What Is It That You Like To Brag About?
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1 Cor. 2:1-5
These are Paul’s words from 1 Cor. 2:1-5. I want to focus in on verse 2. Paul told the Corinthians, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This statement is a familiar one in the writings of Paul. He wrote the Galatians: “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Similarly, he told the church at Philippi: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
The question which occupies us this morning is the purpose of Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians as it pertains to the situation in that particular church, namely its quarreling and disunity. Let’s look at a little context and see if we can’t make sense of that.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians can be easily organized as “the things reported to Paul and Paul’s responses” in chapters 1-6. Then chapters 7-16 cover Paul’s answers to questions concerning issues specifically raised by the church. So chapters 1-6, the things reported to Paul; chapters 7-16, the questions posed to Paul. With regard to the things reported to Paul concerning the state of affairs in the church, two are noteworthy. First, it was reported to Paul that the church was experiencing “divisions.” Second, it was reported that the church was experiencing “disorders,” including failures in church discipline, failures in personal relationships, and failures in personal morality.
The report of disunity or divisions in the church and Paul’s response to that sorry condition occupies the first four chapters. Paul notes that the underlying cause of the disunity was spiritual immaturity manifesting itself in jealousy, strife, and pride. And he proposes a two-fold “cure:” first, he offered a corrected view of the message. And next, he offered a corrected view of the ministry. Regarding the latter, whereas the church had splintered into factions which resembled personality cults – “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ” – the solution was rather simple. Paul and Apollos and Cephas (Peter) were not rivals. They were servants, co-laborers, and stewards of God’s work. That is the spirit of real ministry. In order for the church to overcome its disunity, it needed a corrected view of the ministry. This is the subject of chapters 3 and 4.
But the church also needed a corrected view of the message. This is the subject of chapters 1 and 2, beginning with 1:10. Therefore, the passage we read at the beginning, 1 Cor. 2:1-5, fits right into this context: Paul providing answers for a divided church by correcting their view of the message. You see, Corinth was a hotbed of what is known as “sophistry.” The Greeks were the founders of Western philosophy, and from the 6th century bc, the Greeks had been developing various schools of thought with a view towards answering some of the most basic questions of life: How can we explain both the apparent unity and diversity of the world? How can we explain how things can change, yet at the same time still stay the same in some respects? What is the meaning of life? What is the good life? The three biggest names which come to us from ancient Greek philosophy are, of course, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. But there were other schools of thought as well – skeptics, cynics, and sophists included. The sophists, simply speaking, were those who prized skillful oratory and eloquent speech, and didn’t bother with whether what they said had any relation to objective truth and reality or not. Socrates, in fact, held a very dim view of the sophists:
“How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was: – such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth.”
This testimony of Socrates at his trial perfectly captures the spirit of sophistry: persuasive words devoid of truth. And this is much the problem that Paul encountered in Corinth when he established the church there in the early 50’s AD. Knowing the philosophical climate that permeated that great ancient Greek city, Paul predetermined that he was not going to enter the city and there proclaim the gospel with lofting sounding rhetoric and brilliant speech-making. No, he decided beforehand to speak plainly and forthrightly concerning the message of the cross, not sacrificing content to style. And this was not merely for the sake of Paul’s initial evangelistic efforts. Paul spent 18 months in Corinth teaching the word of God and establishing the church. And the indication is that at all points he made sure and grounded the Corinthians’ beliefs in the message of the cross. We don’t outgrow the cross. It is not just a message of salvation, never to be pondered again. It is absolutely central to our spiritual lives and we cannot, in fact, grow spiritually and walk successfully in Christ without a robust understanding of Christ and Him crucified. See Romans 6.
But the question that here concerns us is this: why does Paul make this claim concerning his ministry philosophy – preaching Christ and Him crucified – in the middle of a section of the letter in which he is dealing with church unity? What is the connection? I think the answer to that is found at the very end of chapter 1 and is essentially this: because the cross of Christ silences all human boasting, it alone provides the unifying force for the church. The cause of disunity in the church at Corinth, though differing in the particulars, is really no different than the cause of disunity in our own churches, and that is a reliance upon the wisdom of men rather than a submission to the wisdom of God. According to Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 1, the wisdom of God is expressed most fully and profoundly in the cross of Christ, and the wisdom of men (at least the type that Paul is chastising) is found in those attitudes and beliefs which hold that cross and its message in contempt. When we abandon the centrality of the message of the cross, a vacuum is created and something has to take its place. And what takes its place is the wisdom of men which elevates itself against the knowledge and power of God. The result is pride, spiritual immaturity, strife, jealousy – boasting in things other than the Lord, which potentially causes divisions among us.
But what is it about the cross which silences all such boasting? Paul provides three realities of the cross and its message to us at the end of chapter one. Let me read the relevant verses and then briefly mention those three realities:
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Cor. 1:28-31
1. The cross of Christ silences all human boasting by revealing our unworthiness before a holy God. The Scriptures teach us that ALL have sinned; ALL are ripe for divine judgment; and ALL will eventually bow the knee before Christ, though many will do so unwillingly. We are all on equal footing before God – the Scripture has shut up all under sin, that the righteousness that comes through faith might be displayed in the cross. There is no room for divisive boasting in human wisdom and achievement when the cross of Christ is kept front and center.
2. The cross of Christ silences all human boasting by reminding us that we are all debtors to grace. Paul says that “because of him you are in Christ Jesus.” It was by grace that you were drawn to Christ and lovingly persuaded of His worth and your need of a Savior. It was by grace that you were enabled to exercise faith in Christ unto salvation. In a nutshell, it is by grace that you are saved. And if it is by grace, it is no longer of works. Thus, none can boast. By keeping the cross front and center, human boasting is silenced and we are all humbled before God and one another.
3. Finally, the cross of Christ silences all human boasting by revealing the wisdom of God, which prevails against the wisdom of men. The wisdom of God in Christ is displayed in a three-fold manner:
(a) through God’s righteousness: God is both just and the justifier of him who has faith in Christ. The cross unites divine justice and divine justification as only the only wise God could have done.
(b) The wisdom of God, contrasted with the wisdom of men, is also seen in our sanctification. “Sainthood” is not achieved; it is received. What do you have that you have not received? Why then do you boast as if you had not received it?
(c) The wisdom of God prevails over the wisdom of men in God’s redemption of sinful human beings. You were bought with a price; and as Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, the believer who has been made alive in Christ should no longer live for himself but for the One who died for him. The redemptive aspect of the cross turns us outward, away from self-absorption. Christ has become to us the wisdom of God: righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
So the message of the cross silences all boasting. Thus, Christ crucified must always be front and center; we don’t “outgrow” the cross. And if the cross is vigilantly kept front and center, it is far less likely that a church will be reduced to quarreling subdivisions of immaturity riddled with pride, jealousy and strife, the very things which were plaguing the church at Corinth.
What is your boast? Can you say with the Apostle Paul, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Through Jeremiah, the Lord exhorted: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he knows and understands me, the Lord.”
Is that your boast today? That you know and understand God as He has revealed Himself in Christ, Christ crucified for the sins of the world?
Indeed, let him who glories glory in the Lord.