Notes on 1 Corinthians

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” 1 Cor. 2:1-2, NKJV.

Paul’s conduct among the Corinthians was one of simplicity according to the flesh—this point he reiterates throughout the first few chapters of his letter with the reasoning “that no flesh should glory in [God’s] presence” (1 Cor. 1:29), but “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.” Now, by no means is it to be thought that Paul was foolish or limited in his intellect among the Corinthians, but, rather, that he “determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Dear reader, it is upon this single foundation that all the wisdom of the universe is built. There is no facet of God’s creation that is alienated from the holy and almighty reality of Jesus Christ and the full implications of His crucifixion. There is no sound science that is not tangent to, nay, utterly derived from, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Oh, had we but eyes to see it! Indeed, it is toward this goal that Paul denounces the wisdom of the flesh, for is it not reasonable that we understand the foundation of all wisdom in its divine spiritual nature before we claim any understanding of or reverence for the wisdom of this physical universe?

To know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified is a limitation only in the sense that it permits no professed knowledge or understanding of things false.

Paul goes on to say: “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory…” (1 Cor. 2:4-7).

It is folly in us to view spiritual wisdom as if it were something detached and inapplicable to our immediate reality: we feel the work of God in the Holy Spirit within us in the development of soul and conscience, but that same Spirit, if submitted to, pervades also the mind. If we believe God to be the Creator of the universe, will we not also trust Him to reveal the truth of that universe in a very immediate and real sense? Marvel not, then, at the wisdom of this age, which seeks to separate God from science—folly of follies! Rather, submit to the Creator Himself, and seek His wisdom, which is the only truth.

For what part have we with the world? With darkness? With darkened minds and hearts? As Paul further states: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘Who can know the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ,” 1 Cor. 2:12-16.

The universe is first spiritual, then physical. An understanding of things spiritual, through the Spirit of God, will result in an accurate understanding of things physical. Therefore, “he who is spiritual judges all things.”

(See also 1 Cor. 3:18-23)

*    *    *

“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified,” 1 Cor. 9:26-27.

Brethren, we do not run this race with uncertainty. There is one God, “and one mediator between God and man: the man Christ Jesus.” By the grace of God we are certain of this; by the grace of God we are confident in absolute truth. Uncertainty has no place in our walk with God, for we are no longer of this world, that we should be given over to doubt, but of the kingdom of God.

And if we run with certainty, we also fight with purpose. Absolute truth is not a thing to be taken lightly—it is not to be shoved to one side, to influence only a part of our life. No, indeed! It is the very window through which we view the world! Absolute truth is defended, it is upheld, it is fought for. And “thus [we] fight: not as one who beats the air.” If we are certain of our Lord, we are certain also of our foe. It is no mystery where that foe is to be met, nor—if we are certain of that truth—is it difficult to strike, to wound, and to prevail (I speak in terms of spiritual warfare). For there is one God, and His Spirit of Truth dwells in us.

If, then, we run the race and fight the fight, we must discipline our bodies and bring them into subjection toward that goal. We are certain of the truth of God: we are burdened with glorious purpose. Therefore, do we indeed live for ourselves—in idleness and dissipation? Do we not rather deny temporary comfort in pursuit of strength and endurance? “Lest,” as Paul says, “when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

*   *   *

“For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man,” 1 Cor. 11:7-9, NKJV.

“Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man, in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman; but all things are from God,” 1 Cor. 11:11-12

We know that in the beginning God created man, that is, Adam, in His image; we know that God is male, therefore when He declares: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen.1:26), it is logical that the first such creation should be male. From this man, Adam, God formed woman for the purpose of companionship and procreation. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him,” Gen. 2:18. “And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man,’” Gen. 2:23.

Therefore, in a sense, Man was created in the image of God, and Woman in the image of Man—the two composing the whole of mankind, whose figurehead, if you will, is Man, the image of God. It is upon this premise that Paul refers to man as “the image and glory of God” and woman as “the glory of man.” But in no way does this delineation imply an inferiority on the part of the woman: according to 1 Cor. 11-12, man and woman are dependent upon one another, and both are utterly dependent upon God. Because God is male, a certain authority and distinction is given to men in spiritual matters—in the church, in the family, etc.—not because, by nature, man is superior to woman, but because, as a male, he is a more direct reflection of God. The use of physical representation of spiritual matters is heavy throughout Scripture: the distinction of man and woman is perhaps the most pervasive representation of God and mankind. In no way do I intend to portray man as God, but, just as our duty as Christians is to imitate Christ, so also our duty as men and women in the church and in the family is to imitate the relationship of Christ and the church.

Now we know that, as human beings, we possess souls which are eternal and equal in the sight of God—these souls are without sex, for, in and of themselves, they are without bodies, and it is the bodies which are either male or female. Herein lies perhaps the chief folly of the transgender movement of today: the belief that one’s identity, one’s very essence, is contingent upon one’s sex. Reader, when you are dead and buried, you become bones, and finally dust. When you are dust, are you male or female? Are you not, rather, a soul in the hands of God? Know that your soul is your identity, and your sex is merely a circumstance of this world, which will shortly pass away. It is with this knowledge that Paul makes his statements regarding the roles of men and women, which at first seemed so repugnant to us. He addresses his readers as souls, as children of God, who are desirous to serve God in this life, and tells us how we are to serve God most effectively in the body we are given. Reader, the body is of no value in and of itself—it is merely a tool. It is not something to be proud of, it is not something to be offended for, it is nothing but a shell.

“Set your affections on things above, not on things of this world.”