Survey of 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
The power of God versus the wisdom of men
Verses 1-5: An Unlikely Power Source
It would seem most unlikely that Almighty God would select man’s most horrific tool of torture and execution as the very centerpiece of his divine plan to save humanity. However, Paul continues to remind his readers that the cross of Jesus had indeed been divinely chosen as the exclusive pathway for the redemption of his people.
He uses these opening verses to remind Corinthian believers of his early turbulent days in Corinth when his feeble efforts to preach would ultimately get him kicked out of the synagogue and lead him to take the message of Christ’s Lordship to the neighboring Gentiles.
Verses three and four provide a window into Paul’s mindset as he labored and would eventually receive God’s encouragement in a vision where he was told, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent”. (Romans 18:9-10)
The Lord made good on his promise to be near and protect Paul, and he remained faithful to use the humbly communicated truth of the gospel to save and grow a congregation of believers among the lost.
However, the men and women of Corinth soon forgot that the message of “Christ and him crucified” was the sole cause and means of their salvation and would be for all who might follow.
Paul was preoccupied with this message for good reason. He had not only experienced the Holy Spirit’s radical transformation of his life but had also seen how God had used it to grow his church in Corinth.
It is easy, and perhaps understandable for current readers of his extraordinary letters to presume or detect a kind of meager self-deprecation hiding behind his recollection of his poor rhetorical skills to go with his “weakness, fear and trembling”. How could this prolific genius, and once-zealous prodigy and defender of the Jewish law ever reasonably claim to preach or speak from a position of frailty, even if God had figuratively and literally knocked him off of his high horse?
We are tempted to read these claims and think, “Yes, I believe he felt scared and weak, but at the end of the day, he was still the great Apostle Paul.”
Though he was indeed gifted, we do well here to take him exactly at his word and accept that he was telling the unvarnished truth.
As first-hand witnesses, the recipients of this letter would have easily recalled the arrival of this once-feared Pharisee who was suddenly gripped by a new message of salvation and reconciliation with God through the shed blood of his only Son. The demands of the law which he had once used to bully and bloody his opponents, were now fully satisfied in the risen and soon-to-be-returning Christ. No amount of head knowledge would ever equip Gamaliel’s star pupil with the power capable of transforming a heart of stone to a heart of flesh and he well knew it.
No. God’s power to regenerate the souls of men and women was only found in the message that said salvation came by placing one’s faith in Christ alone and rested exclusively upon the atonement of sin through his perfect life, death, burial, and resurrection. Anything Paul would or could have tried to generate on his own would have robbed the cross of its power. (1 Corinthians 1:17)
Indeed, Paul emphatically claimed that the gospel was not a power, but the power of God for salvation to all who believed.
How easily this young church had forgotten this essential truth. Their woeful error should be a cautionary tale to any individual, church, or organization desiring to influence the culture and advance God’s kingdom. Though rhetorical gifts, technological capabilities, and a variety of communication tools and mediums might be rightfully sought, celebrated, and used to reach the masses, there is only one message that God’s spirit inhabits and uses to save the souls of men, and we abandon it at our peril.
Tragically, countless church pews are filled each week by many who might lift their hearts and hands in soul-stirring praise but leave with unregenerated souls since they never hear the only message God has divinely ordained to transport them from eternal death to eternal life.
It is remarkable to consider that God uses his own redeemed but deeply flawed sons and daughters as the primary carriers of this message, and any contemplation of this profound mystery should humble and propel us to devote our entire lives to this endeavor. Paul would later remind the Corinthians of their God-given responsibility in 2 Corinthians 4:5-7:
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Confronting Complacency
Paul ends verse five by saying that the Corinthian’s faith must rest in the gospel and not in the wisdom of men.
In essence, the Holy Spirit-fueled message of salvation is just as important to strengthen and sustain an existing believer’s faith through daily trial and temptation as it is to cause those dead in their trespasses and sins to become born again. Paul had just reminded them that the message of the cross is the power of God to those who are “being saved”. (1 Corinthians 1:18) Indeed, for the followers of Christ, it should never be forgotten that their hope and joy extend beyond the moment of their redemption.
Not only are the redeemed promised eternal life and salvation from hell, but they have the assurance that the Lord will continue to make and mold them into his image until the day Christ returns, all because of what he accomplished on the cross. (Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 10:10)
How quickly the Corinthian believers had forgotten this truth. How quickly believers throughout the subsequent ages have forgotten this truth.
The nineteenth-century Anglican bishop, J.C. Ryle wrote passionately about the dangers of such complacency among God’s children with words that still resonate today:
Men and women who hear the Gospel regularly, I often fear much for you. I fear lest you become so familiar with the sounds of its doctrines, that insensibly you become dead to its power.
I fear lest your religion should sink down into a little vague talk about your own weakness and corruption, and a few sentimental expressions about Christ, while real practical fighting on Christ’s side is altogether neglected. Oh, beware of this state of mind! Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. No victory—no crown! Fight and overcome!”[i]
Verses 6-16: Wisdom Hidden, Wisdom Revealed
It may be reasonable to assume that saving faith comes as the result of one’s logical deduction when presented with a consideration of Biblical facts about God’s character.
A person might even observe and appreciate the habits and values of a Christian community and decide to adopt its religious creeds while participating in its rites and customs. Some might even acknowledge the existence of God and even be willing to concede that Jesus is his only Son while having their soul stirred by messages about God’s love for humanity. Does this person’s intellectual acceptance of God automatically make them a child of God?
Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner addresses this in his observation of 2 Corinthians 2:6-16, “Knowing God is a matter not of human discovery but of divine revelation.”[ii]
Paul opens the second half of 1 Corinthians 2 by speaking about wisdom given to those he describes as the “mature”. (v. 6) A surface reading of this text might lead us to reason that God’s wisdom is merely granted to those who have reached a desired level of spiritual growth and maturity. However, a clearer understanding of the word “mature” quickly dispels this notion since it is derived from the Greek word “telios”, which means to be made perfect or complete. In essence, the mature person here is one whose case has been made just and righteous before a holy God with no further need of defense.
The writer of Hebrews 10:14 helps give us a better understanding of what such maturity looks like and how it was achieved:
For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
The offering here, is of course, the atoning sacrifice made by God’s only son, so when Paul speaks about the revelation of hidden wisdom, he is talking about that heart knowledge which is given exclusively to those whose souls have been regenerated or as Jesus told Nicodemus, those who have been “born again”. (John 3:3-8)
God’s sovereign plan to rescue fallen humanity was carefully orchestrated by him long before he ever breathed life into Adam and Eve’s nostrils. He knew they would fall prey to the tempter’s wicked schemes and become subject to a curse that would kill their souls and forever separate them from God’s pleasure and presence.
Nothing they could ever do in the form of good works or religious observance could revive their hearts or bridge the bottomless gulf between them and the Almighty. God, however, anticipated it all, and though his plan had once been hidden, it was fully revealed at the arrival of the Messiah. His victory would be won as he was being turned over to those who neither understood nor knew who he truly was. (Luke 23:1-25)
John 1:11-13 encapsulates this truth perfectly:
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
1 Corinthians 2 explains that salvation itself is a supernatural act initiated by the Holy Spirit to both awaken and open the ears, hearts, and minds who hear the message of the cross as it is proclaimed.
The message that got Paul labeled as a “babbler” (Acts 17:18) in Athens and brought him under attack in Corinth (Acts 18:12), was the same one God would use to open and rescue the darkened hearts of many who would shine as a light for God’s kingdom (Acts 18:8-11).
Sincere faith and a proper understanding of Scripture’s teachings does not come from the will of men or mere academic or intellectual understanding or acceptance of the facts as they are presented. Salvation is granted through the willful act of the Lord Jesus who serves as the “author and finisher of our faith”. (Hebrews 12:2)
The Holy Spirit imparts true wisdom as his word is routinely read and preached, (Romans 10:17) and men repent of their sin and self-sufficiency.
Proverbs 9:10 aptly teaches:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.
The gospel message confronts its hearers with the terrifying reality that their souls stand in the greatest danger with no human means of overcoming it despite their best efforts. (Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:23)
God in his sovereignty, gives his wisdom to some by placing an essential question in their hearts that only he can answer. It is the same question posed by Paul’s Philippian jailer who asked him and his cellmate Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” (Philippians 16:30) The answer they gave him then, is the answer the Spirit of God gives us now:
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.
Questions for Consideration
1 Peter 3:15 offers the following instructions to followers of Christ:
In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
Where is the source of your hope in a dark and hopeless culture? Is that hope evident as you engage with others at work, in your neighborhood, or online? Do your words and behaviors offer a testimony that mirrors the one you claim to follow?
Read Luke 3:8-9, 13:6-9; 2 Corinthians 13:5-10; Ephesians 2:10, James 2:14-26
If you claim to follow Jesus, where is your faith anchored? Can you point to a time when you confessed before God that your sin had separated you from him and that the only hope for your soul’s redemption and salvation rested in the sacrificial death of his only Son?
Does your life bear fruit in keeping with your repentance? In other words, when you reflect upon your life, can you see evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work within you to convict you of sin and turn away from it with his help? Do you desire to walk a narrow path of righteousness and are you drawn to seek repentance whenever you stray from it?
[i] Archive, The J.C. Ryle. “Do Not Become Dead to the Gospel.” Do Not Become Dead to the Gospel. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.jcryle.info/2015/10/do-not-become-dead-to-gospel.html.
[ii] Schreiner, Thomas R. I Corinthians: An introduction and commentary. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2018.