Main news for 4 September 2022

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

1 Corinthians, Chapter 1, verses 30-31

²⁷ but the foolish, weak, and men of no account

³⁰But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

³¹That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Read more:1 Corinthians, Chapter 2

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1:30 Of him - Out of his free grace and mercy. Are ye Engrafted into Christ Jesus, who is made unto us that believe wisdom, who were before utterly foolish and ignorant.Righteousness - The sole ground of our justification, who were before under the wrath and curse of God. Sanctification - A principle of universal holiness, whereas before we were altogether dead in sin. And redemption - That is, complete deliverance from all evil, and eternal bliss both of soul and body.

1:31 Let him glory in the Lord - Not in himself, not in the flesh, not in the world. Jer 9:23-24

NOTES

Paul does not flatter the people to whom he writes... Would you enjoy reading words such as these: just look at yourselves—you are neither wise nor powerful... It is disheartening. But objective. Paul describes the real situation rather than...

Paul describes Christian life as the fullness of righteousness in its traditional understanding. In Yahwism, and later in Judaism, righteousness became firmly connected with...

Paul describes Christian life as the fullness of righteousness in its traditional understanding. In Yahwism, and later in Judaism, righteousness became firmly connected with the image of poverty and of the poor person, which first appeared in the preaching of Isaiah of Jerusalem. And the Savior Himself connects the blessedness of the poor, the destitute, with Himself and with the coming of the Kingdom. This connection is not accidental. The issue, of course, is not material poverty, since the same Isaiah, for example, who considered himself poor, was by no means poor, but poverty as a spiritual state that was inseparable from traditional ideas of righteousness.

Indeed, righteousness is not inherent in a person by nature; it cannot belong to him as an inborn or acquired quality or property of his nature. Righteousness is a state in which a person may abide, but which he may just as easily lose. God brings a person into the state of righteousness, and the person himself can do nothing in order to acquire it. What depends on the person is only readiness to enter this state and remain in it. But such readiness by itself changes nothing in essence: whatever it may be, if God does not intervene, it is useless. A person turns out to be destitute, having nothing and able to do nothing in what concerns his spiritual life, his relationships with God.

He can do much in order to become righteous and not come one iota closer to the goal without God's direct intervention in his life. And everything a person can do and has in this world means and is worth nothing when the main task is being resolved. A person feels himself destitute, poor, while being in this world a rich man and court aristocrat, as that same Isaiah was, for example. This is what Paul speaks about when he mentions wisdom, strength, and noble birth as things having no significance for the spiritual path of a Christian.

The Christian's path is still the same path of righteousness, but the path of righteousness with Christ, who from the point of view of this world was a complete and absolute failure, whose mission ended with the cross, and therefore with complete collapse. But for the apostle the Savior's "failure" is akin to the same "failures" of those seeking righteous life, who refuse to rely on everything the world can offer them in order to let God into their life. So too Christians are ready to let the "failure" Christ into their life and follow Him in spite of all the arguments this world can bring them. Because the "failure" whom they are ready to follow has one argument, but the most weighty one: the Kingdom that He brought into the world.

Continuing the conversation about disputes and about what causes them, Paul, of course, not...

Continuing the conversation about disputes and about what causes them, Paul, of course not by accident, turns to the theme of human wisdom and its limits. For him it is obvious that this wisdom is unable to understand the mystery of the Savior's earthly ministry and His death on the cross (vv. 18-21). Here the apostle remains faithful to the tradition of the "poor," which had taken shape already in the time of the pre-exilic prophets. Judging by the Book of Psalms, even then it had become clear to those seeking full spiritual life and deep relationship with God that human effort alone was not enough to attain righteousness, and that a person who wanted to follow God had to give up the thought of relying only on himself. The seeker could reach what he desired only by surrendering himself completely to God's will. It is no accident that these people began to call themselves "the poor": they understood that before God they were like beggars even when, by the standards of this world, they could be considered wise and rich. They were the ones who awaited the coming of the Messiah and the arrival of the messianic Kingdom more than others; it is precisely such people whom Jesus calls blessed when proclaiming its arrival. But both in the time of the ancient prophets and in the time of Jesus there were people who preferred their own wisdom to the Kingdom. And Paul says directly that trying to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom by human effort alone is useless.

It would seem that there is no need for this, since Jesus Himself revealed them to everyone who wanted to see and hear, to everyone ready to trust Him and follow Him. But only the one who had experienced what the "poor" experienced could do this: the understanding, despite all his wisdom and knowledge, of his complete helplessness in everything concerning the Kingdom, which no one can understand and into which no one can enter unless he is brought in by the One who brought the Kingdom into the world. It is precisely human wisdom that demands signs and proofs even where everything is obvious (vv. 21-24), for such signs and proofs are needed not in order to be convinced of the authenticity of the reality that has opened, but in order to "fit" it into the framework of human logic, coordinating and connecting it with earthly wisdom, which is powerless here. And only to those who have given up such attempts is the path into the Kingdom opened (vv. 26-31). And together with this, the complete meaninglessness of the disputes that divide people in this world becomes clear to them.

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