1 Corinthians 2:6-8 However, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world… It is necessary to bear in mind that the "wisdom" with which the apostle was confronted was not the vigorous and lofty aspirations of Aristotle and Plato, but the hollow and worn-out sophistries of the last days of the Greek rhetoricians. Still, although a different turn would doubtless have been given to the whole argument if the living power of the gospel had been met not by a dead form, but by a power which, though of lower origin, and moving in a different sphere, was still living like itself, the general truth here urged remains the same. It is not by intellectual, but by moral and spiritual excellence, that the victories of the gospel have been achieved. Religion is not philosophy. But although the two spheres of intellect and Christianity are thus distinct, the apostle also wishes to show that there is in Christianity an element analogous to that by which intellectual wants are gratified; as though he had said, "Although the Christian lives in a world of his own, yet in that world he is independent of all besides (what the philosophers would have called αὐταρκης), and the more fully his Christian stature is developed, he will find every craving of his nature the more completely satisfied." This element he here introduces under the names of "wisdom," "the Spirit," and "solid food" as distinct from "milk." Taking into comparison the other passages (John 3:12; John 16:12; Hebrews 6:1), where a similar contrast is drawn between the higher and lower stages of Christian progress, the reference seems not to be to any exhibition of new doctrines, but to the deep spiritual intuitions which have always been regarded as the highest privilege of advanced Christian goodness. Thomas a Kempis says that "a pure heart penetrates the secrets of heaven and hell; the "beatific vision has always been regarded as the consummation of our intellectual and moral perfection; and the analogy which is here drawn between the perceptions of the human intellect and those of the enlightened spirit might be illustrated abundantly from the biographies and devotions of good men in all ages. What this was in its highest or most extraordinary form may be seen in the account of St. Paul's rapture (2 Corinthians 12:1, 4) or of St. John's (Revelation 1:10; Revelation 4:2). What it was in its more ordinary form may be seen in the whole atmosphere of St. John's first Epistle, especially in the connection between love and knowledge which pervades it, and which is illustrated in chap. 1 Corinthians 13:8, 12 of this Epistle. See also Romans 11:33, 34; Ephesians 1:8, 17, 18. This use of the passage — I. ACCORDS WITH THE WORDS EMPLOYED. "Wisdom," although suggested in the first instance by the contemporary philosophy, derives its religious sense chiefly from its use in Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, where it is applied not to the gaining of new truths, theological or natural, but to a deeper practical insight into moral truth. This general sense is further limited in this passage by the indication of its subject, viz., the "glory" or blessedness of Christians, which in vers. 8, 10 assumes such a prominence as to be almost identified with the "wisdom" itself that seeks it. And the faculty by which this wisdom is obtained is described emphatically as "spiritual— "the Spirit." The word is chosen partly from the frequent use of the phrase both in Greek and Hebrew, to express the intellect-chiefly as expressive of a direct connection with God. It is the "inspiration" which in Scripture is ascribed to every mental gift (Exodus 31:3; Job 32:8, &c.), but which is specially applicable to the frame of mind (to use the modern form of speech founded on the same metaphor) "breathes the atmosphere" of heaven. The same sense also — II. AGREES WITH THE GENERAL CONTEXT AND OCCASION. When the apostle says, "But to us God revealed it by His Spirit," the use of the first person, here as elsewhere, indicates that, though speaking of believers generally, he especially refers to his own experience. The consciousness of his spiritual gifts, especially of his spiritual insight into things invisible, was always present with him, and never more so than at the period of these two Epistles (1 Corinthians 14:18; 2 Corinthians 12:1, 4). And this tendency to dwell on the inward, as distinct from the outward blessings of the gospel — on the things which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard," as distinguished from the things which the eyes of the first apostles had seen and their ears had heard — was a peculiarity of St. Paul's teaching. III. IT BEST SUITS THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CORINTHIAN CHRISTIANS, who had no especial need of new intellectual truths, nor, if they had, was there any especial impediment to their reception. But higher consciousness of the Divine presence; a knowledge deep and comprehensive, as being grounded in love; an insight into the spiritual world — were gifts which, on the one hand, the apostle might well long to give them, and which were yet, on the other, most alien to their state of faction and bitterness. How could they, who were absorbed in their contentions, enter into the atmosphere of peace which .surrounds the throne of God? How could they, who were for ever insisting on particular names and party watchwords, enjoy the vision where all else is lost in the sense of communion with Christ? Controversy and party spirit may sharpen the natural faculties of shrewdness and disputation, but few sins more dim the spiritual faculty by which alone all things are rightly judged. These disputes and rivalries were "of the flesh," no less than the sensual passions which are commonly so classed; and, if so, they have no place in heaven, they are directly opposed to "the Spirit.(Dean Stanley.) Parallel Verses KJV: Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: |
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