1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Bible Study

This study was written for the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church of Orlando FL, Wednesday, 10 am Bible Study.

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. ³ And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴ My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

We live in an age of a consumer society.  It is tempting to share the Good News in a Madison Avenue approach – convince others that they have to buy into this product. 

Paul, in these verses, rejected trying to convince Corinthians to by into his product.  He just presented the Good News.  Period.

Ultimately the people in the pews on Sunday morning are there not because of a sales pitch, or because of the qualifications of any minister. They are part of the church family because God’s Holy Spirit has been at work in their hearts.

PAUL reflects on the first time he was in Corinth.  Three things stand out.

(1) Paul’s message was on of simplicity. It is worth noting that Paul had come to Corinth from Athens. When he was in Athens, Paul attempted to do just the opposite of what he did with the Corinthians – he used all the wisdom and marketing he could muster.  He presented Christianity to philosophic terms. 

As far as we know, this was the only time Paul took this approach, and it was also in Athens that Paul experienced one of his few failures in his ministry.  It had very little effect.

Acts 17³² When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” ³³ At that point Paul left them. ³⁴ But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

There were some experiences I had early in my ministry that were absolute failures.  I learned so much from these experiences and I came away from them knowing that they had flopped, and why they had flopped, and I didn’t feel badly about it – but I did walk way knowing that I would do things very differently the next time.

Paul, with the experience of Athens still fresh in his mind, seems convinced that he would learn from Athens and never do things that way again.

Rather than trying to convince people from any sort of complex marketing ploy, Paul simply told the Corinthians the simple story of Jesus.

“I will know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him upon his cross.”

Karl Barth was a theologian.  Many regard him as the most significant theologian of the 20^th Century.  He wrote a multivolume set of books on theology, “Church Dogma,” which has over 8,000 pages.  Some consider that to be the most important theological work ever. 

At one time he gave a lecture and afterward someone asked him if he could summarize the Christian theology in one simple sentence, and his response was “Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” That is the simple, unadorned story.

2) Paul presented a simple message that had results.  The result of Paul’s preaching was that things happened. He uses the word “power” very often in this section – the power of God.  And how is this power demonstrated?  Lives were changed.  Within the polluted environment of Corinth, the lives of people were becoming better.  They had deeper value.

There is a story that William Barclay shares in his commentary on First Corinthians.  An alcoholic gave his life to Christ and was able to enjoy years of sobriety.  Where before he spent almost his whole paycheck on his drinking habit, now he was sober and responsible.  His coworkers used to make fun of him and try to shake his convictions by telling him, “Surely a reasonable man like you can’t believe the miracles of the Bible – no one can turn water into wine.”  To that the man responded, “I don’t know whether or not Jesus did turn water into wine, but I know that in my house he turned beer into furniture.”

It is hard to argue with results, and Christ changes lives.  So Paul used simple words – just Christ crucified – and the results of the changes in the people’s lives.

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. ⁷ But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

In the early Christian Church there developed two kinds of teaching – both of which are valuable and both are practiced today.

To use the Greek words – Kerygma and Didache.  Kerygma is often translated as “preaching” or “proclaiming,” and Didache is often translated “teaching.”

That is what Paul is getting at here. So far, he has been preaching about Jesus Christ and about Christ crucified. Kerygma.

Now it is time for the didache – to get deeper.  Later Paul will use phrases in Corinthians about babies drinking milk as opposed to solid food. 

When he talks about things being hidden, or when he talks about mysteries, he is talking about those parts of the Christian faith that can only be understood when you have not only heard the message, but through God’s Spirit you are able to live the message.

It is one thing to hear the message about love for others (kerygma), but it is another to get deeper and to know not only with your mind, but with your experience and your heart about love for others (didache).

Paul insists that this special teaching is not the product of intellectual activity.  It is the gift of God.

¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. ¹³ And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴ Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.

¹⁶ “For who has known the mind of the Lord
    so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

We mentioned Karl Barth earlier – he was the great theologian who said that the Gospel in a sentence was “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

One of the other things he said was about  preaching, and how preaching is “the speaking of God himself through the lips of the minister.” (Karl Barth, Homiletics, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991, p67.)

Now it is not what I say that is the Word of God.  But rather, God works in the listener.  As I speak my words, God works in the listener so that there is an opportunity for the listener to hear not only what I am saying to the congregation, but what God is saying to the individual. 

And this is what Paul is saying here.  Paul spoke words about Christ, but he is also saying here that the only person who can tell us about God is the Spirit of God.

People who are not listening to the Spirit of God cannot understand spiritual things.

William Barclay said it well in his commentary on First Corinthians:

“Anyone who thinks that nothing is more important than the satisfaction of the sex urge cannot understand the meaning of chastity;

“anyone who ranks the amassing of material things as the supreme end of life cannot understand generosity;

“and anyone who never has a thought beyond this world cannot understand the things of God.”