The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 44

teaching, St.. Paul says," To the weak I became weal{," etc. (eh. ix. 22); with reference to the substance, "Thongh we or an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel," -etc. (Gal. i. S). Jews and Cireeks are the two broad classes under which these varieties of prejudice might be grouped; and here are their prominent cbaracteristir~. "Jews ask for si_gns." It was so in the days of Christ. "An evil and adulterouH generation," etc. (Matt. xii. 39); "Except ye see signs and wonders," etc. (John iv. 48). And in the apostolic age the race everywhere manifested the same mental tendency. They were sign-seeking Jews. "Greeks seek after wisdom "-such wisdom as found a home for itsrlf in their own philosophic schools. They knew no other. Thus each of these classes illustrated a particular aspect of the vanity of human nature; the one craving after that which would minister to the pride of sense, the other to the pride of intellect. For both Paul had hnt one message: "Christ and him crucified." Note- I. THE THEME OF THE APOSTOLIC TEACHING. "We preach Christ crucified" (see also eh. ii. 2; Gal. iii. 1). This ii, the sum and substance of evangelical doctrine, the idea that filled the foremost place in the apostle's thought and supplied the chief inspiration of his heroic life. Not a little of the emphasis falls on the word "crucified." He 11reached Christ as the personal Redeemer of men, and that, not merely as the great miracle-working Prophet of God, tbe moral Reformer, the Revealer of new truth, the Lawp:iver of a new spiritual kingdom, the Example of a divinely perfect life, but as the Victim of death. It was in the death of Christ that the whole force and virtue of the apostolic testimony about bim lay. What u1eaning did Paul attach to this death? The mere reiteration of the fact it8elf would be powerless apart from its doctrinal sig- nificance. If be had represented it simply as the crowning act of a life of devotion and .self-sacrifice in the cause of God and of humanity, he would have placed the Name of .Christ on the level of many another name, and his death on a level with the death of many another witness for truth and righteousness; instead of which a virtue and a moral -efficacy are everywhere imputed to it, which cannot be conceived of as belonging to any other death, and which alone explain the position it occupies in apostolic teaching (see eh. v. 7; Eph. i.- 7; ii. 14, 16; Col. i. 21; 1 John i. 7; ii. 2). Forgiveness of sins, spiritual cleansing, moral freedom, practical righteousness, fellowship with God, the hope of eternal glory ,-all are set forth here as fruits of the death of Christ and our faith in it. St. l'aul made it the one grand theme of his ministry, because he knew tl,at it would meet the deep and universal needs of humanity. No other word would Lriug rest to the troubled conscience and satisfaction to the longing, weary, distracted heart of man; no other voice could awaken the world to newness of life out of the <lread shadow of despair and death in which it lay. II. THE nECEPTION IT MET WITH, from "Jews," "Gentiles" and "them that are -called." 1. " Unto Jews a stumbling-block "-an offence, something "scandalous." On several special grounds Christ was snch an offence to them. (1) The lowliness of his -0rigin. (2) The unostentatious character of his life. (3) '!'be unworldliness of his aims and methods. (4) '!'he expansive spirit of his doctrine; its freedom from class and national exclusiveness. (5) The universality of the grace be offered. (6) Above all, the fact of his crucifixion. How could they recognize as their Messiah One who bad died as the vilest of malefactors; died by the judgment of their rulers and amid the derision of the people; died by a death that above all others they abhorred? The cross, which Paul made the basis of human hope and the central glory of the universe, was to them "a stone of stumbling and a. rock of offence." 2. " Unto Gentilesfooli•lme11S." '!'he Gentile world was pervaded by Greek sentiment. " Greece had now for more than a. century been but a. province of Rome; but the mind of Greece had mastered that of Home." "'l'he world in name and government was Roman, but in feeling and civiliza- tion Greek." Such a world scorned the" preaching of the cross" because: (1) It lowered the pride of the human intellect, both by its simplicity and by its profundity-so plain that "the wayfaring man thongh a fool" could underntand it, too deep for the utmost stretch of thought to fathom. (i) It revealed the rottenness of the human heart beneath the fairest garment of civilization and culture. It made man dependent for a!l his light upon supernatural revelations, and for all his hopes of redemption on the spontaneous impulse of sovereign mercy. No wonder it was "foolishness" to proud Romans and polished, philosophic Greeks. And have we not around us now similar phasc8 of ~version to the doctrine of" Christ crucified"? The spirit of the world is not the spirit en. 1. 1-31.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 4(;