PAUL’S RESOLUTION
‘For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’
1 Corinthians 2:2
With St. Paul everything else but ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ was a matter of secondary importance, and in this resolution of his we see a striking proof of the influence of the sufferings of Christ upon His first disciples.
I. It was not that St. Paul despised learning, or thought there was ‘nought else worth the knowing.’ He was an educated man, as education was understood in his age and country. A student of Gamaliel, versed in rabbinic lore; a soldier; a politician; a great traveller, familiar with the life and customs of the greater portion of the civilised world; a philosopher and a poet. In becoming a Christian he could not annihilate his manifold education or the world of fact with which he had become acquainted. Christianity, whatever it does, does not place a premium upon ignorance or stupidity. But it is a mark of mental greatness and earnestness to single out matters of chief consequence from others less noteworthy, and to concentrate attention upon them. It was this that he meant.
II. For him the central object of Divine revelation was the Cross, and no more splendid homage could he have rendered it than this, that he should behave as if nothing else were worth thinking or speaking about. The Corinthians were vain of their spiritual gifts and their theosophies; he sought to correct their aberrations and to humble them. It is thus the Cross has still to thrust everything else into the background. It is the joy of the Christian’s heart, the theme of his conversation, the glory of his life.
III. The Cross of Christ is of chief consequence in the reconciliation of sinners to God, and therefore it ought to receive the closest and most earnest attention.

THE SPIRIT OF PROMISE
‘Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.’
1 Corinthians 2:12
Lost by man’s sin, this blessed power of communion with the Father of spirits must be restored by the Spirit of God. It was to this our Lord referred when He spake of ‘the promise of the Father’ to be received soon after His ascension; and to the truth and reality of this most blessed gift all Scripture bears testimony.
I. Who they are who have received and do yet receive the Spirit.—‘We.’ In 1 Corinthians 12:7 the words are ‘every man,’ but this is necessarily explained in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13, by all who are ‘members of the body of Christ’ ( 1 Corinthians 12:27). In Ephesians 1:13, ‘in whom after ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.’ In Galatians 4:4-6, ‘because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ In Acts 10:44-45, and in many passages besides, the same truth is pressed on us that ‘all God’s children’ have received and do still receive this Holy Spirit, to ‘seal’ them as His children, and to edify and build them up ‘for an habitation of God through the Spirit’ ( Ephesians 2:21-22). No child of God without His Spirit ( Romans 8:9); any one not having this Holy Spirit is not sealed, is not justified, is not safe, is ‘none of His’ ( 2 Corinthians 1:21).
II. For what purpose do we receive the Spirit?—‘That we may know the things which are freely given to us by God.’
( a) What they are: Pardon of sin through the blood of His Cross ( Colossians 1:20; Isaiah 1:18). ‘No condemnation to them who are in Christ’ ( Romans 8:1; Romans 5:1; Psalms 32:1-2; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22). Salvation ‘in all its fullness’ through His life ( Romans 5:9-10; 1 Peter 1:8; Php_2:11-12 ). The covering robe ‘of His spotless righteousness’ ( Isaiah 61:10; Hebrews 11:7; Php_3:9-10 ). An inheritance at last ‘among His saints’ ( Acts 26:18; 1 Peter 1:4-5; John 14:1-2). These are some of the promised glories freely given to us by God ( 1 Corinthians 2:9).
( b) How we may prepare for them. By the Spirit of Truth ( John 14:26; John 15:26) guiding us into all truth ( John 17:17; John 17:19). By the Spirit of Prayer ( Romans 8:26) teaching us to pray ( Jude 1:20). By the Spirit of Holiness purifying our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit ( 1 Peter 1:22), transforming us into His image ( 2 Corinthians 3:18).
( c) How we may see these unseen glories and ‘realise this preparedness.’ It is the Spirit alone who can ‘reveal the unseen’ and make it real ( 1 Corinthians 2:9; John 16:8-9; John 16:14-15).
As God has said, ‘Be filled with the Spirit’ ( Ephesians 5:18), should we not all seek more of His blessed influences to show us how much we yet need, and how real the coming glory for which we should be preparing?
—Rev. Canon Linton.
Illustration
‘In the fourteenth verse of this chapter the Apostle lays down as a fundamental truth that “ the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God”; “neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Since this is so, the presence and power of God’s Holy Spirit to enable him to receive them and know them must be indispensable and indisputable. As no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost ( 1 Corinthians 12:3), then the Holy Ghost alone can lead him to eternal salvation, and to the manifestation of a true life here. God has given us senses by which to communicate with the world around, but He has given no bodily or mental organs by which to hold communion with Himself. We can hear the voice of a friend, but we have no avenue by which the natural man, in mind or body, can receive and recognise the voice of his God.’

SPIRITUAL JUDGMENT
‘But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.’
1 Corinthians 2:15
It is sometimes said that the evidence for the revelation made to man by our heavenly Father must be in all reason and justice precisely the same as the evidence on which we accept any other truth. Yet we find the revelation which we have received distinctly declining to submit its claims for recognition to these conditions. It appeals to a distinct faculty from those which decide on the truth or falsehood of assertions concerning the laws of nature. It insists that the spiritual man who accepts its teaching, while still keeping all his natural faculties and capable as ever of judging all questions which those natural faculties can handle and determine, has in him a faculty of judging of spiritual truth which is either wanting or dormant or possibly dead in others.
I. The man who hungers and thirsts after righteousness sees truths which are not seen by men who have no such hunger or thirst.—He not only knows better what is meant by the beauty of self-sacrifice, of holiness, of unearthliness, but he knows too and sees as others do not see the eternity and supremacy of these things. And he has this within him, facts which are clear to him, and as time goes on become ever clearer, which are not perceived and cannot be perceived by others that are unlike him as he perceives them, perhaps are not perceived and cannot be perceived at all. And the perception of these facts makes an enormous difference in the inferences which he perpetually draws from the sum total of the facts before him. He draws different inferences because he takes into account different premises. He sees that the inferences drawn from the partial premises which alone are within the reach of bodily observation are of necessity incomplete, and he cannot be content with them. When it is seen that religious men decide differently from other men questions which have to be decided on evidence, there is nothing in this that is contrary to reasonable expectation. They are, of course, liable to make mistakes in the inferences, just as all men are liable to make mistakes. But the difference in their conclusion is not due to the fact that they reason differently from others, and set aside the ordinary canons of inference.
II. The revelation was never intended to work mechanically without any demand on the moral action of those to whom it was made. It was intended to be effectual on those who were willing to use it, and, therefore, it was made to be appreciated in accordance with that willingness. It was offered to all, but it was offered without relieving or being intended to relieve any from responsibility for his own life. The responsibility of every individual moral being is a fundamental religious truth never to be set aside. And in order that this responsibility may be complete, it must extend not only to action in obedience to revelation when accepted, but to the act of acceptance itself. Men shall not be prevented from accepting it because they have sinned; not the blackest sin shall shut out the sinner from the power of believing, provided there still remain the power of longing for higher things, even though that longing be of the faintest and feeblest. But if that be absolutely gone, and cannot be revived, of what value would any revelation be to the soul? The revelation of God matches and meets the aspiration of man.
III. If now it be asked what judgment can be formed of those who notwithstanding have come to the conclusion the revelation is not true, the answer is plain: no judgment can be formed by us. We are speaking all this time not of the application of the laws of the spiritual world to individual men, but of the laws as they are in themselves. It is conceivable that a man’s spiritual faculty may be palsied by the concentration of his mind on the phenomena of sensible things. It is conceivable that it may still be alive and yet have lost its power to apply itself to such questions as these. It is conceivable that the circumstances of life may have allowed it to remain dormant in the soul. It is strange, but yet it seems to be true, that sometimes the absence of all grave temptation, and consequently of all need for serious spiritual conflict, has a tendency to lull the highest of all faculties to sleep. The possibilities travel beyond our conceptions, and leave us unable to say what exceptions to His general rules our Heavenly Father may make. Of this we are sure, to begin with, that His justice is absolute, and we are told expressly that when all secrets are revealed this also shall be plainly seen. But until that day we must be content, in spite of apparent contradictions, to leave all judgment on men’s souls absolutely to Him.
—Archbishop Temple.