Preaching, Baptism and Worldly Wisdom

[…] “us may be one” (John 17:21–22).

“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” (1 Corinthians 1:13). If someone else endured the cross for us, let us be called his. If perhaps we were baptized into someone else’s name, let him have us, and let us enroll him as Savior and Redeemer. But if “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3), and with him alone we have been “buried through baptism into death” (Romans 6:4), then let him, he says, possess those who have been bought. For we have been saved through him and by him, who laid down his own life for us (1 John 3:16).

“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 1:17). He was admittedly sent to proclaim Jesus to the Gentiles. But we say that it also belongs to the work of an apostle to baptize some, as the occasion and need require, if he so chooses. So that he would not seem to spend the time owed to preaching on other pursuits, he very rightly left this to be done at leisure by those in each region and by all who were appointed to oversight. He himself preached the gospel instead, since he had been entrusted with the ministry of the word and had searched out the mystery of Christ with great precision. Yet just as the inspired Stephen, though appointed a servant of tables, did not set aside the duty of teaching the mysteries (Acts 6:2–5), so too the inspired Paul, though appointed to preach the mystery of Christ, also met the need for baptism when the time came. Authority for both lay before him, and nothing prevented him from doing it if he chose.

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?” (1 Corinthians 1:20). To those who pride themselves on worldly wisdom and do not accept the faith, clearly meaning faith in Christ, the gospel is foolishness. But it is not so with us; far from it. For we are convinced that it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18), a way of salvation that leads to sanctification, and that by its abundant preaching it wisely guides us to the knowledge of the truth.

I for my part think that here he calls the orators “wise,” who by the cleverness of their speeches always wove persuasion into falsehood and strove to win for it the appearance of truth. By “scribes” I think he means the schoolmasters or grammarians, whose custom it was to labor over the writings of the poets and to explain them to the young. By “debaters” he means those who are used to fighting over words and who, supposedly with precision, put things to the test. Through the concepts they devise they pretend to seek the truth, that is, whatever seems, as far as possible, to stand beyond reproach on each question set before them. But they do not do it rightly at all; rather, they do it with utter carelessness. For they have not known the God of all, who without toil framed this whole universe by ineffable workings, and by a mere nod brought into being all things that were not. So the wisdom of the world has truly been made foolish (1 Corinthians 1:20).

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). He calls even human understanding and eloquence, that is, the very bloom of style, “the wisdom of God,” to teach that God is the maker of the mind and the giver of good sense and eloquence, even if some have used them for ends they should not. By “the foolishness of the preaching” he means the plainness of the words. For the inspired disciples were unskilled in speech but rich in knowledge (2 Corinthians 11:6).

“For Jews ask for a sign, and Greeks seek wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:22). Paul’s statement is true on both counts. Once, when Christ was driving out of the temple courts those who sold sheep and oxen, turtledoves and pigeons, and saying, “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (John 2:14–16), they retorted, “What sign do you show us, since you do these things?” (John 2:18), and, “Who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23). Some of the scribes also came to him, after a very great display of signs, and said with malice, “Teacher, we wish […]” (Matthew 12:38).