1 Corinthians 1

Notes

Ver. 1-3. I, Paul, who have not thrust myself into this apostolic office which I claim, but was graciously, sovereignly, and immediately called to and qualified for it by Jesus Christ—and Sosthenes, my dear and faithful assistant in the ministry, though not an apostle—do, in the most earnest and affectionate manner, wish to all you at Corinth who are regularly united in church-fellowship, set apart for and spiritually joined to Christ, as your Head of influence and government, and by the operation of his Spirit rendered like him in holiness; and to all those who anywhere profess and adore him, our common Lord, as the object of their faith, worship, and obedience—all the riches and the blessed effects of redeeming favour, love, and mercy, and an abundant peace with God, with your own consciences, and with one another, from God the Father, as the original spring and deviser of every blessing, and through Jesus Christ, as the source, storehouse, and bestower of them. 4-6.

I heartily congratulate you on your happiness and honour upon every remembrance of you, and bless my infinitely gracious God for the manifold favours, gifts, and graces which, on Christ's account, he has bestowed upon you, enriching you not only with such spiritual habits and tempers as are necessary to salvation, but with remarkable knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel, and a ready ability to communicate them to others—the Spirit of God thereby confirming to your hearts and consciences the truth of the gospel of Christ which we preached and ye believed. 7-9. So that ye are not remarkably deficient, or inferior to other Christians, in any spiritual gifts which could render you useful in Christ's church, in which ye continue praying, preparing, and patiently and hopefully waiting for his second coming—who, by a constant supply of necessary gifts and graces, will more establish you in the faith, hope, and holiness of the gospel,—that, when others are condemned, ye may appear perfectly righteous, holy, and irreproachable at his tribunal; for God, who has graciously called you into a state of union and fellowship with his dear Son, being unchangeably faithful to his character, love, and promises, will aid you to be partakers of eternal glory. 10-12. If then God hath done, and will do, so much for you, and if Jesus will in a little time judge you at his awful bar, let me beseech you, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, by his excellencies, relations, and works of love, and by your profession of him, to lay aside your contentions and alienation of affection from one another, and to study the most cordial harmony in sentiment, affection, and holy practices; for, to my great grief, I have been informed that ye, whom I truly esteem, and of whom I hoped better things, have, by uncharitable divisions, been thrown into different parties, under different leaders—some of you ranking yourselves under me, as the apostle of the Gentiles, or instrument of your conversion; others under Apollos, as the most eloquent and fervent preacher; others under Peter, as the apostle of the circumcision; while others pretend to be immediately directed by Christ alone, needing no other instructor. 13-16. To convince you of the absurdity of your conduct, let me ask even you who pretend to be solely for Christ, overlooking his ministers and ordinances, Is his person to be divided from his offices? or his offices from the execution thereof by the ministry of his servants, who labour in the church by his authority and according to his will?—Why set up me, or any other minister, for your spiritual head? Did I or my brethren make atonement for your sins? Or were ye baptized by the authority, or into the faith, worship, and obedience of us? I thank God that, though I was the instrument of conversion to many of you, I baptized but very few of you, lest any should have thence taken occasion to insinuate that I had acted by my own authority, and bound the persons whom I baptized to acknowledge me as their spiritual master. 17. For indeed Christ sent me not chiefly to baptize, but to preach the glad tidings of salvation through his blood; and that not dressed up in flowers of rhetoric or maxims of philosophy for the promoting of my own selfish honours, but in the most plain language and style, that the native majesty, spirituality, glory, and power of the gospel doctrine, of and concerning a crucified Saviour, might be the more clearly manifested in the humbling and conversion of sinners. 18. For the plain preaching of salvation through the blessed righteousness of Jesus Christ, received by faith, appears quite despicable, foolish, and absurd, to them who live and die in their sins; but to us who are really saved from our sins and miseries, it is the marvellous mean through which the almighty influences of God's Spirit are conveyed for illuminating, sanctifying, supporting, and comforting our hearts. 19, 20. This, according to the Scripture, quite confounds the notions of the learned of this world, and exhibits a method of salvation directly contrary to whatever they could have imagined. None of them, Jews or Gentiles, could ever contrive a method of saving sinners, or of reconciling them to God; and herein he hath stamped disgrace upon all the wisdom of philosophers and others, and manifested their schemes for appeasing an offended God, and reconciling guilty sinners to him, as altogether vain, foolish, and ineffectual. 21. For after he, in the manifestation of his own infinite wisdom, had plainly shown that neither the works of creation, nor of common providence, nor any powers of human reasoning, could lead to a saving and satisfying knowledge of himself or the way of salvation, it pleased him, by the much-despised plain preaching of a crucified Christ, and the way of salvation through his blood, to save them who by faith receive and rest upon him for their eternal redemption, as therein offered to them. 22, 23. Notwithstanding all the proofs that Christ hath given us of his Godhead and saving offices, the obstinate Jews still persist in demanding a sign from heaven to prove them, and the learned Greeks insist upon philosophical demonstrations of the method of salvation. But, regardless of these prejudices, we faithful ministers proclaim a full, eternal, free, and offered salvation to sinful men through the obedience and death of Christ, which the Jews contemn, to the infinite hazard and ruin of their souls, and the learned Greeks account highly foolish and absurd. 24. But let others think as they will of Jesus Christ, or of the doctrine of salvation through his blood, we, who do yield to him, discern and experience therein the great power and manifold wisdom of God, clearly exhibited in his whole person, offices, and saving effects. 25. For what ignorant, carnal, and prejudiced men reckon absurd folly, infinitely transcends in wisdom all the boasted schemes of the most sagacious, prudent, and learned philosophers; and what they account weak and unavailing is found by experience to have an incomparable energy in destroying the works of the devil, renewing the heart, and reforming the lives of men. 26-29. And to manifest the abundance of his grace, and, as it were, to mark the insignificancy of men's natural or acquired advantages, ye cannot but observe that very few of the learned, the eminently sagacious, great, or powerful, are converted to Christ; but he has generally fixed his love upon, and graciously finds, such as are comparatively foolish, weak, mean, or contemptible,—that none, Jews or Gentiles, do have any pretence to glory before him of their natural parts, accomplishments, or external privileges, as if these could recommend them to his favour, or qualify them to receive the gospel. 30, 31. Yea, on the contrary, because of your simple faith in Jesus Christ, he accepts you in, and thus also unites you to, Christ Jesus, who, by his divine appointment, is constituted and made over to us in the gospel offer, and freely granted to us in the day of power, as an infinitely well-furnished and loving Teacher, to render us wise unto salvation: a law-fulfilling Saviour, through whose finished obedience and suffering we may be completely justified; and not only as securing, but as a loving giver, of all renewing, quickening, and sanctifying grace, by his Spirit dwelling in us; and a full deliverer from sin and misery, and bestower of that eternal happiness which he hath obtained for all,—that, as the Scripture directs, he who has any honours and blessings bestowed upon him may centre all his joy and boasting entirely in the Lord Jesus, and in the free grace of God through him.

Ver. 2. Sanctified in Christ Jesus—by faith in the offering of his body. See Ac. 26. 18; He. 10. 10, 14.—Note, It is no objection to the reality of this character, that there was deficiency in the true believers, and false brethren among them. The epistle is to the 'sanctified,' not to those who, notwithstanding their nominal profession of Christianity, might still be in the gall of bitterness.—In every place call upon, &c. To 'call upon,' or 'call on the name,' signifies to 'invoke,' to 'worship,' Ac. 2. 21; 9. 14, 21; 22. 16; Ro. 10. 12-14; 2 Ti. 2. 22. Wherefore, there is here a distinct acknowledgment that the primitive and apostolic church universally worshipped Christ—universally acknowledged his Godhead. C.

Ver. 8. Who shall confirm you. The 'who' is by some referred to 'Christ,' ver. 7, but it seems preferable to refer it to 'God,' ver. 4; for had the apostle intended to refer the confirmation directly to Christ, he would not have closed the sentence with 'the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,' but with 'his day.' C.

Ver. 16. I know not, &c. These words are to be taken in their literal import—ignorance, either from lapse of memory, or from the possible addition of new members to the Corinthian church whom he might elsewhere have baptized. But this ignorance is by no means inconsistent with the plenary inspiration of the apostle; for inspiration does not imply the divine communication of everything, but merely the communication of things necessary for the edification of the church. C.

Ver. 17. Not with wisdom of words. Reference is here made rather to the form and structure of his discourses, than to their language. They were not framed in accordance with the artificial rules of the philosophers. They did not treat of speculative questions; they were altogether different in structure from the orations delivered in the schools of Greece. Paul makes no apology, therefore, for his simple language or homely speech. He could not have done so truthfully; for we find in this epistle a depth of thought, an acuteness of reasoning, a beauty of illustration, and sometimes a splendour of eloquence, not surpassed in Greek literature. P.

Ver. 21. By 'wisdom of God,' some understand the permission or government of his wise providence. But may not the whole verse be better understood thus:—'For after that the world, through its (philosophical) wisdom, knew not God (though manifest) in his wisdom (of creation, providence, and word), it pleased God, through the preaching of foolishness (the cross, ver. 18, 23, 25) to save them that believe.' C.

Ver. 28. Base things. Not things really base and unworthy, but things so esteemed by the world; God, by the weakest and apparently the most inadequate instruments, producing the most wonderful results.—Things which are not, &c. The expression 'things which are not' is generally represented as hyperbole, or oxymoron—an extravagance or contradiction in language, frequent in classical writers. But there is no necessity for attributing either to the apostle. God had chosen a people (the future Christian church) 'that were not' then in being, 'to bring to nought' the heathen empire of Rome; and there is still a chosen people to be born, under whom all the kingdoms of this world shall become 'the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ,' ch. 2. 7. C.

Ver. 30. Christ... is made unto us wisdom. A wisdom different from, but infinitely above—both as to subject and effect—the wisdom of earth. The wisdom of this world has narrow limits. It is bounded by the limits of human vision and of human experience. It can neither reach to the unseen nor to the future. But the wisdom which is in Christ, and which we have through him, is infinite in its range:—it extends to the invisible God and to the eternal future. All the wisdom which makes wise unto salvation is embodied in Christ:—in 'his incarnation, his life of obedience, his teaching, his death of atonement, his glorification and sending of the Spirit.' In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. P.

Reflections.—With great prudence, but with plainness and courage, ought ministers, on some occasions, to assert their mission and the dignity of their office. And with firm assurance should we receive the apostolic writings and doctrines as indeed of divine authority. Divine power and grace are necessary to render men saints, while fervent prayer and religious worship evidence them such. And it is absurd to hold profane prayerless persons for church-members. With holy reverence ought we to address Jesus Christ and his Father for the gifts and mercies which we need. And with pleasure may we reflect on what he has bestowed on others as an earnest of their perfect holiness and happiness. Yea, it is a great mercy that God's faithfulness secures the eternal salvation of all those who accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. It is shameful and absurd for Christians to be divided about ministers, as if all Christ's faithful servants were not embarked in one common cause. And it is a comfort for a minister to have had no hand in such carnal rendings of Christ's church; and an honour to have avoided honouring himself at Christ's expense. Very corrupt and darkened by sin must be the hearts of unregenerate men, to whom the mystery and offers of a crucified and divine Redeemer, appear contemptible and absurd. And the enlightening and renewing power of the Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary to make us apprehend it as everyway worthy of God, and calculated to render us wise, holy, and happy. Amazing is the tenderness of God's redeeming grace in respect of its objects and manner of influence. And exactly answerable is Jesus Christ to all our need, who are ignorant and foolish, guilty and naked, polluted and plagued, enslaved and self-ruined sinners. Yea, the whole work of our redemption delightfully promotes the highest glory of God. In this let my soul rejoice, and daily think what Jesus is, and what JEHOVAH is in him, to my heart.