1 Corinthians Argument 1:4 – 2:16

Thanksgiving 1:4-9

An old saying states, People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care (love). This passage informs the Corinthian church of Paul sharing Christ's love for them, which opens the audience's heart and mind to the message. Paul dwells on the God's eternal faithfulness, praising God for using those in the Corinthian church. He instructs the church of amazing gifts of grace resulting from dwelling in Christ. This grace is comprised of at least three factors defined by Dr. Gene Getz, first, God's Favor in Salvation, "called as saints" (Eph. 2:8-9). Second, A Divine Source of Strength, in each greeting of Paul's thirteen letters, he uses "grace" and "peace" (1Cor. 1:3) and Paul requested God to provide strength to all believers in their daily lives. 3) The Grace—Freely given gifts of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 1:4-7; 12:11). The Corinthians needed reassurance of the power available to them from God to overcome the temptations. Prudence also mandated understanding among the Corinthian church that these gifts resulted in God's goodness as opposed to any perceived human goodness.

Divisions in the Church 1:10-17

Paul proverbially grabs the church by the ear saying, get your act together as there is only one Christ, follow Him as a unified church body. Paul quickly acknowledges Chloe as his source of information, a significant factor for credibility in any repudiation. The church errantly divided over which of Christ's servants to follow, Paul, Apollos, Peter—most likely one of his disciples or members of Christ's party—probably Judaizers, those falsely claiming to be Christians. Division destroys (Mk. 3:24-26) relationships, organizations and structures. Conversely unification enhances strength (Ec. 4:12). Additionally, "I thank God that I baptized none of you" strongly illustrates salvation's independence of baptism—especially human wisdom,
rather salvation's complete dependence on the gospel of Christ.

Christ's Wisdom and God's Power 1:18-2:5

Corinth residents pontificated on human wisdom, this arrogance infiltrated the church. Soil saturation measures the volume of water in relation to the soil's total volume (θ = V_w /V_t). Conversely, salvation relies 100 percent of one's belief and acceptance of the "message of the cross." Any dependence on any human wisdom fully negates salvation in Christ. Salvation = Belief in Christ / Christ's deity and humanity multiplied by Christ's death and resurrection. Denying Belief in Christ or any factor of the denominator equates to zero salvation. This principle decimates credibility from boasting about human wisdom. Philosophers elevate humanity's thoughts and actions with human wisdom.


Paul, a well-educated man, counters this by negating an attempt of "excellency of speech or of wisdom" with Greek philosophy, rather speaks solely with gospel philosophy. For example, the Greek's human wisdom comprised denying Christ's resurrection. When shooting a rifle with a mounted scope, the true hunter avoids observing and describing the rifle or scope in attempting to bag his trophy buck. Firing the gun while externally observing the scope will result in missing the target at best, or injuring or killing an unintended target at worst. Human wisdom interacts with religion and Christianity as the above described gun handler. Two primary reasons for observing the scope instead of using the scope reside in ignorance and arrogance. The ignorant fail to understand the power of the scope, or lack cognizance of the scopes optic components. Arrogance believes one can see as well as, or perhaps better, on one's own than with the optics.

Spirit's Wisdom 2:6-16

Spiritual wisdom causes one to evaluate religion and Christianity first through the scope of scriptural truth, placing one's spiritual eye in line with the lens of creation (Gen. 1:25-26), the fall, the seed of the serpent, and the seed of woman (Gen. 3:1-16) all the way through the scope to the book of Revelation. Only the Holy Spirit's optics of spiritual wisdom enable placing the cross-hairs of salvation firmly and solely on Jesus Christ. Paul explains that those who externally observe the scope lack comprehending the clarity, magnification and cross-hairs viewed within and through the scope of the Holy Spirit to recognize Christ.


Gun scopes offer various magnifications, each level increases clarity and precision. Many details undistinguishable with the naked eye appear magnificently through the scope. Moreover, spiritual maturity increases our scopes magnification. This scope enables the understanding of such things as Christ's congruent deity and humanity, as well as his death and resurrection. Spiritual wisdom utterly befuddles those—like the Corinthians—relying on human wisdom. Paul informs the Corinthian church that as Christians they have the Holy Spirit's scope, they simply must look through it to properly understand the world and the resurrection of Christ and the saved, and avoid confusion. He acknowledges the development of some Corinth church members' development into spiritual maturity.




See Christ, Believe Christ, Achieve with Christ!
Rick E. Meyer
See, Believe, Achieve Inc. www.rickemeyer.com



(Getz 2011, 1566)
² (Toussaint 2012, Class Notes)
³ (Radmacher, Allen and House 1999, 1460)
⁴ (Hillel 1982, 11)
     ⁵
(Coffman 1984, 27)