The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 63

1ers. 6, 7.-The gospel: its description,preachers, and hearers. "Howbeit we speak wisdom," etc. In these words we have three things concerning the gospel. I. A DESCRIPTION oF ITS NATUDE. Paul calls it the" wisdom of God." The wisdom of a system may be determined by two things. 1. By the character of the end it contemrlates. A system which aims at an insignificant or unworthy end would scarcely be considered wise. What is the end the gospel aims at? The restoration in buman souls of supreme sympathy with God. The absence of this sympathy is the cause of all the crimes, evils, and sorrows that curse humanity. 2. By the fitness of the means it employs. Though a system contemplate a grand end, yet if the means it employs are unadapted, it could scarcely be called wise. What are the means Christianity employs to generate this love for God in unloving souls? .Ask what the souls destitute of this love must have in order to get it, and our answer will be three things: (1) a personal manifestation of God; (2) a human p:ianifestation of God; (0) a loving manifestation of God. These things we. think essential in the nature of the case, and these three things the gospel gives. It is, therefore, emphatically the "wisdom of God." II. .A RCLE FOR ITS PREACHERS. " We speak wisdom among them that are perfect." The apostle clearly means by the word" perfect" those in the Christian community who were more adYanced in the knowledge of Christ, who stood most in contrast with those who are but" babes in Christ." One of these ideas may be attached to the language of tbe apostle. Either that he had an exoteric and esoteric doctrine for men, or that the most advanced Christian alone could discern the wisdom of his doctrine, or that he wlapted his teaching to the capacity of his hearers. The last is the ideo. which I think we are to accept as the meaning. In another place he tells the Christians at Corinth tliat Le had hitherto "fed them wi lh milk, and not with meat, because they were not aLle to bear it." His conduct is, I take it, a rule for all true preaching. III. .AN OBLIGATION UPON ITS HEARERS. If the higher aspects of gospel religion can uuly Le appreciated by those who arc" perfect," tho,c who havo attained to a high  cu. 11. 1-16.J THE FinST EPISTLE TO THE COP.INTHIANS. ,..., "" ~tagc of Christian knowledge, it is manifestly their duty to advance beyond the "first principles of the oracles of God." 'l'his duty hearers owe (1) to themselves; (2) to their minister; (3) to the system of Ghrist. Vers. 8, 9.-Spiritual ignorance the cause of immense evil and the occasion of immense good. "Which none of the princes of this world," etc. The words lead us to look on spiritual ignorance-i.e. ignorance of God and our obligations to him-in two very opposite aspects. I. As THE CAUSE OF IMMENSE EVIL. These" princes of the world," through ignorance, "crucified the Lord of glory." A greater crime was never perpetrated. It involved : (1) The grossest injustice. He was innocent. (2) The basest ingratitude. He did uood, and good only. (3) The most heartless cruelty. 'l'hey crucified him-the most :xcruciating death that infernal malignity could desire. (4) The most daring impiety. Whom did they treat thus? "The Lord of glory." How this spiritual ignorance was the cause of immense evll is evident from two considerations. 1. Beoouse it is in- itself an evil, and lilce will produce like. There is an ignorance that is a calamity .. When mind and means are absent, ignorance is a calamity; but when they are present,. it \S always a crime. These "princes" had both. Their ignorance was a sin, and sinl like virtue, is propaga.ted. '!'hat this spiritual ignorance was the cause of evil is clear from the fact that: 2. Had it not existed, such an evil could never have been perpetrated. The words lead us to look at spiritual ignorance- II. As THE OCCASION OF IMMENSE GOOD. Paul tells us that this Crucifixion introduced things that "eye had never seen nor ear heard." Divine pardon, spiritual purity, immortal hopes, are all things that come through the Crucifixion. From the subject learn: 1. That the sinner is always engaged in accomplishing that which he never intended. These "princes" did two things they never intended. (1) They ruined themselves; (2) they served God. 2. That whatever good a man may accomplish contrary to his intention, is destitute of all praiseworthiness. What oceans of blessing& come to the world through the Crucifixion! Yet who can ever praise the crucifiers?· 3. That no man should act without an intelligent conception of what he is doing. How many act from prejudice and blind impulse! how few have a right conception of what they are doing! Vers. 10-16.-The gospel school. "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit," etc. Because man naturally craves for knowledge and deeply needs it, schools abound everywhere throughout the civilized world, especially here in England-schools. of science, schools of philosophy, schools of art, etc. But there is one school that. transcends all-the gospel school. Three facts are suggested concerning this school. I. 'l'hat here the student is INSTRUCTED IN THE SUBLIMEST REALITIES. " Deep things -:if God." Things, not words, not theories. "Deep tbiogR; " deep because undiscoverable by human reason ; deep because they come from the fathomless ocean of Divine love. What are these deep things? The primary elements of the gospel, and the necessary condition of soul-restoration. These "deep things" we are here told are : 1. The free gifts of Heaven. "Freely given to us of God." 2. Freely given to bo communicated, "Which things also we speak," etc. He who gets these things into his mind an{ heart, not only can communicate, but is bound to tell them to others, and that in plain natural language, free from the affectations of rhetoric, the language which the "Holy Ghost teacheth," language which is suggested by "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." Men think in words; thoughts come dressed in their own language; the intellectual thoughts have their own languago, and spiritual thoughts have a language all their own. II. That here the student is TAUGHT BY THE GREATEST TEACHER. Who is the Teacher? 'l'he Divine Spirit himself, here called the" Spirit of God" and the "Holy Ghost." 1. This Teacher has infinite knowledge. "The Spirit searcbeth all things." '!'he word" searcheth" must not be taken, I presume, in the sense of investigation, but rather in the sense of complete knowledge. In the last clause of the next verse it is said, "The things of God knowelh no man, but the Spirit of God." He knoweth those- things of God; he knows them in their essence, number, issues, bearings, relatiuus, etc. 2. '!'his Teacher is no o!,/1er than Goel himself. "What man kuoweth the things of a  THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [en. 11. 1-lu.