Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.1–3.23

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come with eminence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the mystery of God. For I did not judge myself to know anything among you except Christ Jesus, and him crucified.” Since above he has shown step by step the form of our teaching, he now proves that he handed it on to them in no other way than as he has shown; for he spoke to them the mystery about Christ both in lowliness of speech and in the foolishness of preaching, as it seems to the world. He calls it a mystery because what became incarnate, God the Word, was hidden with God from the ages. And he shows that those in whom they gloried were heretics, because they both commended perverse teaching through eloquence and, following the prudence of the world, emptied the cross of Christ, ashamed to be called fools by the world; so that they neither preached that Christ was born of the Virgin nor taught that he was truly crucified; because it seems foolish to confess that the Son of God was born a man and crucified. The apostle John also marks these out, saying: “Whoever denies that Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist; and whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either” (1 John 2:23–24); for they said that the Father himself was called the Son for himself; from whom Marcion drew his error. The things he rebukes seem veiled, because he does not make them plain, but wants them to be understood from the fact that the prudence of the world, which is hostile to religion, is found among them. What the things are that he reproves he wants to be learned from his judgment; so that he shows he blames in the Corinthians whatever things of ours the world mocks as foolish. For he mentions the body itself, so that from it the arrangement of its members may be recognized. To the Corinthians, however, they were plain, because they knew the matters on which they were being rebuked.

“And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.” For in preaching Christ in what human wisdom calls foolishness, he provoked hatred and persecutions against himself, as one announcing a vain thing, and one hostile to Jews and gentiles alike.

“And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasion of human wisdom.” He shows that he did not please human wisdom in order to win men's favour, nor devote himself to the art of words, but that he showed faith to the author of the teaching, who wished his teaching to be acceptable not by the adornment of human tradition, by the din of words, but by the realities themselves; for realities come before words. “But in demonstration of the Spirit and of the power of God.” For as by words, which are weak compared with power, foolish things, when dressed up, seem wise, God wished his preaching to be commended not by the testimony of words but of power; so that, the foolishness of the word having been pointed out, it might show itself by deeds to be wisdom grounded in spiritual reason.

“So that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect”; that is, among those who, by the testimony of power, confess the cross of Christ to be wisdom. For they are wise and perfect who hold faith not more in words than in realities. “But a wisdom not of this age.” He rightly says a wisdom not of this age but of the age to come, in which the truth of God will appear to those who deny it; for this age does not grasp this reasoning because of the weakness of earthly thought. “Nor of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.” It is plain that this wisdom is not the rulers' of this world, because they are destroyed by it. For Christianity has cut out the errors which they planted, that is, idolatry, avarice, and the other vices, as the apostle John says (1 John 3:8): “For this the Son of God came, to destroy the works of the devil.”

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden.” He testifies that he was sent to make known a hidden meaning, which neither principalities nor powers knew, nor had the world heard; and that therefore it is thought foolish, because it is unknown; but that it is rational and saving, with power as its witness, to which every effort of human reasoning yields. The wisdom of God, then, is hidden, since it lies not in words but in power; not possible by human reason, but credible by the working of the Spirit. “Which God predestined before the ages for our glory.” So true is this wisdom, and it is declared to have been always with God, that it is said to have been predestined before the ages for the glory of us who believe. For God, foreknowing the errors that would be in the world he was going to make, decreed this to the confusion of those who would make foolishness into wisdom for themselves, but to the glory of us who were to believe and do believe.

“Which none of the rulers of this age knew; for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty.” The rulers of this age are to be understood not only as men of the Jews and Romans, but also as those principalities and powers he spoke of above, to whom this saying truly applies, against whom we have our wrestling, the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12); because Christ was crucified by their counsel and will. Indeed, after the temptations, it says, the devil departed until a time (Luke 4:13). And the Lord himself says: “The ruler of this world comes, and finds nothing in me” (John 14:30). The rulers of this age, then, crucified the Lord of majesty through ignorance; for how can the rulers of the Jews, who were subject to the Roman kingdom, be understood as rulers of this age? And neither did the rulers of the Romans crucify Christ, since Pilate said: “I find no cause of death in him” (John 19:4). Hence he also washed his hands, saying to the Jews: “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; see to it yourselves” (Matt 27:24). Those rulers, then, crucified Christ the Lord, over whom he triumphed freely in himself (Col 2:15); although the evangelist Mark says of the demons: “For they knew that he was the Christ” (Mark 1:34). They knew indeed that he was the one promised in the law, but did not know his mystery, by which he is the Son of God. The apostle Peter also said this to the Jewish people: “I know, brothers, that you did this evil through ignorance, as did your rulers” (Acts 3:17), not, however, rulers of the age. If, then, servants killed the Lord through ignorance, sin ought not to be ascribed to them. But it is not permitted to be ignorant of this. And though they did not know that he was Lord, they were not unaware that they were doing an impious thing. Yet the Lord of majesty is said to have been crucified, although he cannot die; but because the Word became flesh, that is, the Son of God, incarnate, became man, death was ascribed to him; for the Jews did not persecute the flesh as such, but him who worked through the flesh; and so, though the Lord of majesty knows no death, yet as far as the will of the Jews and of the rulers of this age is concerned, they killed the Lord in the flesh.

“But as it is written: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him.” This is written in the Apocalypse of Elijah, among the apocrypha. By this example he says that an unexpected thing was done, one that not only did not fall within human understanding but was also hidden from the heavenly powers: namely that the Son of God became incarnate; so as to confirm what he had said above, that if the rulers of this age did not understand that God was made man, how much less men! But if words caused offence or a stumbling block, still faith ought not to have been refused to mighty works and signs. For power ought to have been preferred to human weakness and ignorance, and what seemed impossible to human reason believed; and therefore God prepared this gift for those who love God, that is, for those who believe.

“But God has revealed it to us through his Spirit.” Since the rulers of the age did not know this, God revealed it through his Spirit to believers; for a thing of God cannot be learned without the Spirit of God. For he says he was sent to declare this sacrament not only to men but also to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, who crucified the Lord; so that, as he preached it on earth, those who are in the carnal heavens, who live under the elements of the firmament, might learn it. This, then, is a singular apostle, who obtained this grace, since the mystery of the Trinity could be explained by no one as it was by him; whence he was also called a vessel of election by divine judgment (Acts 9:15). “For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.” For since this Spirit is from God, he knows all things. He says “the depths of God” because the Spirit knows all his power and foreknowledge, which is wholly impossible for a creature.

“For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?” It is plain that our thoughts are known by no one except our own mind, which he called spirit. Indeed in the Gospel, among other things, it says: “And her spirit returned to her” (Luke 8:55). “So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” This Spirit of God, who knows by nature, not by being taught, taught us; and he taught us about the mystery of Christ, because he is not only the Spirit of God but also of Christ.

“But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God.” From this we know that we have received the Spirit who is from God, because the spirit of the world cannot know the things he has made known to us. The spirit of the world, however, is the one by whom the possessed, who are without God, are seized; for he is the strongest among the worldly spirits; whence he is accustomed to divine worldly matters by conjecture, and they call him Python. He is the one who is deceived and deceives by plausibilities; he is the one who spoke through the Sibyl, following our meaning, wishing to have a place among the heavenly ones. “So that we may know the things that have been given us by God.” For since the Spirit of God has been given to us, we know the things that have been given us by God. For we could not know these things if we had the spirit of the world, because the spirit of the world cannot know them. For no one knows the mind of God except the one who is from God, the Spirit of God; for lower beings cannot know the counsel of higher ones, nor can a creature discern the will of its maker.

“Which things we also speak.” So that it may be plain from this that we know the things given us by God, because we also speak them, so that others too may learn through spiritual teaching. For things were made known by God to the preachers, that is, to the apostles, to hand on to the peoples, and so that the rulers of this age might learn what evil they had committed. “Not in the teaching of words of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit”; for the words of human wisdom do not see this meaning, nor is it grasped by literary studies; but it is conceived through faith by spiritual reasoning, as the prophet Isaiah says: “Unless you believe, you will not understand” (Isa 7:9). For it is learned by natural law rather than by the course of the stars and the calculations of the signs which are marked in the firmament. Indeed, those who believe see that what they believe agrees, not with human words, but with their own nature; for the work recognizes its maker; and therefore the gospel speaks spiritual things to our souls, rousing them to knowledge of their Creator. “Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” That is, to hand on spiritual efficacy, which is contained in the mystery of faith, to those who reject worldly prudence, for the enlightening of the minds of well-disposed people; for those who believe the things that the wisdom of the world judges foolish are spiritual. “But the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him.” Like the beasts he presses his mind down to the earth, and so grasps only what he sees, and does not think anything can happen except in the way he knows. So whatever he hears otherwise than as he knows it, he judges foolish; for he thinks that nothing can happen without intercourse. Hence he laughs on hearing that God, whom he knows to be simple and incorporeal, begot a Son, and that a Virgin gave birth, and that dissolved bodies are called back to life again; although these things rather serve the praise of God, so that he may be believed to have done something whose working cannot be traced out; for it is God who made it. For human feebleness thinks foolish what its knowledge does not encompass; whereas it ought rather to count this foolish, and to count that wise which, because it is said to be God's doing, cannot be comprehended. “And he cannot know, because it is spiritually judged.” Following human tradition, while they deny faith in the one God, what they, puffed up by reason, think cannot be done has been done spiritually; and so, marked down as reprobate, they have been condemned spiritually.

“The spiritual man judges all things, and he himself is judged by no one.” Since the true reasoning belongs to the spiritual, that is, to believers (for each is named by what he believes), they therefore judge all things. For unbelief will be judged by their example, but they themselves will be judged by no one. For who would condemn one who says what is true? Since it is agreed that all the enemies of the faith hold false things for true, their accusation has already been brought to nothing, condemned by the judgment of truth; for “whoever does not believe”, says the Lord, “has already been judged” (John 3:18).

“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has instructed him?” (Isa 40:13). The mind of God is that he commanded these things to be done spiritually, by which the wisdom of the world would be proved foolish, denying that what has been done can be done. There is no one who has known this mind and is displeased with it, so as to correct God's counsel; for whoever has known it praises the power of God; while whoever denies that he can do all things does not believe that he made the world either. For what great thing is it to believe that he begot from himself, when there is no doubt that he made all things out of nothing? Since the Saviour says: “But with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26). “But we have the mind of the Lord.” He says this because, as believers, we share in the same divine judgment.

“And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal.” Now he speaks to those who were carnal because they were still serving the pleasures of the age. Although they had already been baptized and received the Holy Spirit, yet because after baptism they had at once returned to the old man whom they had renounced, they are called carnal. For the Holy Spirit remains in the one into whom he has poured himself if that person remains in the purpose of regeneration; if not, he departs, yet in such a way that, if the person reforms himself, he returns to him at once. For he is always ready for the good, loving repentance. “As to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food.” Although they were in Christ, it was not fitting for spiritual things to be handed on to them; for having received faith, which is like a spiritual seed, they produced no fruit worthy of God, so as to deserve to learn the words of perfection; but like little ones they were devoted to the notions of immaturity. But the Apostle, a divine man and a spiritual physician, handed on to each according to his strength, so that no one, through immaturity and inexperience, might suffer offence regarding spiritual things.

“For you were not yet able.” He shows plainly that they ought not to have heard what is to be said to the established. “But neither are you able now; for you are still carnal.” Here he strongly rebukes the rashness of those who complained that they had not long since heard spiritual things, though they were still unworthy to hear them. For the false apostles handed on to all indiscriminately in one and the same way, distinguishing no one's person, so as to become acceptable, commended by hypocrisy; whereas it is agreed that Christ, our Lord and author, spoke one way to the crowds and another to the disciples, and that there was a difference even among the apostles themselves; for to three disciples he showed his glory on the mountain, telling them to keep silent about the vision until he rose from the dead (Matt 17:9).

“For when there are rivalries and strife among you, are you not carnal, and walking according to man?” He shows the reason for their unworthiness: one who hopes for help from man is carnal; but one who, spurning humanity, hopes in God is spiritual; for God is spirit.

“For when someone says, 'I am of Paul', and another, 'I of Apollos', are you not men?” For as those who glory in God and hope for all grace from him are called gods, adopted by God, so those who glory in man are called both men and carnal, shut in by the sentence of God, who says: “I said, You are gods; but you will die like men” (Ps 81:6). He begins, then, with his own person, so that it might not be thought that he was destroying their persons out of envy, showing that it is a great error and pertains to an insult to God when, God having been preached, glory is given to men. For how is this less than paganism, when something is still hoped for from men?

“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers of him in whom you have believed.” Since they are ministers, hope is not to be in them but in God, whose ministers they are. For thanks must be given to him whose gift it is; these are servants, who must dispense it even unwillingly. Was not Moses compelled to go to Pharaoh, and Jonah sent against his will to preach to the Ninevites, and Ananias, protesting, sent to lay his hand on Saul? “And to each as the Lord has given”: that is, as he wished and knows, he has assigned the duties of ministry to each.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” To plant is to preach the gospel and draw people to faith; to water is to baptize with the solemn words; but to forgive sins and give the Spirit belongs to God alone. If, then, God gives the effect of salvation, there is no glory for any name in this matter. For we know that the Holy Spirit was given by God even without the laying on of hands (Acts 10:44), and that one who was not baptized obtained the forgiveness of sins. Was not he baptized invisibly, when he obtained the gift of baptism?

“So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth.” For things planted often die, and things watered fail to reach fruitfulness, unless God gives vigorous life. As far as the honour of God is concerned, then, man is nothing; but as far as ministry is concerned, he is necessary; so that he may be honoured as a servant, not so that anything may be hoped from him to God's injury.

“For he who plants and he who waters are one.” They are one because both are hired workers, although their duties differ. “But each will receive his own wages according to his own labour.” For although they are one, yet because the one who preaches the gospel is greater than the one who baptizes, he has distinguished their wages; and not only for this, but it also concerns the purity of the teaching: so that one who hands on the teaching unviolated is worthy of a greater reward.

“For we are sharers in God's work; you are God's cultivation, God's building.” This applies to the person of the apostles, who are agreed to be God's helpers, because they are vicars of Christ.

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise architect I laid the foundation.” He says that grace was given him to be worthy to preach the gospel, so as to show that this too is God's, not man's. According to this grace, then, he says he laid the foundation as a wise architect. A wise architect is one who lays the foundation according to the author's instruction, that is, who preaches the gospel according to the Saviour's tradition. “But another builds on it.” The superstructures are what is handed on, after the apostles' preaching, by those who come afterwards, either bad or good teachers. “But let each one see how he builds on it”: that is, that the superstructures fit the foundation, lest, if they are crooked and flimsy, they collapse while the foundation remains unharmed; for if one teaches badly, the name of Christ, which is the foundation, remains, but the bad teaching will perish, as the Lord says: “Every planting that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted” (Matt 15:13).

“For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Christ Jesus.” No one can lay another foundation because, although some are heretics, still they teach only under the name of Christ. For they cannot commend the fabrications of error otherwise than by preaching with the Saviour's name put forward, so that the dignity of the name may make contrary and absurd things acceptable.

“Now if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones.” Precious stones are those which fire does not destroy. He set down three kinds of things that are splendid in the world, by which he signified good teaching. “Wood, hay, stubble”: he set down three other kinds, but flimsy ones. By these corrupt and empty teaching is recognized to be signified.

“The one who does this work will be made manifest; for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed in fire.” That is, bad teaching will appear to all in the fire; for now it deceives some. “And the fire will test what sort each one's work is.” For since the examination will take place through fire, if it finds nothing in someone to burn, it shows that he was a good teacher; for bad and adulterated teaching is signified by wood, hay and stubble precisely to show that it is food for fire.

“If anyone's work which he has built on remains, he will receive a reward.” For when nothing of the filth of bad teaching is found in him, as in good gold, he will be like the three brothers in the furnace of fire (Dan 3:23), and will receive the reward of eternal life with glory; for as gold and silver and the stones which fire does not consume, so the good teacher too will remain incorruptible.

“If anyone's work burns, he will suffer loss.” The work said to burn is bad teaching, which will perish. For all evil things will perish, like the way of the ungodly, because they are not substances but perverse assertions. To suffer loss is to undergo punishment. For who, when placed under punishment, does not suffer loss? “But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” He said he would be saved because the substance of which he consists will not perish, as the bad teaching will, since that is an accident. But he said “yet so as through fire” so that this salvation may not be without punishment; for he did not say, “he will be saved by fire”, meaning that, not burned by the fire because of his merit, he is saved after being tested by fire; but when he says “yet so as through fire”, he shows that he will indeed be saved, but will suffer the punishments of fire; so that, purged through fire, he may be saved, and not, like the faithless, be tormented forever in eternal fire; so that in some respect it may be worthwhile to have believed in Christ. For anyone who sees that he has defended the false for the true must always blush; and likewise anyone who, casting off the false, has followed the true, and spurning impiety has submitted to piety, will always have confidence in God. For whatever is outside the catholic faith is contrary to it.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” He says we are the temple of God so that we may know that God dwells in us; for he must dwell in his own temple. And since he says the Spirit of God dwells in us, he signifies that the Holy Spirit is to be understood as God.

“If anyone violates the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are.” He set this down beforehand to prick those who, living shamefully, had corrupted their bodies by violating them, above all the man who had his father's wife; so that he might be guilty before his case burst into the open. Indeed in a similar, or rather the same, way, when he judges his case, he speaks, saying: “Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God?” (1 Cor 6:19). Above he spoke of the temple of God; in this place of the temple of the Holy Spirit. Who here would doubt that he signified the Holy Spirit to be God?

“Let no one deceive himself”: that is, let no one think he benefits himself by his own or human counsel. He returns to the earlier sense: “If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become foolish, so that he may be wise.” He says this because, if anyone understands the promised salvation and the mystery of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, let him become foolish, that is, let him flee the wisdom of the world, so that he may be judged foolish by it; and then he will be wise; for one who is foolish to the age is wise to God, when he believes that God did what the reasoning of the world does not grasp, as I mentioned above. But the false apostles, wishing to seem wise in the world, preached neither that God has a Son, nor that the incarnation is real, nor that the flesh can rise.

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God in this way: when God does what the world denies can be done, he proves its wisdom foolishness; and since they speak of many gods, while faith proves one, with power as witness, they will be confounded in their own prudence.

“For it is written: He rebukes the wise in their cunning. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.” This is found in the ninety-third Psalm. The sense is the same; for, knowing their thoughts to be vain, in order to prove them foolish he rebuked their wisdom, showing that what they called false is true, and what they thought true is false.

“So let no one glory in a man.” Since human thoughts and counsels are short-sighted and weak, he teaches that one must not glory in man but in God, whose counsel cannot be revised; for whatever men think wise without God is foolish.

“For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come: all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.” In another place he says in the same sense: “But ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake” (2 Cor 4:5). He put 'servants' for 'ministers', so that they would not each defend particular men for themselves, since they might use them all, as the Lord also says: “I am in your midst, not to be served but to serve” (Luke 22:27). For the world is certainly ours, but in such a way that we think of it according to God's will and place its appointed courses in God's will. And the present life has been granted us, but so that we may pass it modestly and to God's glory. “Or death”: so that we may gladly accept dying for Christ in hope of the promise to come. “Or things present”: so that we may use present things in such a way as not to give offence. “Or things to come”: so that, believing in things to come, we may commend ourselves rather to them, because they are better.

“And you are Christ's”: so that, just as these things are granted and subject to our judgment, so we too may be subject to Christ, since through him we began to be, both in our first origin and in regeneration. “And Christ is God's.” Christ is the proper Son of God his Father, doing his will, so that we too may do his. If, then, we are Christ's servants, why should we hope for anything from men to his injury?