This message was preached at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 05 March 2018.
Cultural Background
The Apostle Paul had apparently been judged by the
Corinthian Church for his lack of logical and rhetorical argumentation in his
presentation of the Gospel of Christ (4:1-5).
The Corinthians evaluated the validity of any speaker and his message by
the wisdom he presented and the style with which he presented it. Before examining this element of the cultural
background in Corinth, we pause to reflect on the larger social context of the First-Century
city as one marked by personal and professional advancement. One helpful scholar notes,
The
denizens of Corinth in Paul's day were known for their wealth and ostentation.
The new city allowed many aggressive freedman and their heirs, who would have
been freeborn, the chance to acquire wealth through commercial ventures.
Without an entrenched aristocracy, the citizens of Corinth … had a real
opportunity for upward social mobility, primarily by attaining wealth and buying
friendships and clients.[1]
The citizens of the city, apart from personal and
professional advancement, had also become quite accustomed to gathering in the
public forum – surrounded by numerous shops and various pagan temples – to hear
the latest news and philosophical ideologies proclaimed by the professional
Sophists. This was a group of
competitive teachers who sought to win “disciples” (students) and thereby to
climb the social ladder. The individual
sophist would enter a given town and invite her citizens to hear him
speak. At the appointed time, he would
provide an introduction and offer his personal qualifications in an egocentric and
self-exalting manner. Then, he would
speak on a topic that the crowd had collectively decided. If he were to respond immediately, he would
show himself to be very skilled. But if,
as the rules allowed, he were to take up to 24 hours to study and prepare, he
would be judged by the citizens and either embraced or rejected on the basis of
his argumentation. We learn of this
group indirectly in the letters of 1st & 2nd
Corinthians and through historians. One
such historian writes,
Originally
the term [‘sophist’] described ancient wise men. By the first
century A.D. it was used to designate those rhetoricians whose ability in
oratory was such that they could both secure a public following and attract
students to their schools. [The ancient world defined] a sophist as a ‘virtuoso
rhetor [rhetoric] with a big public
reputation.[2]
This situation is reflected in the opening chapters of 1
Corinthians. There the Apostle Paul
speaks of the factions that existed within the local church because of the
influence of sophism. The believers in
Corinth had begun to treat the apostles as sophists, creating strife in the
congregation as to which one was more professional, sophisticated, and/or convincing
in his presentation of the gospel. Thus,
some were following Peter (see “Cephas” as the Aramaic equivalent), some were
following Paul, Apollos, and some who considered themselves to be spiritually
elite were following Christ (1:12).[3] This “strife” was one cause of divisions
among them, and it had betrayed their spiritual immaturity and corresponding
worldliness. The specific nature of
these divisions had to do with Christian preachers. Where the other divisions that centered on
sexual conduct, marriage, divorce, food offered to idols, head coverings in
corporate worship, the practice of the Lord’s Supper, and spiritual gifts were
largely impersonal for the Apostle Paul, the division created by “Christian
Sophism” struck at the heart of his apostolic ministry.
Exposition of 1
Corinthians 2:6-16
As we approach our assigned passage, then, we find in the
immediate context that, even though Paul did not engage in a sophisticated oral
presentation of the gospel, he does display his rhetorical skills in the
written correspondence of 1 Corinthians.
As a skilled orator, the Apostle Paul shows that his “unskilled”
proclamation of the gospel was intentional.
He says, “My speech and my message [Greek: logos] were
not in plausible words[4]
of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith
might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (2:4-5, ESV). In other words, Paul says that he did not
engage in professional argumentation in his public proclamation of the gospel
for the sake of the foundation of his hearers’ faith. But now that his skills may have been
questioned, he is more than willing to engage in this kind of argumentation to
delineate the nature of divine wisdom.
At this point, a word concerning interpretive methodology
will be important. Because of the nature
of Paul’s argumentation in our passage, it will be helpful to move backward
through the text. Instead of moving
chronologically through verses 6-16, by which we might uncover premise after
premise leading to a conclusion, we will first attempt to uncover the
conclusion and then connect each of the premises to it. Perhaps this technique will only prove
helpful for me. But I trust that God
will move by His Spirit in making it helpful for a wider audience. So instead of pursuing the conclusion in the
uncovering of premises, we will allow the conclusion to be our guide in the
exegesis of the preceding text.
The Conclusion:
We have the mind of Christ (2:16). The
use of the first person plural here may indicate Paul and his fellow apostles –
namely, those identified in the previous chapter – have the mind of
Christ. If this is the case, he
considers himself to be one of the “mature” among whom spiritual wisdom is
imparted. It is unlikely that Paul
widens the scope to include the believers in Corinth, for he will speak of them
only one verse later as “people of the flesh” and “infants in Christ” (3:1,
ESV). He is arguing that they are not
yet spiritually mature and, in both their theology and lifestyle, they do not
yet have the mind of Christ. Mature
spiritual believers have the mind of Christ, a mindset that is evident in their
lives of peace, unity, and right judgment.[5] This spoke powerfully against the mindset in
Corinth, where maturity was thought to divide the church into “primary” and “secondary”
believers. This division is evident in
the way the church practiced Holy Communion, for example. It is clear from 11:17-22 that some of the
wealthy believers were gathering in the portico of a wealthy “patron” believer
before all had arrived. They were then
eating the Lord’s Supper without consideration for the poorer, later arriving
brothers. The food might be mostly gone,
so as to leave the first group “drunk” and the second group “hungry.” In the larger context of 1 Corinthians, the
Apostle Paul does not refer to ranks of Christians or of spiritual status, but
only about the application of gospel truth.
Thus, the mature are those who are changed by the gospel in both wisdom
and its practical application. The
immature are those who live according to the principles of the world: their
actions and their ways of thinking are still worldly.
The meaning of the phrase “mind of Christ” is further
developed first in the Gospel of John.
In the “High Priestly” prayer of Jesus in John 17, Jesus prays that the
disciples would be united in the name of Christ (17:11) and that all disciples
everywhere would be unified as a testimony to the unbelieving world
(17:21). What is on Christ’s mind as he
prepares to leave the company of the Twelve?
Unity; the unity of the Godhead is the basis for the unity of
believers. What is on Paul’s mind as he
concludes that mature believers have the mind of Christ? Unity; the unity of mind, thought, judgment,
and lifestyle is the evidence of the gospel’s power among them.
This is confirmed in Philippians 2, where Paul speaks of the
necessity of personal humility in order to bring about corporate unity. The believers in Philippi are to have “the
same mind [and] the same love, being in full accord and of one mind” (2:2,
ESV). This “same mindedness” is to be
among them as they too have the “mind of Christ.” The mind of the believer is to center on the
model of Christ. It is to reflect the
believer’s union with Christ. The mature
believer will find that his theology matches his lifestyle. If one is to believe in the gospel and become
a united with Christ as a partaker in the divine nature, then he is to live a
life of unity among his fellow believers.
In Philippians, the outworking of this unified mindset is found in
selfless humility. Returning to the 1st
Corinthians text, the same unified mindset is found in judgment – considering
human wisdom “folly” and embracing divine wisdom in the gospel. This unity focuses on the content of the
gospel, not on the one preaching or the style of his presentation.
We who have the mind
of Christ…
Premise #1: We have understood the mind of God (2:16). Those who are spiritually mature are guided
by the Spirit in all things. Therefore,
the depths of divine wisdom and the mind of Christ are his fundamental, guiding
principles. And, because he has
understood such wisdom, he acts according to that which he has already judged
to be valid and true.
Premise #2:
We are spiritual (pneumatikos)
people (2:14-15). This is probably a way
of describing the mature, spiritual
man (believer) in contrast with the immature, natural man who although he has believed is still carnal in the way
he discerns and applies wisdom; he judges based on the flesh and its
considerations.
Premise #3:
We are re-defined spiritually (pneumatikos)
in a variety of ways (2:14). What I have
done in this section is trace the main verbs backward throughout the text of
2:6-16. It reveals the facets of the
spiritual man doing things in a new, spiritual way. Thus, he is defined spiritually, according to
the shifts evident in the following actions.
·
Judging:
he judges all things but is not subject to anyone’s judgment. The kind of judgment Paul refers to
repeatedly in this letter is one of examination. The spiritual person is to judge his own
conscience, motives, and spiritual effectiveness as he examines his own heart. As we have already said above, the spiritual
man is guided by the Spirit of God in every thought and action. Thus, while he is not perfectly above
reproach, he is not to be judged according to human wisdom, for no higher
judgment than that according to God’s wisdom can be made.[6] The examination from an external human source
(e.g.: the judgment of the immature believer that only follows worldly wisdom)
is unnecessary and, indeed, unwarranted.
Paul says in 4:3 that he does not even judge himself because “it is the
Lord who judges me” (4:4). However, the
mature Apostle Paul is rightly judging the immature believers in Corinth. This is not a self-centered judgment, but one
according to the gospel and the revealed wisdom of God. Thus, though it is a human judgment, it is
essentially a divine judgment.
·
Discerning:
he discerns the “things of the Spirit of God.”
This can only mean that he discerns the secret and hidden wisdom of God
that is proclaimed openly in the new, Spiritual and Christological period of
redemptive history. By the power of the
Spirit, he knows and understands the gospel, which is short-hand in this text
for the overarching purposes of God in redemptive history.
·
Understanding
(x2): he understands the freely given wisdom of God revealed in the gospel of
Christ. The church in Corinth may have
placed too much emphasis on the language of the Spirit (tongues), perhaps
considering it to be a special manifestation of God’s power available to the “wise”
or “primary” believers. But they had not
understood God’s true intent in giving His Spirit. The Spirit was to point believers to the
truth of God’s salvation in the work of Christ.
Further, the Spirit was to empower the self-sacrificial and deeply
humble lifestyle of Christ within the followers of Christ. It is ironic, then, that those who claimed to
have spiritual maturity betrayed the very lack of it in their actions.
·
Accepting:
In a mental sense, the spiritual man accepts the gospel. It is not enough to say that he understands
the functional elements of the gospel by mere theoretical ascent. He believes, embraces, receives, and accepts
Christ as the Wisdom and Power of God.
·
Interpreting:
he interprets spiritual truth to others who are spiritual people. The Spirit enables believers to understand
ultimate reality. They are not to
interpret historical events according to human wisdom. In other words, they are not to take the
Apostle Paul’s proclamation of the gospel and judge it according to their
rhetorical standards. Instead, they were
to understand the spiritual nature of all reality, having been given the Spirit
of God who is the interpreter of the Mind of Christ.
·
Imparting
(x2): he offers to others the same gift that he has received. This is not a self-serving accumulation of
wisdom as it was so often with the Sophists.
Followers of Christ, empowered by the Spirit of God, were to operate
based on a self-giving model of life evident in the life of Christ.
·
Comprehending:
he understands the wisdom of God because the “Spirit searches everything, even
the depths of God” (2:10b). Having been
given the gift of the Spirit, then, the mature believer has received revelation
concerning the secret and hidden wisdom of God.
·
Knowing:
in all these verbs, it is clear that the positive qualities of knowing,
comprehending, imparting, and so forth are given as the gift of God. The Apostle Paul makes this point explicit in
4:7 with a series of rhetorical questions.
There he asks, “Who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not
receive? If then you received it, why do
you boast as if you did not receive it?”
The implication is that a gift demands humility on the part of the
recipient. The gift of the Holy Spirit
should not cause any boasting, but should instead create a deep and abiding sense
of humility.
Premise #4:
Those who receive the “Spirit who is from God” must be re-defined in these ways
(2:12). Otherwise, they show that they
have received “the spirit of the world.”
Premise #5:
If anyone has received the “mind of Christ,” it is those who are “in Christ,”
(1:30) and “of the Spirit of God” (2:10) by God’s sovereign election
(1:27-28). They are people who are led
and empowered by the Spirit of God. They
are people to whom God has revealed the gospel through Christ. Note two things about the wisdom of God: (1)
it was “decreed before the ages,” to suggest that, unlike human philosophy, it
was ancient and “true since before time began.”[7] We recall that the first-century Greeks
valued antiquity, saying that all truth was to be found therein. Thus, as Paul argues for God’s wisdom
following the cultural standard of professional, rhetorical argumentation, he
does so according to the worldview of his Greco-Roman audience. Truth does lie in antiquity! In fact, it lies in the eternal mind of God,
revealed in Christ, and interpreted by the Spirit.
Premise #6:
Those with the “mind of Christ” actually do impart wisdom, but it is a “secret
and hidden wisdom of God” (2:7) and not a “wisdom of this age or of the rulers
of this age” (2:6). This is probably a
response to Paul’s critics, who likely said that he had not imparted any wisdom
because the form of his presentation was so seriously lacking in the
professionalism of the sophists. Form
was elevated over content. But in Paul’s
economy,[8]
the content of the gospel displayed the power and wisdom of God.
Exhortation
The first exhortation is for the church to be a
counter-cultural organism that transforms the values of society. The church was not to be a club that merely
adopted the values and views surrounding her.
On this very point, the renowned American Pastor and social activist,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote,
There was a time when the
church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians
rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a
thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was
the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town
the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for
being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that
they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in
commitment. They were too
God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as
infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
Things are different
now. The contemporary church is so often
a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the
status quo. Far from being disturbed by
the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is
consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as
never before. If the church of today
does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its
authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an
irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.[9]
The second exhortation follows: It is not impossible for “people
of the flesh” to become “people of the Spirit.”
Likewise, it is not impossible for “infants in Christ” to become “mature
in Christ.” Therefore, what Paul is
encouraging in this passage is that believers live out their faith. The Corinthian believers have faith – it is
evident that they had begun the journey of following Christ – but they had not
yet begun to imitate Christ in their lifestyle.
This imitation is to take on four specific characteristics, all of which
have instructional value and great applicability for the modern Ethiopian
church:[10]
1. Christians should be more concerned with keeping the message of the cross than the attractiveness of the preacher or teacher. Our faith, like our brothers in ancient Corinth, should rest on God’s power and not human wisdom.
2. Christian spirituality cannot be reduced to a human worldview or reflection on life. Materialism, atheism, and forms of corporate Christianity must be rejected if the church is to become a thermostat and not merely a thermometer.
3. Christian maturity is demonstrated in the application of God’s wisdom. This is not to be confused with giftedness, eloquence, or homiletic perfection, though these things in-and-of themselves are not bad. It’s just that they do not equate to spiritual maturity: “Christians evidence their maturity when they exhibit the mind of Christ – that is, when their whole perspective on life is so guided by the message of the cross that their attitudes and actions are changed by it.”[11]
[1] Garland,
David E. 1 Corinthians. BECNT. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003 (pg. 2).
[2] Winter,
Bruce W. Philo and Paul among the
Sophists, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002 (pgs. 3-4).
[3] On this
point, we must conclude that Apollos, who we meet first in Acts 18 & 19,
was a very good orator and his warm welcome in Corinth after Paul’s departure
was at least partially due to his impressive rhetorical skills. We may also rightly assume that the Apostle Paul
knew him well (1 Cor. 16:12).
[4] Emphasis
is mine. Note the word “plausible,” which
conveys the meaning of convincing argumentation.
[5] See
1:10, which says, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but
that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (ESV). The NIV translates “judgment” as “thought.”
[6] Vang, Preben.
1 Corinthians. Teach the Text
Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2014 (pgs. 36-37).
[7] Ibid.
[8] Here
used to mean the “arrangement or mode of operation of something: organization”
and “a system especially of interaction and exchange: an economy of information
(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economy:
accessed 05 March, 2018 @ 11:35am).
[9] King
Jr., Martin Luther. Letter from
Birmingham Jail in The Atlantic Monthly, August 1963: Vol. 212, No. 2 (pgs.
78-88).
[10] The
following list is adapted from Vang 2014, 37-38.
[11] Vang,
Preben. 1 Corinthians. Teach the Text
Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2014 (pg. 38).
