2:1 ¶ And I,
brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified. 3 And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Paul did not come to the
Corinthians with a clever speech, attempting to manipulate them with his
eloquence and mastery of logic and rhetoric. He had a simple message which he
will repeat again in chapter 15, as we will see. His intention was not to
impart any knowledge, to declare any science, other than the crucified Jesus
Christ. Here is a review of what he will write later.
1Corinthians 15:1 ¶
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in
memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures; 4 And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the
twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of
above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this
present, but some are fallen asleep. 7
After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of
one born out of due time.
It is the simplicity of the gospel
of Christ that Paul taught and the necessity of believing it for salvation from
an eternity of soul-agony that he stresses here and later.
2Corinthians 1:12
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not
with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in
the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
2Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.
Paul wants to make a point here
that the gospel of Christ is not a long involved logical argument made by a
debate team. The Holy Spirit works with a simple message that doesn’t involve
sophistry, mentioned earlier. He warns against such things. That’s how
divisions and cults came about even in his day.
Romans 16:17 ¶
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and
offences contrary to the doctrine which
ye have learned; and avoid them.18
For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own
belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
Even in his day there were those
who would use the scripture and the gospel to further their own agenda.
2Corinthians 2:17
For we are not as many, which corrupt
the word of God: but as of
sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
He will give a warning about the
willingness of naïve Christians to follow the diversion of division.
2Corinthians 11:4
For if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if
ye receive another spirit, which
ye have not received, or another
gospel, which ye have not
accepted, ye might well bear with him.
The Corinthian church has already
shown a proclivity to follow a person rather than Christ, to adore the
messenger rather than the message. We are warned to be careful of that error so
common in fundamentalism today.
1John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world.
It is a simple matter of being
watchful and a faithful steward of the mysteries of God as Paul says in chapter
4 that so many preachers twist to mean church attendance rather than what the
context says.
1Corinthians 4:1 ¶
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards
of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it
is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I
should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.
4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I
not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the time,
until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall
every man have praise of God. 6 And
these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye
might learn in us not to think of men
above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against
another.
Our faith stands on the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ and not on any sophisticated piece of clever
wordcraft or church membership. The questions are and always have been simply
this, do you believe that Christ died for your sins and rose from the dead and
that He was God in the flesh, the God who created you, and, finally, that He is
the only way to salvation, to heaven and eternal life?
No comments:
Post a Comment