demonstrative but fickle affections and unsteady resolutions. Two things he strives to bring into full contact—Christ crucified and these half-Christianised Corinthian natures. What Romans does for the Gospel in the field of theological exposition, and Galatians in that of doctrinal polemic, and 2 Corinthians in that of personal experience and ministerial vocation, this 1 Corinthians has done in respect of its bearing upon human intercourse and the life of the community. The foundation upon which Paul had built at Corinth is ‘‘ Jesus. Christ ’’—.e., “Jesus Christ crucified” (iii. 11, i. 17 f., ii. 2, xv. 1-3). He does not, any more than in 1 Thessalonians, enter into an ex- position of his λόγος τοῦ σταύρου. Not yet, in Corinth at least, had the legalists openly contested Paul’s doctrine of salvation through the death of Christ; the first sketch of its argumentative defence appears in 2 Cor. v. 14 ff. The chief peril comes from the opposite quarter, from the dissolving influences of Hellenic scepticism and demoralisation. The form, rather than the contents, of Paul’s message is just now in question; he is reproached with the µωρία τοῦ κηρύγματος (i. 18-25), But the form of presentation is determined by the substance of the truth presented ; the cross of Christ cannot
appear draped in the robes of Greek philosophy. The mere fact -
that it is “the word of the cross’ convicts the Gospel of folly in the’ eyes of the Greek lover of wisdom, as of weakness before the Jewish believer in “signs”. A “wise’’ world that knows not God (i. 21, ii, 6, 14, cf. Rom. i. 19-23) will not understand His message, until it learns its ignorance.
1. To the source of the Gospel must therefore be traced that scorn of the Corinthian world which so much troubles the Church. It was “the testimony of God” that Paul had first announced (ii. 1); the Corinthian believers are ‘‘ of Him in Christ Jesus,’ and have learnt to worship God as “‘ Father of us and of our Lord Jesus Christ” (i. 3, 26-31 : observe the emphasis thrown in vv. 18-31 upon 6 Geéds in contrast with 6 κόσμος). Impotent and even absurd “ the preaching of the cross”’ may appear to the Corinthian public ; “(ο the saved” it is ‘the wisdom ’”’ and “ the power of God”.
(1) The λόγος τοῦ σταύρου is God’s power at work in its most char- acteristic and sovereign energy, destined to shatter all adverse potencies (i. 27 ff., xv. 24 ff.). Veiled under a guise of weakness, it thus ensnares the world and exposes its folly (i. 19-21, 11. 6-8, iii. 19) ; it chooses for its instruments feeble and ignoble things to overthrow the mightiest. The power of God acting in this λόγος is administered by ‘‘our Lord Jesus Christ’’—His mediator in the universe, and specifically in the Church (viii. 6)—whom the world crucified (ii. 8):