NOTES for Co1 2:1-16

In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul touches on several very important questions of spiritual life. He does not stress by chance that his preaching has nothing in common with the conversations and instruction of rabbis and teachers of the Torah, who appealed first of all to human reason, seeking to teach their disciples the art of righteous living, which in those days was called wisdom. The apostle says directly that he was never a teacher in the traditional sense; he always remained only a witness of Christ and the Kingdom, seeing in this the chief task of his ministry (vv. 1-5). And still Paul mentions a certain wisdom, of which he says that it makes sense to preach it only to the "mature," to those who have already come to share in the Kingdom (vv. 6-8). This is, as we can see, the experience of life in the Kingdom, without which there is no Christianity. And the foundation of this experience is the perception of the reality of God's breath ("spirit"), which opens to a person the mystery of God's life, the depths that otherwise would never have been revealed to him (vv. 9-10). Speaking of the "human spirit" (v. 11), the apostle clearly has in mind that "breath of life" which God breathed into the nostrils ("into the face") of the human being at creation and which, in the spiritual sense, makes a person what he is: a spiritual being created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 2:7).

Paul calls such a person "natural" (v. 14), using the Greek word ψυχή to render the Hebrew nephesh, which in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament denotes the life a person receives together with the "breath" given to him by God. But for life in the Kingdom this, as we can see, is not enough. Here, in addition to the "breath of life," one must also share in the breath ("spirit") of God, which all the biblical prophets know so well. Before, it was indeed known only to God's chosen ones, to whom God directly revealed what He wished to reveal. To some of these people, like the great prophets of Israel, the Kingdom was also sometimes partly opened. But before the coming of the Messiah it was opened to them only briefly and in a vision; now it has entered the world, and one can share in it only by receiving that breath of God which the prophets knew so well. This is what Paul is speaking about when he mentions the breath ("spirit") of God, known only to those who have already come to share in the life of the Kingdom (vv. 11-13). This breath permeates the whole Kingdom. Every inhabitant of the Kingdom knows it, while for everyone else it remains something strange and incomprehensible (vv. 14-15). But this is precisely how a person becomes a Christian in the proper sense of the word, receiving, in the apostle's words, "the mind of Christ" (v. 16).

One could say in a sense that all the history of Christianity is the history of the Christian preaching. It is not accidentally that Paul reminds in his epistle to his correspondents about the preaching, that they once heard from him and other witnesses. At first sight it can seem that there is nothing particular in that: because any teaching (and not only religious) spreads throughout the world thanks to the preaching of its followers and partisans. But the apostle denotes immediately to the difference between the preaching of any other doctrine and the preaching of Christ: the preaching of Christ is always in particular a testimony, and not just the exhibition of a certain doctrine, although absolutely true. And it is not because the narrative of one’s own, personal experience is more convincing than abstract reasoning. The fact is that the Christian doctrine does not exist and cannot exist in principle. Christianity is not a doctrine, either a theory, or a teaching, but a fact.

Fact, including the resurrected Christ and the Kingdom entering into the world. A fact that one can know or not know, but which is necessary in any case to speak about as a reality, and not as a theory. It is just that someone got in touch with this reality and knew this fact, and somebody else – did not. Those who knew, consider what they knew of so much important that they try to talk about it the most widely possible, to share what they found with the largest possible number of persons. This is the Christian testimony.

But here is, to tell such things makes sense only in case they really became a part of your own life. It is not by chance that Paul speaks about preaching not by words, but by the demonstrations of the power, the power of God and the power of the Kingdom. And it is not of course that power is more persuasive than words. The fact is that to speak about the Kingdom, not being part of it is an occupation in the highest degree useless. By words one can persuade in any case nobody and in nothing. And if a person is part of the life of the Kingdom, he has inevitably with him its power, and its breath.

This power and this breath testify about the reality of the words of the witness better than any, the most beautiful theories. But the main thing is not even in the testimony as such, but in the fact that the demonstrations of the power of the Kingdom give the possibility to the one who listens to join it directly, so to speak, to enjoy the new life by taste. And decide, if this one, the alternative of the life of this world proposed by the Christians suits him. And having decided, to be defined if he needs the Kingdom or not.

One could say in a sense that all the history of Christianity is the history of the Christian preaching. It is not accidentally that Paul reminds in his epistle to his correspondents about the preaching, that they once heard from him and other witnesses. At first sight it can seem that there is nothing particular in that: because any teaching (and not only religious) spreads throughout the world thanks to the preaching of its followers and partisans. But the apostle denotes immediately to the difference between the preaching of any other doctrine and the preaching of Christ: the preaching of Christ is always in particular a testimony, and not just the exhibition of a certain doctrine, although absolutely true. And it is not because the narrative of one’s own, personal experience is more convincing than abstract reasoning. The fact is that the Christian doctrine does not exist and cannot exist in principle. Christianity is not a doctrine, either a theory, or a teaching, but a fact.

Fact, including the resurrected Christ and the Kingdom entering into the world. A fact that one can know or not know, but which is necessary in any case to speak about as a reality, and not as a theory. It is just that someone got in touch with this reality and knew this fact, and somebody else – did not. Those who knew, consider what they knew of so much important that they try to talk about it the most widely possible, to share what they found with the largest possible number of persons. This is the Christian testimony.

But here is, to tell such things makes sense only in case they really became a part of your own life. It is not by chance that Paul speaks about preaching not by words, but by the demonstrations of the power, the power of God and the power of the Kingdom. And it is not of course that power is more persuasive than words. The fact is that to speak about the Kingdom, not being part of it is an occupation in the highest degree useless. By words one can persuade in any case nobody and in nothing. And if a person is part of the life of the Kingdom, he has inevitably with him its power, and its breath.

This power and this breath testify about the reality of the words of the witness better than any, the most beautiful theories. But the main thing is not even in the testimony as such, but in the fact that the demonstrations of the power of the Kingdom give the possibility to the one who listens to join it directly, so to speak, to enjoy the new life by taste. And decide, if this one, the alternative of the life of this world proposed by the Christians suits him. And having decided, to be defined if he needs the Kingdom or not.

These words gave some people grounds to think that Paul, and perhaps other apostles as well, had a certain secret, esoteric teaching that they preached to specially initiated people. Later this more than once led to the appearance in the church-adjacent world of various circles and sects whose members claimed to preserve and transmit a special 'secret knowledge' connected with the Kingdom and with spiritual life.

In reality, however, there is no need to speak here of any esotericism. The problem lies in how the word 'wisdom' was understood in different eras. In the Yahwistic, and later also in the Jewish, tradition, wisdom was understood above all as the practice of conscious action, whether a craft skill, the ability to govern a state and one's own household, or the ability to build relationships with God and live a righteous life.

In later centuries, however, wisdom meant either some special knowledge or some secret mystical experience, and this became the source of misunderstandings connected with a supposedly existing apostolic esoteric tradition. But the wisdom of which Paul speaks was connected with the Torah, which in the Gospel era was commonly believed to have existed before the creation of the world. For the apostle himself the Torah was also connected with the person of Jesus Christ, who for him was the only example of the 'living Torah.'

Since for the apostle wisdom was inseparable from righteousness, righteousness from the person of Jesus Christ, and both of them from the poverty of which Isaiah of Jerusalem had spoken and whose embodiment was the earthly path of the Savior, it is not surprising that Paul considers such wisdom, on one hand, perfect, and on the other, absolutely incomprehensible to the fallen world lying in evil. To a person living only a natural life, the life of nature, which Paul calls 'psychic,' even the path of poverty in the sense in which Isaiah speaks of it appears absurd. And the earthly path of the Savior for such a person is complete collapse, and to walk His path is madness.

Only a person for whom the breath of God, the breath of the Kingdom, becomes reality is changed and recognizes the will of God, as well as His providence. This is where the true wisdom of which the apostle speaks begins, inaccessible to the world of fallen nature. By 'the perfect' the apostle means precisely those who are guided not by the laws of this world and its ways, but by the Torah, the path of righteousness, and the breath of the Kingdom. For such people the earthly path of Christ is not defeat but victory, and following Christ is not madness but the only path to salvation.

It often seems to us that we know what another person is thinking. We are sure that we understand what he feels, how he reasons. And then it turns out that all this had not the slightest relation to reality. Because he is other. This is shown still more vividly in our relationship with God, who by His nature is Other. No human reflections of ours will help us truly understand Him. But He gives His Spirit to those who seek Him.

Apostle Paul calls first of all the gift of God in this verse as the gift of Grace of the Holy Spirit, which makes people spiritually clairvoyants, capable of seeing what is good and bad, to distinguish and to choose between them. As consequence, man’s new life becomes a gift of God, and this man becomes a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no place in it { the new life} for the works of the flesh as the apostle says in the epistle to Galatians, but there is a place for the works of the Spirit, which is the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments about love towards each other.

It’s particularly the acceptance of God’s Spirit through Baptism that gives to us the new life, because without it {the acceptance of God’s Spirit}, we are blind. Let’s take as parable, common presents that we receive in great quantities at our birthdays. If we receive something complex and quite unknown, then we would need to receive the instruction before using the present - otherwise this present will have no sense. The apostle tells us that, God gives us His Spirit so that we can see, how this new life is, and make use of it.