It was in this spirit that Paul had come among them at first; he would know
nothing but Christ,[see note #2]
and Christ in His humiliation and abasement, object of contempt to
senseless men. His speech was not attractive with the carnal persuasiveness
of a factitious eloquence: but it was the expression of the presence and
action of the Spirit, and of the power which accompanied that presence.
Thus their faith rested, not on the fair words of man, which another more
eloquent or more subtle might upset, but on the power of God-a solid
foundation for our feeble souls-blessed be His name for it!
Nevertheless, when once the soul was taught and established in the doctrine
of salvation in Christ, there was a wisdom of which the apostle spoke; not
the wisdom of this present age, nor of the princes of this age, which
perish, wisdom and all; but the wisdom of God in a mystery, a secret
counsel of God (revealed now by the Spirit), ordained in His settled
purpose unto our glory before the world was-a counsel which, with all their
wisdom, none of the princes of this world knew. Had they known it, they
would not have crucified the One in whose Person it was all to be
accomplished.
The apostle does not touch the subject of the mystery, because he had to
feed them as babes, and only in order to put it in contrast with the false
wisdom of the world; but the way in which this wisdom was communicated is
important. That which had never entered into the heart of man [see note #3]
God had revealed by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even
the deep things of God. It is only the spirit of a man which is in him that
knows the things which he has not communicated. So no one knows the things
of God save the Spirit of God. Now it is the Spirit of God which the
apostle and the other vessels of revelation had received, that they might
know the things which are freely given of God. This is the knowledge of the
things themselves in the vessels of revelation. Afterwards this instrument
of God was to communicate them. He did so, not in words which the art of
man taught, but which the Spirit-which God-taught, communicating spiritual
things by a spiritual medium.(4)
The communication was by the Spirit as well as the thing communicated.
There was yet one thing wanting that this revelation might be possessed by
others-the reception of these communications. This also required the action
of the Spirit. The natural man did not receive them; and they are
spiritually discerned.
The source, the medium of communication, the reception, all was of the
Spirit. Thus the spiritual man judges all things; he is judged of no man.
The power of the Spirit in him makes his judgment true and just, but gives
him motives and a walk that are unintelligible to one who has not the
Spirit. Very simple as to that which is said-nothing can be more important
than that which is here taught. Alas! the Corinthians, whether when the
apostle was at Corinth, or at the time of writing this letter, were not in
a condition to have the mystery communicated to them-a grievous humiliation
to their philosophic pride, but therefore a good remedy for it.
