Reading: 1 Cor. 1:1-31, 2:1-5, 3:18-23.
As we
meditate in the first letter to the Corinthians, it grows
upon us that the background of the letter is represented
by the word “wisdom”. It seems quite clear that
it was that which took hold of the apostle as summing up
the situation at Corinth, and demanding rectification.
Undoubtedly
to the Corinthians wisdom was the pre-eminent, the most
important thing. Indeed it was so with the whole Greek
world. As the apostle says in this letter “...the
Greeks seek after wisdom”, and the Corinthians were
a very strong expression of that fact, the quest for
wisdom. That which was their natural disposition had been
brought by these believers into the realm of the things
of Christ, into the realm, shall we say, of Christianity,
and that quest, that element, that disposition, that
craving, lay behind the whole occasion of this letter.
With them wisdom determined value. According to the
measure of what they would call “wisdom”, so
the value of a thing, or of a person, stood or fell. The
whole question of power hung upon the matter of wisdom.
For them dimensions were always determined and governed
by the idea of wisdom. That is to say, in their eyes a
thing, or a person, was great or small, powerful or weak,
to be taken account of or to be entirely set aside,
according as what of them was accounted
“wisdom” was possessed or evidenced by such. It
was that domination of the “wisdom” idea which
influenced their attitude toward men.
A Wisdom That Issues in Division
It
would seem that this is the explanation of the divisions
in the Corinthian assembly. The apostle writes,
“Each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of
Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” These
respective attitudes were governed by this
“wisdom” idea. For some Paul was the embodiment
of wisdom; for others Peter; for others, though still in
a natural way, Christ was the embodiment of wisdom. Thus
their attitudes were influenced and governed by this
dominating, shall we say, this obsessing, idea of wisdom.
The whole tendency of it was to make Christianity a
philosophy, and to separate it from the living Person.
When that is recognized it is possible to understand and
appreciate this letter to a far greater extent, and to
see that the whole letter has a bearing upon that issue.
A Wisdom That Issues in
Unrighteousness
Further,
notice the effects morally of this wisdom obsession,
remembering that with them it was natural wisdom, the
wisdom of the natural man, or, as Paul calls it, the
wisdom of this world. What is the nature of that wisdom?
There is one passage in the letter of James which will
greatly aid us in understanding this first letter to the
Corinthians, and in our answer to that question. The
statement is as follows:
“This
wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but
is earthly, sensual (the margin reads
‘natural’, though more literally the word is
soulical, or soulish, psychical), devilish.”
(James 3:15 R.V.)
There
we have the wisdom of this world strongly defined. Look
at it. It is “earthly”: that sets it over
against the heavenly wisdom. It is “sensual”,
soulish, psychical: that makes it entirely of the fallen
nature of man and not of the nature of God; not divine
nature, but fallen human nature. It is
“devilish”: finally, therefore, it is not of
God but of the devil.
Carry
that back into the first Corinthian letter and you have
an explanation of what is found there along those very
lines. You see these Corinthians being strongly
influenced by their natural propensities, their natural
inclinations, their natural desires in the sphere of
wisdom, and bringing all that into the realm of
Christianity. The outworkings of such a course is that
you have sensuality making its appearance in the realm of
divine things, and with just such a condition of affairs
this letter has very strongly to deal. You know some of
the grave touches in this letter, how far even these who
were in the assembly, in the Church, went in the matter
of sensuality. And the wisdom which led them that way led
them into this further state, where they failed to
discriminate between what was of Christ and what was
directly of the devil, inasmuch as they came into an
active touch with demon idolatry in its intrusion into
this world, and opened a way for it into the very
assembly of the Lord. The wisdom which is from beneath
will go that far. What sort of wisdom is this?
Sensuality, leading imperceptibly into touch with what is
directly of the devil! The temple of God, and idols! The
Lord’s table and sacrifices offered to demons! Oh,
the blindness of this thing, the utter blindness! Yet
they were in the Christian church, in the Christian
assembly.
These
divisions are another outworking of this
“wisdom” matter. Wisdom worked out in schisms.
The apostle touches the deepest depths when he says that
this wisdom led those who were its devotees to crucify
the Lord of glory, and therein is a veiled suggestion
that that may happen even in the assembly of the saints,
if the same thing is governing, namely that which is of
man; that which is of uncrucified natural man brought
within the compass of the things of Christ. Even there
the cross of Christ may be made of none effect, may be
made void, and all that the cross stands for may be
countered, contradicted, and these things obtain. The
“wisdom” question pervades this letter from
start to finish, is the background of it all, and because
of the serious outworkings and effects of it the apostle
wrote this letter, in order that he might show what the
true wisdom is, the wisdom which is from above.
We
will not deal with the wisdom itself for the moment, but
give our attention to this first chapter of the letter
under consideration, which sets for us the basis of
everything. Here we have the question of stature, worldly
and divine. Firstly the worldly standard of value is
presented, stature as viewed and determined from the
standpoint of worldly wisdom, and then stature as judged
from the divine point of view.
We
have dealt with the worldly side. We have seen enough for
the moment of what its valuation is, and we are not very
impressed. If what we have noted is the stature of
worldly wisdom, then indeed God has made foolish the
wisdom of this world, and God has made weak the strength
of this world. We are not impressed with those dimensions
of a man.
Divine Wisdom
Stature
according to this wisdom
We now
turn to look at the divine side. “For behold your
calling, brethren (that is, behold God’s call, what
God has called), how that not many wise after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God
chose the foolish things of the world... and God chose
the weak things of the world... and the base things of
the world, and the things that are despised... and the
things that are not...” (1 Cor. 1:26-28). This is
very strong, very positive. God chose! The force of that
is “to pick out”. This has nothing to do with
eternal election. The apostle is not touching here upon
election in relation to God’s purpose in Christ.
This has reference to the natural calibre of those who
were chosen in Christ. God picked out foolish things. God
picked out weak things. God picked out base things. God
picked out things that are not, (literally, things which
have no being); God picked out things which are despised,
or considered nothing. Why? That He might put to shame
wise men of this world; that He might put to shame strong
things of this world; that He might bring to naught, or
make void, things that are. Let us grasp the situation as
presented to us here. Foolish things set over against
wise men: weak things set over against strong things:
things which are not set over against things which are:
things which are despised set over against things of
repute. God did this deliberately.
That
word “chose”, or as we have translated it
“picked out”, is very interesting. In a book by
Dr. Deissman called “New Light on the New
Testament”, he makes much of this section of the
chapter before us as a means by which the calibre of the
first believers is established, and he says that in the
rubbish heaps which have been turned over in recent years
in the East a great deal has come to light as to the
Greek language which was used in New Testament times. He
tells us it is amply proved by the disclosure of these
rubbish heaps that communication was very largely in the
language of the ordinary people, and that the New
Testament language — the Greek of the New Testament
— is that of the common people. He takes this word
“chose”, or as we have called it “picked
out”, and says the very ordinary people, not the
educated, of those days used this particular Greek word
when they were making a selection from a number of
things, getting something which they were set upon. They
would turn over a number of things, and when they found
the best thing they took hold of it and picked it out
from all the rest and carried it off. It was the common
language of the people, and this particular word related
to turning over things and finding just that thing which
was wanted and picking it out.
That
is a good commentary. It is as though God looked over the
mass for something that He was after, and when He lighted
upon it, He picked it out from the rest and separated it,
and made it His. God picked out, like that, foolish,
weak, despised things, things which are not, for His own
purpose.
There
is an inclusive reason given, which is found in verse 29:
“That no flesh should glory before God.” We
have seen that God in part picked out things of no worth
that He might bring to naught, or make foolish, the wise
of this world, the mighty of this world, the things which
ARE of this world: but inclusively the governing
principle of His choice was, “that no flesh should
glory before God”.
Then a
quotation from Jeremiah 9 concludes that part of the
chapter: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord.” There you have the explanation of everything.
What is God after? On the negative side, He is
undercutting all the glory of man; on the positive side,
He is providing Himself with a basis by which He Himself
shall receive the glory. That is the governing factor in
all God’s dealings with us; on the one hand, to
undercut that natural tendency to glory in man, and, on
the other hand, to constitute a basis for glorying in the
Lord.
What
are God’s men of stature? We see what the
world’s men of stature are, but what are God’s
men of stature? They are, on the one hand, foolish
things, weak things, despised things, and things which
have no being. That is the negative side, and it is
essential to the positive side. The positive side is only
possible in so far as that obtains. What is the positive
side? Glorying in the Lord; that is, an utter, complete
appreciation of God, where the Lord is everything. Of
course, the further statement of the apostle has to be
put in there, over against his enumeration of God’s
choice of the foolish, and the weak, the despised, and
the things which are not — “But of him are ye
in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification, and
redemption...” That covers this whole book again,
and takes you through it on this other line. You see how
natural wisdom takes you through this letter, and mark
the consequences, which are sensuality, devilishness,
divisions; now come on to the line of God’s wisdom,
and you find wisdom of another order, working out, not in
sensuality, but in righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption.
We
must leave that; but you see that for all the
deficiencies and lack on the natural side God has made
full provision in His Son. He is made unto us wisdom. The
outworking of that wisdom is its own vindication, just as
the outworking of the wisdom of this world is its own
condemnation. The condemnation of the wisdom of this
world is that it leads to schism, to sensuality, to
devilishness. It leads to all these things. That is its
own condemnation. The vindication of this wisdom from
above is that it leads to righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption. The men of stature from
the divine standpoint are those in whom this wisdom is
working out in that way, who are standing in the value of
that wisdom, even in righteousness, sanctification,
redemption.
Zero in Man — The
Divine Starting-Point
All
that we have to say at this time is this one special
thing, that stature from God’s standpoint is a
matter of the utter nothingness of man in himself, and
the absoluteness of Christ for man. Do you want to know
what stature is? It is not to be something big, and
important, and noble, and wise, and strong from this
world’s standpoint, but to be the negation of all
that in a relationship with Christ, in which He alone is
value to the vessel. The deliberateness of God’s act
is seen here, with a view to giving men a stature. He
chose, He picked out, He went over everything, He turned
over everything, He scrutinised everything, and then He
deliberately picked out what He was after; and when He
had secured it, He said of it, so to speak, “Poor
stuff!” Where is the wisdom of that? Where is the
strength of that? What is there to glory in in that? God
deliberately lifted that out of the mass with an object,
and bringing that into living relationship with His Son,
He deposited in that thing of poverty something that
infinitely transcends all the wisdom, and the power, and
the glory of this world. Then of this He says, That
nothing, that foolish, weak thing in a living
apprehension, appreciation, enjoyment of My Son is
stature from heaven’s standpoint, from My
standpoint, from eternity’s standpoint.
This
is calculated to revolutionize conceptions of things. The
apostle Paul so thoroughly accepted that position
himself, that no sooner has he summed up the position in
the words, “He that glorieth let him glory in the
Lord”, than in respect of himself he continues
— there should be no break in the text between
chapter 1 and chapter 2 — “And I, brethren,
when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech
or of wisdom... I was with you in weakness, and in fear,
and in much trembling.” I ask you whether your own
heart, and whether history, bears record to the fact that
Paul was a man of stature. We covet some of his stature;
but here he is taking that position of a foolish thing, a
weak thing, a despised thing, a thing which has no being
from this world’s standpoint. But, oh, how that
nothing has counted! How God has registered Himself upon
the course of this world through that nothing! That is
stature from God’s standpoint. It is the measure of
Christ. The measure of Christ entirely depends upon the
little measure of ourselves, or the no measure. God can
do things when He gets us there.
The Cross — The
Divine Means
Paul
puts the cross right at that point — “...Jesus
Christ, and him crucified...” “The word of the
cross is to them that are perishing foolishness”
“...the foolishness of the thing preached...”
(R.V. margin), not as otherwise rendered “the
foolishness of the preaching”. What is the
foolishness of the thing preached? It is the cross, which
brings us to foolishness in ourselves, and causes us to
glory in Christ. The Lord Himself acts in a way that
makes it possible for the world, as it looks upon
believers in themselves, to regard them as very foolish
things, things which do not count at all. The world is
quite right, if it takes that view of us naturally. But
the world is very far out in its calculation, if it
thinks that that is where the matter ends because the
world is going to discover, as it has already discovered,
that that which it is quite justified in regarding as
weak, and foolish, and nothing in itself, will
nevertheless utterly overthrow the world, will challenge
the world in such a way that the world cannot answer the
challenge. The history since Paul’s day has been
that in the “nothings”, the foolish things, God
has established a challenge which the world cannot get
over, a force mightier than all the force which this
world in its totality of wisdom and power can possess.
Why
always try to be important? Why want to be somebody or
something? Why want to be seen and known and heard? That
is the way to counter your spiritual effectiveness. Shall
we not covet rather to be in ourselves nothing, that
Christ may be more gloriously displayed by this? Shall we
not in a new way say Amen! to God’s choice, and
recognize that that is the way of His glory? “He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”