1 Corinthians 1 Factions chapter 1 conclusion second draft
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who [m]are perishing, but to us who [n]are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the [o]message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for [p]signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach [q]Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For [r]consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to [s]the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no [t]man may boast before God. 30 But [u]by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, [v]and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the [a]testimony of God.
I entitled this letter from Paul to the church in Corinth; “Jesus is your Lord, now act like it?” As I stated earlier, the church in Corinth had many problems. But, though it was not good that they had problems, and disagreements, heresy and sin in their congregation; it is beneficial to us, and all the Church of God that they did, because now we are able to read Paul’s instruction on how to deal with those problems.
In fact, this letter is a resource for church problems. You could outline the whole letter this way; Chapter 1; What’s the problem in the church at Corinth? How did Paul say to deal with it? Chapter 2, etc. It all falls under surrendering to the Lordship of Christ.
So, we began last week by looking at the first problem. So, let’s ask the question; What’s the problem? And the answer is that the Corinthian church had problems with a Sectarian Spirit. They were not united with One Vision, One purpose, One understanding of God, Christ, Salvation, and how the church was to run. They were divided. On the surface they divided themselves around influential personalities; Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ. But under the surface, I believe these personalities were kind of hooks to hang their differences on. Let’s take one issue that they will deal with later in the letter; marriage. Everyone disagreed about marriage, divorce, whether you should get married.
Paul answers questions about marriage in chapter 7; celibacy inside marriage, when it is okay to divorce, marriage to unbelievers, and remaining unmarried.
And one could see how factions could develop around personalities regarding this issue. The people who highly esteemed Paul may have applied the doctrine of our freedom in Christ to marriage; and decided that they were free to divorce their wives. Those who followed Cephas may have followed a stricter Jewish understanding of marriage. Those “of Christ” may have quoted Jesus words on the issue.
But they were dividing up into opposing teams. So, before Paul even begins addressing the other issues like marriage, lawsuits, idol temples, and worship, he has to address these factions, and their attaching themselves to a personality cult when they searched for the truth.
And that’s where we are today. The whole letter can be outlined; What’s the problem? And how do we address it.
What’s the problem here? A Sectarian Spirit, factions, divisions in the church. How do we address it? You have to address divisions by addressing the heart of the factions; the heart of any division in the church is the way we think. What divides us? It is not Christ. Paul asks that rhetorical question; Is Christ divided? And the obvious answer is—Christ is not divided. It is not the truth that is unclear, or contradictory. It is our understanding of the truth that divides us. We have to come to unity by discovering God’s truth and submitting to it. When we all do that, we will be one.
John 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
prayer
None of the other issues could be decided if they were not united around One Truth; Christ. The answer to factions; come to arriving at a common understanding of the Truth. Paul covers this issue extensively over 3 chapters. Come to unity in;
Our understanding of intelligence; 1:17; 2:1-5
Our understanding of the cross; 1:19-25
Our understanding of greatness; 1:26-31
Our understanding of wisdom: God’s wisdom 2:6ff Man’s wisdom chapter 3
I. Come to Unity in Our Understanding of Intelligence;
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in [l]cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the [a]testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my [b]message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not [c]rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
He sets up a comparison of sources of intelligence and wisdom; cleverness of speech versus the message of the cross of Christ. Superiority of speech versus the testimony of God. Persuasive words of wisdom versus demonstration of the Spirit and power, wisdom of men versus the power of God.
What do you consider intelligent? When you think of someone that you consider to be very intelligent, very wise, on what basis do you make that judgement? Do you consider them wise because of their expansive vocabulary? Their ability to speak well? Their knowledge of the world’s wisdom?
Why is this important?
You see, churches, groups often fall into discord when they have different understandings about the sources of truth or intelligence. Look at what Paul is saying; On the one hand, some decide that the source of truth can be found with those who are clever or superior in speech or wisdom. They are persuasive. They cite the wisdom of men. Superior speech, persuasive speech, using the wisdom of men.
They have the verbosity. It is a word, I looked it up. I knew the word. I didn’t spell it right, but I knew it. They have the, try this one, perspicacity.
We need to come to an understanding of how God defines intelligence.
Now Paul defines the worldly view of intelligence for us.
A. Superior speech
2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom
We all know these people don’t we? Sometimes we are these people. These are they who rank their own, or others intelligence and wisdom based on the size of the vocabulary, and the person’s ability to string words together in an intelligent fashion. This is the world’s definition of intelligence.
I’m always exasperated with presidential debates. After the debate the analysts will tell you two things; who won the debate, and who told the most lies. And the person who told the most lies isn’t necessarily the loser. They say, “Candidate A won the debate.” Another analyst says, “But he told 50 lies during the debate.” “Yes, but he spoke them so convincingly.”
Many debates have been won by simply squashing your opponent with highfalutin words. Highfalutin; full of fine words and fancy expressions, synonym; grandiloquent.
People put a lot of stock into Superior speech.
B. Persuasive speech
4 and my [b]message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom
These are they who count intelligence by their ability to manipulate language into logical arguments. They not only have the vocabulary they know how to use it. They can manipulate an opponent into a corner and win debates.
C. The wisdom of men
5 so that your faith would not [c]rest on the wisdom of men
This one is counted intelligent and wise because they call on commonly accepted “truths” to convince people. They know all that is considered common sense. They are well read and can remember and cite words and phrases from human wisdom, psychology, and philosophy to bolster their arguments.
We can’t put too much stock in human wisdom. It is often contradictory. When trying to convince you to take action, they say “He who hesitates is lost.” But tomorrow they may try to convince you not to take action and say, “Look before you leap.”
And very often, our decisions can be made based in these ideas of wisdom. But they are not God’s wisdom.
Let me clarify something here. I am not saying, and Paul is not saying that it is evil to have a large vocabulary. It is not sinful to be able to speak well. And all human wisdom is not automatically opposed to God’s wisdom. We just have to be careful not to elevate what someone says, based a worldly view of wisdom. In the church we should be united around God’s wisdom.
Paul juxtaposes God’s wisdom; the message of the cross of Christ, the testimony of God, demonstration of the Spirit and power of God.
D. message of the cross of Christ: we’ll touch on in a moment
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in [l]cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
E. the testimony of God; God’s revealed Word
2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the [a]testimony of God.
F. demonstration of the Spirit and power of God;
4 and my [b]message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not [c]rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
His Word resulted in Spiritual rebirth and power from God. Its power was not in moving people with Words, but with rebirth. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again. And Nicodemus, the greatest teacher in Israel in his day, did not understand. His understanding was limited to the physical world. “Can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” But Jesus was talking about a power to change that came from God.
We have to determine what our esteemed source of intelligence is in the church and in our Christian lives. Is it based in the ability to use words and make arguments? Or is real intelligence the ability to understand what God has said, and appropriate it by obedience to my life, and see God’s power manifest.
This was a real debate that was happening in the Corinthian church, and it continues today.
Let me illustrate it with some real circumstances regarding Paul and Apollos. It seems that part of the division at least between the Paul group and the Apollos group probably had to do with their style of preaching. One of the two was better at elocution.
Apollos was known for his eloquence and his persuasiveness.
Acts 18:24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. 25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; 26 and [e]he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue.
28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the [g]Christ.
But what about Paul? Chopped liver? Wasn’t he a powerful speaker? Apparently not.
2 Corinthians 10:10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”
How did he ever make it past the pastor’s search committee?
So, people in the church had divided into factions, I am convinced, partially because they believed the preacher based on his speaking ability and his eloquence.
Do we do that today? Yesindeedidoo. That’s a word. “I go to this church because the preacher is interesting or funny. He holds my attention.” That’s all good, as long as you also can say, “he preaches the Word of God, the whole counsel of God.”
To be united we have to agree that intelligence is measured by the wisdom that comes from above. James 3:17
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, [a]reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
There’s nothing in that verse about the ability to speak.
We need to be united in our understanding of intelligence and
II. Our understanding of the cross; 18-25
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who [m]are perishing, but to us who [n]are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the [o]message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for [p]signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach [q]Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
This is a longer section, but it is a most important section. We must be united on the message of the cross, or there is no hope for Godly unity.
Well preacher, aren’t we united around the message of the cross? The cross of Christ is a very divisive issue in the world, and in the church. What do I mean by the message of the cross?
The true message of the cross is expressed well in a poem by John Newton;
In
evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my
sight,
And stopp'd my wild career: I saw One hanging on a Tree In agonies and blood,
Who fix'd His languid eyes on me. As near His Cross I stood.
Sure
never till my latest breath, Can I forget that look: It seem'd to charge me
with His death,
Though not a word He spoke: My conscience felt and own'd the guilt, And plunged
me in despair: I saw my sins His Blood had spilt, And help'd to nail Him there.
Alas!
I knew not what I did! But now my tears are vain: Where shall my trembling soul
be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A
second look He gave, which said, "I freely all forgive; This blood is for
thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may'st live."
Thus,
while His death my sin displays In all its blackest hue, Such is the mystery of
grace,
It seals my pardon too. With pleasing grief, and mournful joy, My spirit now if
fill'd,
That I should such a life destroy, Yet live by Him I kill'd! John Newton, 1725-1807.
This expresses well the essential message of the cross. 2000 years ago, God looked at the punishment of His Son on the cross as though it were the vile and sinful me, so that in the future judgement God can look at me as though I am His perfect and sinless Son.
And I can receive that gift of His gracious, forgiving look by repentance and belief.
To be united, we have to agree on what intelligence is, and more importantly, we have to agree on the message and centrality of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Our understanding of greatness; 26-31 Our understanding of wisdom: God’s wisdom 2:6ff Man’s wisdom chapter 3
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