The balance of Paul’s Letter to the believers in Rome is personal in nature, not doctrinal, so we follow the canonical order into 1 Corinthians. We’ve already taken a look at the back story to his troubles with the church at Corinth. We have today only two of the four letters he wrote to them during a crisis of obedience to the Scripture. That church had a serious problem trying to shed the notoriously lax pagan morality for which the city was renowned.
After a rather brief introduction, Paul jumps right into a major embarrassment: The church members in Corinth had not left behind their worldly approach to human organization. The various English translations of this chapter themselves often seem to miss the point by catering to a very human form of organizational wisdom. What kind of unity is Paul demanding here?
Whatever it is, he does not refer to the kind of unity humans typically seek. It’s not uniformity of thought, per se, because that is simply not possible without violating everyone’s convictions. In an effort to bring human unity, some members of the church were promoting one model or another, trying to pressure the rest to follow their choice. It was partisan politics, as if they could vote for whom the Lord meant them to follow. Paul was deeply offended that anyone would push a partisan model using his name.
He quotes Isaiah 29:14 from a passage where Isaiah castigates the nation of Israel for pursuing worldly ways. The people kept saying the Lord’s name, but they substituted man’s ways for His Word. This is what the Corinthians were doing. It didn’t matter what name they claimed as their model, none of them were actually following the models, who were all servants of Christ.
Jews demanded a miracle that benefited them materially, while Gentiles demanded something that tickled their human reasoning. Jesus on the Cross condemned fleshly desires; that grisly death was His greatest victory. It was neither profitable nor worldly wise, but it’s how He saved people from this life.
Humans cannot comprehend the Cross with their own capabilities. Paul chides them for losing sight of grace. The majority of the church members had been losers in flesh when the Spirit of the Lord drew them. The only way you can come to the Cross is to nail your fleshly nature there. You must humble yourself as nothing by human reckoning, so that you have room to receive the Lord’s wisdom and power.
Paul quotes from Jeremiah 9, where the prophet warns that nothing humans can generate on their own amounts to much in the eyes of God. Boast in Him.
