The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 74

TII. lTs oRrnrs. 1. Not of thi:s world. The true wisdom is heaven-born, not eartfo- horn. The world is at enmity with God, and omits him from its schemes of wisdom• no wonder that these develop into utter folly. 2. Not of the rulers of this world'. The world's great men did not produce Christianity; it sprang not from philosophers rhetoricians, politicians, or conquerors. World-powers tend to come to nought and their wisdom with them (ver. 6). The true wisdom revealed in Christianity never entered the heads of the wise men of the world (ver. 9); it was alien to their natures ~nd notions. They were natural; it was supernatural. 3. God. It is true wisdon1 because it is Divine wisdom; its origin proves its quality. It sprinas from the- Supreme Mind ; it conveys his thoughts: it reveals his purposes and act~. In Chris- tianity the finite mind runs upon the lines of the infinite. The human occupies the stand- point of the Divine. \Ve see with God's eyes. 4. .Ancient. Vve speak of the wisdom of the ancients; this is the wisdom of the Ancient of d11ys. Older than the worlds. Thou~ht out by God in a past eternity. Conceived then for our well-being. Wondrous thought! Here Divine love takes its place by the side of Divine wisdom. For us; and shall we miss a after all 1 Because fools call it folly, shall we? It h the eternal wisdom, prepared for us before time was. It comes to us down through the ages unshattered, unshaken, by the assaults of the centuries. IV. D, WHOM UNDERSTOOD. By the spiritual. It is spoken amongst "the perfect" (,er. 6), the spiritually minded, the matured. Every believer has some comprehension of it; but the more spiritual a man is the keener is his perception of its beauty and force, the greater his delight in it. The carnal understand it not. Once they were tested in its close and striking approach to them in the person of the Lord Jesus, but him they sought to destroy (ver. 8); and, could they have done so, they would have robbed the world of light and left it to interminable darkness. To the" natural man" the true wisdom is folly (ver. 14); as the ordinary wisdom of rnen might seem to creature.~ <if lower grade. The spiritual man is exalted, and sees clearly what to the man beneath appears blurred, unsightly, puzzling, and undesirable. The carnal man has a valley view, and gazes through thick and distorting mists; the spiritual man has a mountain- top view, aud the more spiritual he is the clearer is the atmosphere through which h6 looks. Many men who quarrel with Christianity should rather quarrel with them- selves; the fault is not in it, but in them. We need alteration, not God's revelation. We must not think lightly of Christianity because many reject it; an imbecile throws a way bank-notes. Honesty is good, but a thief will have none of it. A blind man has a poor opinion of pictures. When the mouth is out of condition, the sweetest meats are unsavoury. When God revealed the true wisdom in Christiauity, he announced that it would be unappreciated by many, and explained why this would be so (Rom. viii. 7). V. lTs POSSE~SION AND EXERCISE BY THE SPIRITUAL. 1. Possession. (1) The spiritual possess the Spirit (vers. 10, 12, 16). This is the cause of their being spiritual. By nature we are all carnal-the children of darkness and of wrath. Our carnality is dissipated by the coming of the Divine Spirit into our hearts. He is light, we are darkntss; the light chases away the darkness. The Divine Spirit commences the work of grace in our hearts and carries it on to the end. How eagerly should we open our hearts to this Divine Guest! How heedful should we be to the command," Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thess. v.19)! 'l'o quench the Spirit would be to involve ourselves again in the darkness from which we had escaped. (2) The Spirit reveals the true wisdom to the spiritual. We are taught of the Spirit. Here we tread the road of the highest and truest knowledge. "Who teacheth like him?" Here is the school for all Christians;. only as they learn here do they learn truly. Men have boasted of their teachers. How many sat at the feet of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle! and one very familiar to us sat at the feet of Gamaliel. But what an honour is reserved for the children of God to have as their Teacher the Holy Spirit! A 'l'eacher, too, always with us, for he <l wells witbin us; and ever ready to instruct. How diligent should we be in learning the 1£:sson set for us by this Teacher! (3) 'l'he Spirit is qualified for this office. What a striking testimony to the divinity of the Holy Ghost we have in ver. 111 God is represented under the figure of a man ; the Holy Ghost under the figure of the spirit of that man. How full the knowledge! how intimate the association! how indissolublo tbe connection !-the two are orie ! \Ve arc taught by God, and who can teach God's wisdom, the true wisdom, like God hirr.seljr 2. Exercise. 'l'he Spirit not only revealit ell. n. 1-16.] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.