Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2673
“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2.
CORINTH was situated in the midst of a people who admired eloquence and wisdom. This Epistle was written in the age of orators and philosophers. The Apostle Paul was a man of profound learning—he had been educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the wisdom of the East. We are quite sure he was a man of a very capacious mind, for, although his writings were inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet the Holy Spirit chose as His instrument a man evidently possessing the capacity for strong and vigorous thought and argument and, as for his oratorical powers, I believe that if he had chosen to cultivate them, they would have been of the very first order, for we have in some of his Epistles eloquence more sublime than ever fell from the lips of Cicero or Demosthenes.
The temptation would exist, in the mind of any ordinary man entering into such a city as Corinth, to say within himself, “I will endeavor to excel in all the graces of oratory. I have a blessed Gospel to preach that is worthy of the highest talents that ever can be consecrated to it. I am,” Paul might have said to himself, “largely gifted in the matter of eloquence. I must now endeavor to carefully polish my periods and so to fashion my address as to excel all the orators who now attract the Corinthians to listen to them. This I may do very laudably, for I will still keep in view my intention of preaching Jesus Christ—and I will preach Jesus Christ with such a flow of noble language that I shall be able to win my audience to consider the subject.”
But the Apostle resolved to do no such thing. “No,” he said, “before I enter the gates of Corinth, this is my firm determination—if any good is to be done there, if any are led to believe in Christ the Messiah, their belief shall be the result of hearing the Gospel—not of my eloquence! It shall never be said, ‘Oh, no wonder that Christianity spreads, see what an able advocate it has.’ Rather, it shall be said, ‘How mighty must be the Grace of God which has convinced these persons by such simple preaching, and brought them to know the Lord Jesus Christ by such humble instrumentality as that of the Apostle Paul!’” He resolved to put a curb upon his fiery tongue. He determined that he would be slow in speech in the midst of them and, instead of magnifying himself, he would magnify his office and magnify the Grace of God by denying himself the full use of those powers which, had they been dedicated to God—as indeed they were, but had they been fully employed, as some would have used them—might have achieved for him the reputation of being the most eloquent preacher upon the face of the earth!
Again, he might have said, “These philosophers are very wise men. If I would be a match for them, I must be very wise, too. These Corinthians are a very noble race of people—they have, for a long time, been under the tutorage of these talented men. I must speak as they speak, in enigmas and with many sophisms. I must always be propounding some dark problem. I need not live in the tub of Diogenes, but if I take his lantern, I may do something with it. I must try and borrow some of his wisdom. I have a profound philosophy to preach to these clever people and if I liked to preach that philosophy, I should dash in pieces all their theories concerning mental and moral science. I have found out a wondrous secret and I might stand in the midst of the market and cry, ‘Eureka, Eureka, I have found it!’ But I do not care to build my Gospel upon the foundation of human wisdom. No, if any are brought to believe in Christ, it shall be from the simple
unadorned Gospel, plainly preached in unpolished language. The faith of my hearers, if they are converted to God, shall not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
Can you not see, dear Friends, that the Apostle had very good reasons for coming to this determination? When a man says that he is determined to do a certain thing, it looks as if he knew that it was a difficult thing to do. So, I think it must have been a hard thing for the Apostle to determine to keep to this one subject—“Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” I am sure that nine-tenths of the ministers of this age could not have done it. Fancy Paul going through the streets of Corinth and hearing a philosopher explain the current theory of creation. He is telling the people something about the world springing out of certain things that previously existed and the Apostle Paul thinks, “I could easily correct that man’s mistakes. I could tell him that the Lord created all things in six days and rested on the seventh, and show him in the Book of Genesis the Inspired account of the creation. But, no,” he says to himself, “I have a more important message than that to deliver.” Still, he must have felt as if he would have liked to set him right, for, you know, when you hear a man uttering a gross lie, you feel as if you would like to go in and do battle with him. But instead of that, the Apostle just thinks, “It is not my business to set the people right about their theory of the creation of the world. All that I have to do is to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”