The things of the Spirit may be discerned by their relationship to the cross

It is only by preaching the message of the cross with the power and wisdom given by the Spirit that we can hope to bring others to Christ who is the Wisdom of God.

Additional notes on 1:18-2:5

1. a) God’s ‘foolishness’ – the cross (1:18-25)

In v17 Paul reminds the Corinthians that the Gospel had not been preached to them with human wisdom lest it should detract from the cross of Christ

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

v18    but to us who are being saved

There are only two groups of people in the world as far as God is concerned, not Jew and Gentile but those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Note the continuous tense here.  The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are on their way to destruction, but it is the power of God to those who are on their way to salvation. 

v19    I will destroy

Man’s wisdom has been destroyed by the cross.  Any wisdom that man may seem to have is rendered meaningless by Calvary. 

v20    age……world

The terms are used synonymously here.  The emphasis is that the world is passing, transient.

          scholar

Fee (p 71) rightly points out that this should be translated expert in the law.

v21    The world though its wisdom did not know him

Paul rejects the claim that man can know God through wisdom (cf. Romans 1:18-31). 

          The foolishness of what was preached

It is not the act of preaching but the content that is referred to here (as NIV makes clear – cf. AV ‘the foolishness of preaching’).  It is through the apparently foolish message of Christ crucified that God is pleased to save those who believe.

v22    Jews……Greeks

Both Jews and Gentiles are looking in the wrong direction unless they look to Christ.

The answer is not in miraculous signs, nor in human wisdom.

The search for these is an expression of man’s rebellion against God. 

The answer is the message of the cross.  

Power and wisdom are still the two basic idolatries of our fallen world.

v23    but we preach Christ crucified

Christ crucified, by human standards, is the very opposite of what each group is looking for. Indeed a crucified Messiah is a contradiction in terms – ‘fried ice’!

The verb crucified is in the Perfect Tense which speaks of a past act the effects of which are still felt in the present.  Christ’s atoning death is still efficacious.

v24    to us who are called

Salvation is rooted in a divine, not a human decision – but this does not deny the necessity of a human response.

          power….. wisdom

Note the different effects the preaching of the Gospel has. 

Power contrasts with stumbling-block, wisdom with foolishness. 

The cross was a stumbling block to the Jew because of Deuteronomy 21:23 – Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (cf. Galatians 3:13).

v25    the foolishness of God

Of course Paul is not ascribing foolishness to God.  He is saying that God’s truth which seems foolishness to the unbeliever is wiser than the unbeliever’s wisdom.  He uses the neuter of the adjective – to moron – instead of the noun – moria – here (literally the foolish thing instead of foolishness).  This points to a particular act of God’s foolishness (the cross).  Compare weakness where again the neuter of the adjective is used.

‘Had God consulted us for wisdom we could have given him a more workable plan, something that would attract the sign-seeker and the lover of wisdom.  As it is, in his own wisdom he left us out of the consultation’ (Fee, p 77).

1. b) God’s ‘foolishness’ – the Corinthian believers (1:26-31)

v26    think of what you were when you were called

This verse has been much used as evidence of the sociological structure of early Christianity.  See Fee pp 80ff for a brief discussion.  However,

‘The truly unique feature of early Christianity was its nonhomogeneous character, that it cut across all sociological lines and accepted as “brothers” slave and free, Jew and Gentile, male and female” (Fee, p 81).

vv27-28                foolish…… weak…….lowly

It is the things which the world considers foolish, weak, and lowly that God has chosen to nullify or render inoperative the things considered to be wise, strong and noble.  The purpose of this is in verse 29 – that no-one may boast before him. In Christ God has already set the future in motion, whereby the present age is on its way out.

v30    righteousness …… holiness….. redemption

NIV gets the translation right here (AV is misleading).  Righteousness, holiness and redemption are three different aspects of God’s wisdom.  They’re all central to Paul’s theology and result from the cross.

v31    he who boasts…. let him boast in the Lord

The verse clearly refers to Jesus, but it is a quote from Jeremiah 9:23-24 where it is Jehovah who is referred to (cf notes on 1:2 and 1:8.

Boast here has the sense of trust.

1. c) God’s ‘foolishness’ – Paul’s preaching (2:1-5)

v1      I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom

When Paul came to Corinth he did not try to persuade them with human philosophy.  He simply preached Christ crucified (v2).  The cross cannot be rationalised.

          The testimony about God

Testimony or mystery? Texts differ (marturion or musterion).  Barrett prefers testimony because (a) mystery is in the context and could have affected a copyist subconsciously, and (b) testimony is more suited to the initial proclamation of the Gospel.

v2      I resolved

Paul’s determination here is probably not because of his apparent failure at Athens (Acts 17).  ‘He is not contrasting his evangelistic method with that which he employed elsewhere, but with that which others employed in Corinth’ (Barrett).  Cf Fee, p. 92.

v3      weakness, fear …… much trembling

See note on Acts 18:1.  The weakness may refer to some observable physical condition.  Astheneia normally means sickness and this is by no means impossible – cf Galatians 4:13-14.

v4      not with wise and persuasive words but with ……. the Spirit’s power

Having contrasted human wisdom with the cross in vv 1-2 he now contrasts it with the Spirit’s power.  This does not necessarily refer to signs and wonders here – note the absence of reference to miracles in Acts 18.  Fee, p. 95, believes it refers to their actual conversion with the accompanying gift of the Spirit which was probably evidenced by spiritual gifts, especially tongues.

Talk 4: The trouble with human wisdom (1:18-2:8)

Last time we identified five causes of division in the Corinthian church:

1. Behaving ‘only in a human way’ – like the world
2. Immaturity
3. A Celebrity culture
4. Failure to recognise church leaders for what they are – servants
5. Failure to recognise that we’re all serving the same God with the same purpose – that his church should grow.

Now it could be argued that #2-5 all spring from #1.

Today we will see that in Corinth this was manifested in yet another way – a dependence on human wisdom.

The main theme of 1:21-2:16 is the contrast between human and divine wisdom.

Today we’ll look at what Paul sees as the trouble with human wisdom.

Next time we’ll consider how God’s wisdom is infinitely superior.

Let’s begin by reading 1:18-20

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

So we see that:

1 Human wisdom is foolishness to God

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

2 Human wisdom does not recognise God

21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe

3 Human wisdom rejects the message of the cross

22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

4 Human wisdom rejects Christ who is God’s Wisdom personified

24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

5 Human wisdom is totally different from and inferior to God’s Wisdom

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

6 Human wisdom is useless as a means of winning others for Christ

1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.

4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,

7 Human wisdom is an insecure basis for our faith in Christ

5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

8 Human wisdom gets you nowhere! It leads only to death

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

9 Human wisdom crucified the Lord of glory

7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Dealing with Division (1:10-17, 3:1-9)

Last time we looked at 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 where we saw that Paul was able to give thanks for the Corinthians despite all the problems they were facing.

Today’s passage reveals the first of those problems – divisions in the church, and particularly division over leaders. We’ll be looking at three main passages of scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

John 17:11, 20-23

We will handle the subject under the following headings:

The situation in Corinth

Five things that cause division

The basis of Paul’s appeal for unity

How unity can be achieved

The situation in Corinth

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

V 10 tells us that Paul has learned from some of Chloe’s household that there are quarrels and divisions in the church.

These have sprung from the fact that the Corinthians were not ‘perfectly united in mind and thought’.

V 12 makes it clear that these divisions and quarrels were mainly over leaders:

12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

Paul has more to say on these divisions in 1 Corinthians 3:1-8 where we learn more about what was causing them.

Five things that cause division

1 Immaturity

In vv 1-2 Paul complains that the Corinthians have not grown up spiritually. By now they should have matured spiritually, but they’re still behaving like children.

1 But I, brothers and sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready. (ESV)

2 Behaving only in a human way

Vv 3-4 show us that divisions in the church mean that we’re behaving no better than the people in the world around us. We’re behaving as people of the flesh (ESV).

3 For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not being merely human?

Behaving in a human way means behaving like the people in the world. It involves jealousy (v3) and selfishness (1 Corinthians 11:19ff)

3 A ‘celebrity culture’

4 For when one says, ‘I follow Paul’’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos’, are you not being merely human?

The modern cult of so-called celebrities is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world around us. There is no place for it in the church!

4 Failure to recognise that the greatest of God’s servants are just that – servants!

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (NIV)

Cf. John13:16. The apostle is not greater than the foot washing Christ who sends him.

1 Corinthians 15:10 By the grace of God I am what I am

as the Lord has assigned

God has a task for every one of us. But it’s God himself who is building his church.

Note vv7-8

7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour.

This shows us the final cause of division:

5 Failure to recognise that we’re all serving the same God with the same purpose – that his church should grow, both as individual members and as a body

Summary so far:

There were serious divisions in the church in Corinth mainly with regard to leadership.

The causes of division we have identified are:

Immaturity

Behaving ‘only in a human way’ – like the world

A Celebrity culture

Failure to recognise church leaders for what they are – servants

Failure to recognise that we’re all serving the same God with the same purpose – that his church should grow.

We now turn to:

The basis of Paul’s appeal for unity

Back to chapter 1

10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ means with the authority of…

Why did Paul claim that authority?

Christ had commissioned him as an apostle (Acts 26:15-18) – He knew his gifting

15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.

16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.

17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

He was conscious that he was writing scripture

1 Cor. 14:37

If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command

For us, recognition of the authority of Scripture is the only true basis for unity

Jesus himself had prayed for their unity (John 17:11, 20-23)

John 17

11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,

21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:

23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

How unity can be achieved

1 By recognising that unity is God’s will (1:10)

10 I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

2 By recognising our unity in Christ  (expressed in baptism and communion)

Baptism

14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

To be baptised into the name of someone means that the person baptised has given himself/herself to the person into whose name they have been baptized.

As Christians we have yielded our lives to Christ because he was crucified for us.

So our baptism is a symbol of our unity because we have all yielded to the Lordship of Christ.

Communion (1 Cor. 10:16-17)

16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

3 By recognising our proper place in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:24-25)

24 … God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body…

4 By emphasising the things that unite us rather than those that divide us (esp. the cross

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

5 By respecting those with whose opinions we disagree – baptism an example

As we have seen, baptism is a symbol of our unity in Christ

Yet Christians are divided over what baptism is!

To me the New Testament is clear.

Baptism is by immersion and is for believers only.

(The reference in 1:16 to Paul baptizing the household of Stephanas provides no secure basis for the doctrine of infant baptism. Paul’s statement in 16:15 that they had devoted themselves to the service of the saints suggests the contrary).

But I recognise that many sincere Christians have a different view.

So how do we reconcile our differences on such issues?

We may never persuade our friends in other churches that our view of Scripture is the right one. (Hopefully in any one local church all the members would be agreed on this).

Baptism is important. The Lord Jesus commanded it.

So when Paul says that he is glad he baptized none of them he is not minimising the importance of baptism, but he recognises that baptism does not cause salvation.

The Spirit does that through the preaching of the Gospel – but baptism is the God-ordained response upon believing the Gospel.

But whatever our view on baptism, Jesus died for us all.

We are all of Christ (not Paul or Apollos or Peter) because of Calvary. 

We have all believed the same gospel.

When we remember the cross, any differences we may have with our fellow-Christians pale into insignificance.

Talk 2: Thanking God despite the problems (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)