1 Corinthians 2 Review: Day 1
Be watchful- γρηγορέω (grégoreó) to be awake, to watch, to be vigilant
Today we begin our review of 1 Corinthians 2 through the perspective of Paul’s closing instructions to the church in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14:
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
(Newer readers may review this approach as discussed in the Introduction)
Paul speaks extensively in 1 Corinthians 2 about the contrast between earthly wisdom and God’s wisdom, especially when determining how the Lord reaches and opens the hearts of the lost.
Given Paul's example, followers of Christ are reminded that watchfulness is built into the very structure of their faith as it concerns God’s plan to grow his kingdom.
Sharing the gospel is not an optional or passive action for one who has been rescued from hell and brought into blessed fellowship with the God of the universe. One needs to look no further than the command Jesus gave his disciples following his resurrection:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
This passage, known as the Great Commission, was given to his original disciples and all who God would call to follow him in the ages to come.
Our vigilance as believers compels us to consider how to obey this command. What does the Bible tell us? How often have we paused to examine and audit the message we share and the methods we use to make and baptize fellow disciples of Jesus Christ? Are we operating under the wisdom and strength of men, or by the wisdom and power of God?
Consider the simplicity of Paul’s opening words from 1 Corinthians 2:
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2
As we discussed in our survey of 1 Corinthians 2, Paul’s admission of his oratorical weakness was not exaggerated or even slightly disingenuous. Though he was a remarkable scholar and intellectual, his admission is both a comforting and gripping reminder that souls were born again, and a church was established in Corinth because God worked through a message containing two crucial elements: the preeminence of Jesus and the necessity of his cross.
The Preeminence of Jesus
Jesus was never a secondary figure in Paul’s writings and ministry activities, and we don’t need to look any further than his opening greetings in 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 where he makes four references to Jesus as the Christ, which is derived from the Greek word, Christos (Χριστός), meaning the Anointed One, Messiah.[i] Additionally, he refers to him as Lord three times in this same passage, which in Greek translates as kýrios (κύριος), meaning master.[ii]
These are not isolated references, and both are repeated so frequently throughout each of Paul’s epistles, that one can almost begin to take them for granted. Paul believed Jesus was God incarnate; the long-awaited Messiah sent to earth to take away the sins of the world.
Perhaps nothing reveals this more than how Paul repeatedly correlated Old Testament references to God (Yahweh) with Jesus.[iii]
For example, when Paul wrote in Romans 10:13 that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” he was referencing Joel 2:32 which reads,
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.
These Jesus/Yahweh cross-references take place four additional times throughout his letters:
1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17 reference Jeremiah 9:24
1 Corinthians 2:16 references Isaiah 40:13
1 Corinthians 10:26 references Psalm 24:1
When Paul “decided to know nothing” among the Corinthians apart from Jesus Christ, he was not proclaiming that Jesus was God’s prophet, angel, teacher, or simply a good man. No, Paul declared that Jesus was the pre-existent Creator and Lord of the universe:
For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
1 Corinthians 8:5-6
The Necessity of the Cross
The cross, as we now know it, figures so prominently in our culture that it is difficult to imagine how scandalous and horrific it would have been for the ancient mind to hear it was God’s chosen instrument for humanity’s redemption.
Roman orator and statesman, Cicero, argued the cross was a “most cruel and shameful punishment”[iv], and Mosaic law stated that anyone dying under its torture was cursed by God. (Deuteronomy 21:23)
Instead of ducking this reality, Paul affirmed that the cross and its associated curse were an absolute necessity to save sinful men who stood condemned because of their inability to obey and live up to God’s law.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:10-14
In other words, the curse of the cross was necessary to overcome the damnable curse of sin. The punishment, as it were, fit the crime though it was carried out on one so undeserving.
Paul never got over this message, nor did he seek to soften or deflect from its reality. Consider the glorious weight of these words from his second recorded letter to the Corinthian church:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
Summing it up
Do we love Jesus? Are we vigilant to proclaim the truth that he voluntarily absorbed the full measure of God’s wrath on our behalf, even while we were violently opposed to him in our sin? (Romans 5:8)
Though the modern world seems curiously indifferent to an ornamental gilded cross, it remains as hostile as ever to its message and all it reveals and requires.
The Bible knows nothing of a cross-less Christ or the denial, acceptance, or celebration of men’s sin that drove him there, so we should be wary of and reject any message that proclaims one without the other.
Acts 16:16-40 recounts the remarkable story of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas. Not only did God miraculously send an earthquake that shook the prison’s foundations, but he also opened its doors and loosened each prisoner’s chains. Freedom was theirs for the taking; freedom which would have lawfully required their jailer to die once they escaped. However, instead of running, Paul and Silas begged the jailer not to end his own life with the assurance that not one prisoner had fled.
He responded with a question when confronted by this vivid demonstration of God’s mercy and power.
He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Acts 16:30
Much like the jailer, the Bible tells us we have sinned and have fallen short of God’s holy standard and are deserving of death. (Romans 3:23, 5:12, 6:23) Nevertheless, the Scriptures also say that “while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6), making this same mercy available to us, and compelling our souls to ask the same question.
“What must we do to be saved?”
God’s answer now is the one Paul and Silas gave their trembling jailer then:
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Acts 16:31
Questions for Consideration
Read Matthew 25:31-46, Luke 9:23-27, John 3:3, 8-9, 2 Corinthians 13:5, James 2:18-19
What does it mean to truly believe in the Lord Jesus?
Read Matthew 16:24-26, Luke 9:57-62, John 4:23, 6:26, 66
What did Jesus mean when he told his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”?
[i] “Strong’s Greek: 5547. Χριστός (Christos).” https://biblehub.Com n.d. Accessed July 20, 2024. https://biblehub.com/greek/5547.htm.
[ii] “Strong’s Greek: 2962. κύριος (kurios) -- Lord, Master.” https://biblehub.Com n.d. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://biblehub.com/greek/2962.htm.
[iii] Slick, Matt. “Did Paul Think Jesus Was God? Yes, He Did | carm.Org.” https://carm.Org May 25, 2011. https://carm.org/doctrine-and-theology/did-paul-think-jesus-was-god/.
[iv] “Latin Texts & Translations.” https://anastrophe.uchicago.Edu/ n.d. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://anastrophe.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/perseus/citequery3.pl?dbname=LatinAugust21&getid=1&query=Cic.%20Ver.%202.5.160.