1 Corinthians chapter 2

vs 1

I don't know whether this means that Paul didn't ham it up, that he is just being modest or humble about his abilities as a speaker, or if he came to the Corinthian church in more humble circumstances. After all, he did come from Athens, where he did not see a huge response to his message.

But the eloquence and wisdom which the Corinthian church values, and which Paul has just undervalued in the last chapter, is not something that Paul used in his speaking in Corinth.

vs 2

Man, sometimes we've got a hell of a lot to learn from this. I remember when I was first made aware of this idea. I don't even think the person pointed out this verse to me. It was probably at a conference about evangelism or something. But the person said simply that everything that Christianity revolves around and centres on is Christ. But people, particularly Aussies, don't want to talk about Christ. They want to talk about creation vs evolution, or the difference between the denominations, or the most recent homosexual priest scandal, or the whys and why-nots of abortion. All these things are completely not central to the gospel. The person (whoever it was, I've forgotten now) simply said "Just bring everything back to Christ". And it made so much sense to me! Because I am the kind of person who loves to argue about everything, and to learn about all the touchy stuff, and the disputable things. But that's not where it's at at all. Try it some time - no matter what someone says, just always bring the focus back to Jesus Christ our Lord. It changed how I thought about evangelism.

vs 3

Well, there we go. Paul tells us that his circumstances were fairly humble. I'm not sure if it was a fear of persecution that made him weak, or just a fear of going to yet another town to preach the gospel and possibly be regected. I mean, we never think of that. When you read Acts, you think of Paul as this intrepid explorer going from unreached town to unreached town, spreading the gospel, getting beaten, stoned, jailed, flogged, and just keeping on going like a man of steel.

But there's nothing to say that he wasn't actually scared out of his wits of doing it, and doing it over and over and over again. The difference between him and us them becomes his obedience to God - God told him to spread the message, and so he goes and does it, even though he's afraid.

vs 4

Now did he mean actual miracles that he did, or does he mean the power of the words that he spoke? Whatever your theology of miracles is, I'll let you deal with this one and how you apply it. I'm a little of the opinion that he is talking about both. Miracles don't the message make, but they are very much tied up in the whole outreach thing in the NT.

vs 5

The point of this term "Spirit's power" is to show that their faith was built on God's power, not on the earthly wisdom of man. The gospel is full of that power in the first place, because its very message is about the power of God to forgive your sins. So it's covered even without healings or floor-time, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.

vs 6

Now Paul isn't saying there is no wisdom in what he teaches, and to those who are mature in Christ, there is certainly some wisdom to be had. But it's not the kind of wisdom they were expecting. They might have been expecting a gnostic sort of wisdom - a secret knowledge that they could get their hands on exclusively. They might have been expecting a proverbial sort of wisdom - key sayings of smartness. Or they might have been expecting the greek form of philosophical wisdom. But Paul's not dishing out those (perhaps a bit of proverbial wisdom from Proverbs). In fact, Paul says that these human types of wisdom are actually valueless, and come to nothing.

vs 7

No, Paul is talking about God's secret wisdom. If that sounds a little gnostic, well, perhaps Paul is using the term to combat the proto-gnosticism we see in the early NT church. But certainly he isn't teaching a gnostic wisdom form - you know from his other books that when he talks about the mystery of the gospel, he talks about it as one that was hidden, but now is made known. Not only did God hide this wisdom, but his destiny for it was that it would be used to glorify his people.

vs 8

So religious and political leaders did not realise this hidden wisdom, which is Christ as God. If they did, they most probably should have given Jesus their crowns and their positions.

This verse highlights an odd problem that comes up when talking about what people really know and their subsequent actions. Paul here is saying that if they really, really knew who Jesus was, they wouldn't have crucified him. If you try and apply this more generally, you end up saying that if people really, really knew who Jesus was, they would follow him and not ignore him. Now I don't think it's that simple. I think there are people who can know and understand the gospel, and perhaps even believe its tenets, but who actually turn their backs on God and say they don't want what he's giving.

After all, Paul has just finished saying that he didn't come to teach the Corinthians a wise saying. Because you can convince people of the true nature of God and Christ, but some people just don't want to follow God. But I don't know. It's a question that begs more research.