2:1 And 1 I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the
a testimony of God.
(1) He returns to (1Co 1:17), that is to say, to his own
example: confessing that he did not use among them either
excellency of words or enticing speech of man's wisdom, but
with great simplicity of speech both knew and preached
Jesus Christ crucified, humbled and abject, with regard to
the flesh.
(a) The Gospel.
2:2 For I b determined not to know any thing among you, save
Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
(b) I did not profess any knowledge but the knowledge of
Christ and him crucified.
2:3 And I was with you in c weakness, and in fear, and in much
trembling.
(c) He contrasts weakness with excellency of words, and
therefore joins with it fear and trembling, which are
companions of true modesty, not such fear and trembling
as terrify the conscience, but such as are contrary to
vanity and pride.
2:4 And my speech and my preaching [was] not with enticing words
of man's wisdom, 2 but in d demonstration of the Spirit
and of power:
(2) He turns now to the commendation of his ministry, which he
had granted to his adversaries: for his strength and power,
which they knew well enough, was so much the more excellent
because it had no worldly help behind it.
(d) By "demonstration" he means such a proof as is made by
reasons both certain and necessary.
2:53 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
(3) And he tells the Corinthians that he did it for their great
profit, because they might by this know manifestly that the
Gospel was from heaven. Therefore he privately rebukes
them, because in vainly seeking to be noticed, they
willingly deprived themselves of the greatest help of their
faith.
2:64 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are e perfect:
yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the f princes of
this world, that come to nought:
(4) Another argument taken from the nature of the thing, that
is, of the Gospel, which is true wisdom, but known only to
those who are desirous of perfection: and it is unsavoury
to those who otherwise excel in the world, but yet vainly
and frailly.
(e) They are called perfect here, not who had already
gotten perfection, but those who are striving for it,
as in (Php 3:15): so that perfect is contrasted
with weak.
(f) Those that are wiser, richer, or mightier than other
men are.
2:75 But we speak the wisdom of God in a g mystery, [even]
the hidden [wisdom], 6 which God ordained before the world
unto our glory:
(5) He shows the reason why this wisdom cannot be perceived by
those excellent worldly intellects: that is, because it is
indeed so deep that they cannot attain to it.
(g) Which men could not so much as dream of.
(6) He takes away an objection: if it is so hard, when and how
is it known? God, he says, determined with himself from
the beginning, that which his purpose was to bring forth at
this time out of his secrets, for the salvation of men.
2:87 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had
they known [it], they would not have crucified the h Lord
of glory.
(7) He takes away another objection: why then, how comes it to
pass that this wisdom was so rejected by men of the
highest authority, that they crucified Christ himself?
Paul answers: because they did not know Christ such as he
was.
(h) That mighty God, full of true majesty and glory: now
this place has in it a most evident proof of the
divinity of Christ, and of the joining of the two
natures in one in him, which has this in it, that
which is proper to the manhood alone is confirmed of
the Godhead joined with the manhood. This type of
speech is called, by the old fathers, a making common
of things belonging to someone with another to whom
they do not belong.
2:98 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the i heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him.
(8) Another objection: but how could it be that those
intelligent men could not perceive this wisdom? Paul
answers: because we preach those things which surpass all
man's understanding.
(i) Man cannot so much as think of them, much less
conceive them with his senses.
2:109 But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for
the Spirit k searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God.
(9) A question: if it surpasses the capacity of men, how can it
be understood by any man, or how can you declare and preach
it? By a special enlightening of God's Spirit, with which
whoever is inspired, he can enter even into the very
secrets of God.
(k) There is nothing so secret and hidden in God, but the
Spirit of God penetrates it.
2:1110 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the l
spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
(10) He sets it forth in comparison, which he spoke by the
inspiration of the Sprit. As the power of man's intellect
searches out things pertaining to man, so does our mind by
the power of the Holy Spirit understand heavenly things.
(l) The mind of man which is endued with the ability to
understand and judge.
2:12 Now we have received, not the m spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God; 11 that we might n know the
things that are freely given to us of God.
(m) The Spirit which we have received does not teach us
things of this world, but lifts us up to God, and this
verse teaches us the opposite of what the papists
teach: what faith is, from where it comes, and from
what power it originates.
(11) That which he spoke generally, he confines now to those
things which God has opened to us of our salvation in
Christ: so that no man should separate the Spirit from the
preaching of the word and Christ: or should think that
those fanciful men are governed by the Spirit of God, who
wandering besides the word, thrust upon us their vain
imaginations for the secrets of God.
(n) This word "know" is taken here in its proper sense
for true knowledge, which the Spirit of God works in
us.
2:1312 Which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth;
o comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
(12) Now he returns to his purpose, and concludes the argument
which he began in verse six (1Co 2:6), and it is this:
the words must be applied to the matter, and the matter
must be set forth with words which are proper and
appropriate for it: now this wisdom is spiritual and not
from man, and therefore it must be delivered by a spiritual
type of teaching, and not by enticing words of man's
eloquence, so that the simple, and yet wonderful majesty of
the Holy Spirit may appear in it.
(o) Applying the words to the matter, that is, that as we
teach spiritual things, so must our type of teaching
be spiritual.
2:1413 But the p natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know [them], because they are q
spiritually discerned.
(13) Again he anticipates an offence or stumbling block: how does
it come to pass that so few allow these things? This is
not to be marvelled at, the apostle says, seeing that men
in their natural powers (as they call them) are not endued
with that faculty by which spiritual things are discerned
(which faculty comes another way) and therefore they
consider spiritual wisdom as folly: and it is as if he
should say, "It is no marvel that blind men cannot judge
of colours, seeing that they lack the light of their eyes,
and therefore light is to them as darkness."
(p) The man that has no further light of understanding,
than that which he brought with him, even from his
mother's womb, as Jude defines it; (Jude 19).
(q) By the power of the Holy Spirit.
2:1514 But he that is spiritual r judgeth all things, yet
15 he himself is judged of s no man.
(14) He amplifies the matter by opposites.
(r) Understands and discerns.
(15) The wisdom of the flesh, Paul says, determines nothing
certainly, no not in its own affairs, much less can it
discern strange, that is, spiritual things. But the
Spirit of God, with which spiritual men are endued, can by
no means be deceived, and therefore be reproved by any
man.
(s) Of no man: for when the prophets are judged of the
prophets, it is the Spirit that judges, and not the
man.
2:1616 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
t instruct him? But we have u the mind of Christ.
(16) A reason from the former saying: for he is called
spiritual, who has learned that by the power of the
Spirit, which Christ has taught us. Now if that which we
have learned from that Master could be reproved by any
man, he must be wiser than God: whereupon it follows that
they are not only foolish, but also wicked, who think that
they can devise something that is either more perfect, or
that they can teach the wisdom of God a better way than
those knew or taught who were undoubtedly endued with
God's Spirit.
(t) Lay his head to his, and teach him what he should do.
(u) We are endued with the Spirit of Christ, who opens to
us those secrets which by all other means are
unsearchable, and also any truth at all.
